Harvey Elliott is MAGIC and Liverpool are failing him

Harvey Elliott is proving again and again that he’s a special player. Liverpool, however, aren’t letting him prove it.

There’s little question that Harvey Elliott is a brilliant player. The Liverpool star delivers every time he steps on a pitch - the data shows us that.

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In fact, it’s shown that since day one. Elliott’s first senior season wasn’t with the Reds, of course, but came on loan with Blackburn Rovers and he was an absolute revelation.

Turning 18 that year, he finished third in the Championship for assists. The only players above him were Emiliano Buendia, six years his senior, and Michael Olise - a player a year older than him and who is now up there with the best wingers in Europe.

Just behind him? Bryan Mbeumo, someone Liverpool are now consistently linked with. The Brentford star scored eight times and assisted 10 that season, with Elliott bagging seven alongside his 11 assists. The same G+A, in other words, despite Mbeumo being three years older.

Since then, Elliott has featured in Liverpool’s first-team squad but injuries have consistently robbed him of rhythm. It’s not that he’s particularly injury prone - the first major injury simply came from an awful tackle in late 2021.

But even with those injuries, even with that lack of rhythm, Elliott has performed.

Harvey Elliott’s Liverpool form

Jurgen Klopp was always aware of how good Elliott was. Unfortunately, he felt he needed the entire squad to be playing well before throwing the youngster into the side.

That happened in 2024, though, with Elliott playing consistently across Klopp’s last fixtures in charge. It led to the German labelling the playmaker Liverpool’s ‘best player’.

And for good reason.

Elliott was top three for Liverpool last season in progressive passes, key passes and passes into the penalty area (all per 90). He led Liverpool in expected assists per 90, too.

He was 12th in the Premier League for shot creating actions per 90, too. Only Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz beat him in that one.

In fact, go back to that ‘passes into the penalty area’ stat - Elliott was fourth in the Premier League last season. Kevin De Bruyne, Martin Odegaard and Willian beat his figure per 90 and that’s your lot.

This is all to say that Elliott showed last season that he can be a creative force. And that’s without being the focus of the team and without playing consistently.

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Elliott under Slot

And yet Elliott hasn’t started a single Premier League game this season. Arne Slot hasn’t relied on him whatsoever and it’s brought his future into doubt.

But what’s interesting is that despite the severely limited gametime, Elliott’s stats look remarkably similar. He’s still hovering around 5.3 shot-creating actions per 90, still around 10 progressive passes, still around 2.5 key passes.

The 22-year-old hasn’t gone backwards at all - he’s playing just as well. The only difference has been in minutes.

This is why Elliott may just completely back himself this summer. Slot will almost certainly do things differently next season with a changed squad and a need for Liverpool to maintain energy over a full campaign.

We can’t imagine he’ll be quite as strict with player selection all over again. Elliott has been linked with an exit, if only for him to get regular football, but we think he might be able to secure it at Liverpool if he’s patient.

"Hopefully I am still here to be honest,” he told the Liverpool Echo this weekend. "It is the best place to be, the best club to be at and especially having the fans around us at the moment, I don't think there is a better place to be playing.

"Players go through ups and downs but at the end of the day you have to come out fighting and I think it is within myself to make it happen. So hopefully I can stay here for the rest of my career."

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The stats suggest that if Elliott can wait out the ‘downs’ the ‘ups’ are right around the corner. All he needs are more opportunities because what he’s delivering right now is solid - it’s just not seen as often as we’d like.