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Former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has endorsed Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni to fill the midfield void left by Harvey Elliott's departure to Aston Villa. The England Under-21 international departed Anfield for Villa on transfer deadline day.
Elliott secured a loan move with an obligation to make his switch to Villa Park permanent at the campaign's conclusion. The 22-year-old has featured three times for Unai Emery's outfit thus far, finding the net once but was criticized by the Villa boss after the draw with Sunderland.
Some might worry that Elliott's exit from Merseyside leaves Arne Slot's squad lacking midfield depth. However, Heskey reckons Ngumoha and Nyoni will flourish in his absence, with the duo set to feature against Southampton, with Curtis Jones providing another alternative for Slot in that department.
"I think Liverpool will be fine in midfield without Elliott. They've got Curtis Jones so I think it's fine," he said via aceodds.com.
"Elliott is a great player. It's interesting because he's won back-to-back European Championships at U21 level. In any other country he'd be a mainstay at a top club. It's difficult in England to find room for some of our top English players.
"Elliott will go on to do great things but I'd have loved for it to have been at Liverpool. When you're in the best league in the world, you're going to have the best players which makes it harder for young players to stake a claim.
"The top ones will always get in but the ones who are borderline probably won't but they need game time to get to the top level. Liverpool have got Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni. So one or two will trickle through but they have to be the elite of the elite.
"In France, Belgium, Austria or Germany, all their kids are coming through."
Emery publicly called out Elliott as he took aim at his Villa players following the draw with Sunderland, which continued a disappointing start to the season.
“Some players need adaptation,” said the ex-Arsenal boss. “For example, Harvey Elliott, a little bit he was getting the ball and so quick doing passes behind the defence without options.
“He needs to understand, ‘Okay, Harvey, you have skills to play more passes, more passes, more passes, and then to do the pass behind, outside or inside,’ in better positions to get something more.
“Then, as well, we were lazy, sometimes defensively lazy. For example, the way we conceded we were lazy.”
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