Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has admitted that he regrets not giving Harvey Elliott more playing time this season, given the impact the youngster has made.
The 21-year-old remains such an exciting talent, having joined his boyhood club from Fulham as a teenager, coming in as an extremely highly-rated prospect.
Since then, Elliott has continued to blossom in a Liverpool shirt, becoming more experienced and making himself a genuinely strong squad player.
It is from the substitutes’ bench where the midfielder has often been most effective this season, including scoring a late winner at Crystal Palace in December, but more starts have arguably been warranted.
Speaking to the press ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Aston Villa on Monday night [via This Is Anfield], Klopp admitted that he wishes he had used Elliott more often:
“It’s not that I go back and think ‘OK, what did we all do wrong?’. But if I regret one thing a little bit it’s that Harvey didn’t play often enough maybe.
“Because in a very important, intense period – January, a lot of injuries – he played really good. He was probably our best player, right wing, right midfield, all these kinds of things.
“Everybody came back and he had minutes here, minutes there and he didn’t start anymore, came on, big impact. But it’s really nice that he could show that [against Tottenham.”
Our thoughts on Klopp’s use of Elliott…
In fairness to Klopp, he has still used Elliott plenty this season, with his overall tally of 51 appearances in all competitions only bettered by Darwin Nunez (52).
There is an argument to say that more starts should have come his way in the latter part of the campaign, however, especially with Dominik Szoboszlai’s form dipping, Wataru Endo and Alexis Mac Allister looking tired, and Curtis Jones picking up an injury.
Elliott has been more effective as a substitiute, however, and hindsight is a wonderful thing, so it isn’t something Klopp should regret too much.
That being said, the Englishman is in superb form at the moment, standing out as the best player on the pitch in the 4-2 win over Tottenham last weekend, and he should start the final two games of the season.
