Arne Slot OWES Liverpool star a chance to prove himself

Being a Liverpool player can be quite fickle if you're predominantly sat on the sidelines.

Arne Slot, as with others in the past, has his favourites and unfortunately, they get played far more often than those that are less favoured. Naturally, the best in squad deserve the most chances, but there needs to be some kind of balance so that everyone in the team feels involved in some way.

This season, those being left out include Wataru Endo, Trey Nyoni, Rio Ngumoha and Rhys Williams, who have all either been called up to the first-team and ignored, or been rejected outright instead.

Last season, it kind of felt like 22-year-old Harvey Elliott fitted into both of those camps before he got sent to Aston Villa as part of a last minute negotiation that neither team really felt pleased with.

He's now stuck in limbo, and it's imperative that Liverpool do the right thing and help him out.

Slot should bring Elliott back to Liverpool

When he moved to Villa on deadline day, the agreement was a loan with a £35m obligation to buy, should the Villian's decide they want to keep him by giving him a minimum of 10 appearances.

He's currently on five, Unai Emery has clarified that the Englishman won't feature for Villa again this season, and he can't go on loan somewhere else in Europe because the rules state that a player can't play play for more than two clubs in a single season, without going to a different federation.

As such, he's stuck in Birmingham until, and if, Liverpool and Villa agree to terminate the agreement, and even then, he's not guaranteed game time under Slot if he doesn't feel inclined to give him any.

It's a total mess, and it seems to me that Liverpool are responsible for it. After all, Elliott gave six years of his career to the Reds and didn't particularly want to leave in the summer. The move was forced on him because it was made clear that he wasn't in Slot's future plans - a really bold call.

The disconnect between Slot and the midfielder has been evident from the start. Jurgen Klopp adored him, but the Dutchman's arrival let to a significant drop off in opportunities on the pitch.

His talent has never wavered, in fact he was Player of the Tournament for the England under-21s in last season's European Championship, where he scored five goals in six appearances. It was the performance of a leader, and Liverpool refused to acknowledge those efforts. Instead, he was shipped off in the dying moments of the summer and look where we are. It's a homemade disaster.

Throughout this, Elliott hasn't done anything wrong. He wrote a respectful and heartfelt goodbye to the Liverpool supporters who constantly had his back, and he's tried his best to succeed at Villa. In 191 minutes for the Birmingham club, he's actually managed to get off the mark, scoring a goal, and it's important to note that his finish was their first of the season - after four games without one.

You'd have been mistaken for thinking that a Villa side lacking Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio might have needed a new forward player but no. And it's not as if Emery has some kind of issue with loan players either because Manchester United's Jason Sancho has been given plenty of chances.

Nonetheless, the best resolution for this situation is for Liverpool to get Elliott back to Merseyside and go from there. Prior to his loan, his contract with the club wasn't set to expire until 2027, so we would still have time to reassess him and make the best decision for him this time around.

It was reported by Fabrizio Romano that Charlotte FC in the American MLS league are offering him the chance to play on loan until June, which would bypass FIFA's restrictions, but he's not currently considering the proposal. Who can blame him? He's only 22 years old and wants to play in Europe.

Liverpool have the power to do the right thing, and Slot ought to be selfless enough to fulfil the duty he refused to last season. Elliott is a talented asset - in 867 minutes last season, he scored five goals and made three assists. That's exactly the kind of record that Federico Chiesa has delivered this season, and it should be unsurprising that the Italian is also unable to get regular chances to play.

It's a fact that the Reds aren't scoring enough goals. In the Premier League last season, the team scored 86 from 38 games, and in the season before that, they also scored 86 goals. Right now, they're on track to score a mere 60 which is laughable when you consider the signings of Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak all happened in the summer. We should be scoring more.

Elliott is a player who could undoubtedly improve the team if we reintegrated him. There wouldn't be any guarantees, but he's a proven difference-maker. Why shouldn't Slot give the experiment a go?

Once you become a Red, you're a Red for life. Liverpool fans treat their ex-players incredibly well if they left in respectful circumstances. Elliott's return would be really well received. It's completely wrong that the Englishman has been hung out to dry this season and he shouldn't be made to feel isolated. The club has the opportunity to change his fortunes. Slot owes him that at the very least.

Elliott never wanted to leave, he was forced out. Now it's backfired, someone has to take some accountability and it's not the player's fault. Bring him back and reassess at the end of the season.

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