Since leaving Liverpool for Aston Villa on an initial loan basis at the end of the summer transfer window, Harvey Elliott hasn’t enjoyed as much game-time as he’d have liked.
As per The Athletic, the deal contains an obligation to become permanent once he makes 10 appearances for Unai Emery’s side this season, with the fee cited at £35m by Merseyside sources and £30m by those from the Midlands.
However, nearly two months on from the move, he’s only featured five times for the Villans and, in their Europa League defeat to Go Ahead Eagles on Thursday, he was an unused substitute for the third match in succession (Transfermarkt).
Despite the frustrating lack of minutes on the pitch, though, Elliott has been making a positive impression off the pitch at Villa.
Villa staff have been impressed by Elliott
In an article for The Athletic, Jacob Tanswell noted how the 22-year-old has ‘impressed’ club staff with his ‘attitude and application, which chimes with Emery’s coaching staff’s uber-meticulous professional standards.
The reporter also mentioned how, after his debut for his new club against Everton last month, the England under-21 star ‘went out of his way to shake hands and introduce himself to journalists’.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a member of Villa staff said of Elliott: “He is a good lad, with a good head on young shoulders.”
Elliott would prefer minutes on the pitch to plaudits off it
The 22-year-old candidly admitted that his decision to leave Liverpool in search of more regular game-time was ‘selfish’, but unfortunately he’s found it hard to break into Emery’s starting XI, with just two appearances from the outset so far at Villa Park.
Even positive reviews of his early performances in the Midlands and a goal on his first start (against Brentford in the Carabao Cup) haven’t been enough for him to be given any more than four minutes on the pitch across the Villans’ four matches thus far in October.
The manager publicly called out Elliott when an enterprising pass in a 1-1 draw at Sunderland overshot its intended target, and it seemed a harsh rebuke for a player who was trying to make things happen for a team who’d been struggling to score in the opening weeks of the campaign.
Perhaps Villa’s defeat in Netherlands last night and the quick turnaround to hosting Manchester City on Sunday might prompt Emery to reshuffle the pack and play the Liverpool loanee from the start.
With our former no.19 unable to play at Anfied next weekend as he’s still technically on loan, he’ll be yearning for a decent chunk of action against Pep Guardiola’s side so that he won’t be left kicking his heels for another fortnight until his current team are in Europa League action again.
Elliott has had to be patient in recent weeks, but hopefully the positive impression he’s seemingly making behind the scenes will soon be rewarded with sufficiant game-time on the pitch.
You can watch Slot’s full pre-Brentford press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
The last time he played I thought a child fan in a Villa shirt had ran on the pitch. But then I remembered we don’t do that on our side of Birmingham and it was actually Harvey Elliot.
I saw a Harvey Elliott for the first time when he played for Fulham and I was so impressed with his talent and he has obviously taken that on at Liverpool and shown just what he can do, he’s as good as if not better than most of the Villa midfield. I’m beginning to question Unai Emery as this world class coach and tactician. because he does make some very strange decisions, last night he substituted Sancho who really did look quite good and yes I know he has been ill but this is a professional athlete if he’s not fit to perform for 90 minutes then he shouldn’t have been in the squad. We’ve got Ollie Watkins (The Centre forward) playing on the left-wing. I always thought that sent forward is played within with the goal posts because that’s where the goals are scored or hasn’t anybody told him or Emery? The performance last night was abysmal, when Emery first came to Villa he changed things so much and they were a delight to watch but things are slowly going downhill. You can’t afford to give the better teams the likes of Manchester City Liverpool and Arsenal nine point start in the premiership and hope to catch them because that’s not gonna happen. The way the players approach the game I feel there is problems in the dressing room that need to be addressed ASAP.