1 week ago
8
Harvey Elliott’s nightmare start at Aston Villa took another blow on Sunday as the on-loan Liverpool man was omitted from the Villans’ matchday squad against Manchester City.
Unai Emery’s side won 1-0 at Villa Park thanks to Matty Cash’s 19th-minute strike and moved level on points with Liverpool ahead of next weekend’s meeting at Anfield. With Elliott on loan from Liverpool, he will be ineligible for that encounter, although it seems unlikely he would have earned a starting spot regardless.
The 22-year-old has started just twice since his deadline-day switch to Villa Park and has faced public criticism from Emery for his performances.
He was an unused substitute in Thursday’s midweek defeat against Go Ahead Eagles, despite Emery making wholesale changes for the Europa League fixture, and suffered a further blow by not making the 20-man squad on Sunday.
Andres Garcia and Youri Tielemans are Villa’s only injury absentees at present, meaning competition for places is high.
Elliott has managed just 167 minutes and Emery explained after Thursday’s defeat in the Netherlands why the ex-Fulham man has struggled to play.
“I am being very, very demanding of myself to choose in each match the players to start and the players in the bench, and firstly it is always trying to get the best performance collectively, through individual players,” said the Spaniard.
“Harvey is a No. 10 in our structure, in our shape, and he plays some matches and there is still adaptation to add himself individually in our structure, the task we have.
“Of course, he is training well, and his commitment is being very well as well, but his performance was not enough [up to this point].
“At the same time, we have other players who can play as a No. 10 and they are performing well, and I have different players.
“This is the main reason he is not playing the last matches minutes, but he has to continue working like he is doing in the training session and of course getting his confidence in the performance we need through him.”
Elliott is currently on loan at Villa, but that deal will be made permanent at the end of the season for a fee of £35 million ($47M), although the terms of that transfer remain unclear.
Meanwhile, Villa’s win over City means Pep Guardiola’s side failed to extend its advantage over Liverpool following Saturday’s defeat at Brentford.
City is currently a point clear of the Premier League champions, with the teams set to meet at the Etihad in two weeks.
English (US) ·