Liverpool head coach Arne Slot says Harvey Elliott has deserved more game time this season but he has been unable to provide him with it because of the other options available in his position.
Only Nottingham Forest has used fewer players this season than Liverpool in the Premier League but Slot says that is the way that he wants to run his team. So far, it appears to be working with the Reds currently 13 points clear at the top of the table. Elliott fired in the winner midweek against PSG in the Champions League.
“I see the advantages of playing mostly with the same team because they get used to each other and that helps,” Slot said during his pre-Southampton press conference. “But I am also aware you cannot play a season with only 11 players.
“That is why you sometimes saw some players rotating. I don’t do this with 20 or 25 but mostly with 14 or 15, if possible. The others don’t always get the time they deserve.
“Harvey is a great example of this. He has done so well for this club and he trains well but he is in competition with Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai.
“I don’t think Mo was happy that I took him off five minutes before the end [against PSG] if you look at his body language. And there is a reason for that. He can score even if he isn’t playing his best game, so that is why I hardly take him off.
(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
“Szoboszlai, you could call him a machine. Every time I put him on the pitch he is the one who runs the most. That makes it hard for Harvey and that is why I was so pleased for him.
“Some players are frustrated if they only get five minutes, but in our team that has never happened. Maybe once or twice! But in general, it has never happened.”
Jurgen Klopp said that not using Elliott more often was his only regret during his final season at Anfield. “It’s not that I go back and think ‘OK, what did we all do wrong?’,” he explained during his final press conference.
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“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.”
Liverpool.com says: Elliott has already expressed that he wants to fight for his place at Liverpool. With so many options to overtake in the pecking order, though, he might have a decision to make at some point. As Slot and Klopp have said, he deserves to play more regularly because he is an excellent player.
