Liverpool sensation Harvey Elliott was praised for being a “constant threat” during the Reds’ 5-0 loss to Aston Villa in the EFL Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday but Neil Critchley had only positives to speak for the teenager.
The 16-year-old Elliott continued to impress onlookers as Liverpool’s youngest ever team was well beaten 5-0 at Villa Park in the League Cup but the winger was arguably the standout player in the game.
Elliott has now made three senior appearances for the Premier League giants and Neil Critchley who is in charge of the under-23s said Elliott was nearing a breakthrough for the European champions.
Critchley took charge of Liverpool’s game in the League Cup due to Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool’s senior stars being in Qatar for the Club World Cup just 24 hours later. And the 41-year-old Englishman waxed lyrical for the young midfielder stating that he is close to playing as a regular for the first team, “He’s not too far away because he trains with our first team on a regular basis, He’s had first-team exposure already, the manager and staff think a lot of him. I thought he was a constant threat all night, a really good outlet for us. But he was reliant on a lot of the players getting the ball to him and I thought the service to him was top class as well.
The temporary manager also stated that he does not want to pin point any one player but admitted that he was proud of the performance of his youngsters, “I wouldn’t want to single anyone out because I thought as a collective, the whole group of players, the subs included, couldn’t have done any more. I thought we played like a Liverpool team and that was really, really important to us. We spoke about what we could control before the game, which was important to us. Good, bad or indifferent, we never quit. I don’t think you can accuse any of the Liverpool players of putting their heads down or being downhearted, they stuck at it right to the end.”
