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Harvey Elliott was an unused substitute for Aston Villa this weekend against Burnley, with Unai Emery seeming reluctant to use the former Liverpool midfielder so far during his time in the Midlands.
Liverpool allowed Elliott to leave this summer on an initial loan basis but with an obligation to buy him next summer for a fee of around $47 million (£35 million). The England U21 international, though, has found game time harder to come by than he might have imagined up to now.
"Time. Give him minutes," Emery explained when he was asked what Elliott need to come to life at Aston Villa. "He needs to be demanding in our tactical idea — how we want to play.
"I am happy with how he is working. I know, and he knows, that he has to continue with his adaptation. He is on the right path."
Elliott started for Aston Villa in the League Cup against Brentford when he scored, but Emery's men were knocked out on penalties.
He also started against Fulham in the Premier League but was then taken off after 45 minutes. Elliott came off the bench near the end of Aston Villa's win at Arne Slot's old club, Feyenoord, in the Europa League.
Explaining his decision to substitute Elliott at half-time against Fulham last week, Emery said: "He needs to adapt in everything, but I changed him not because he was playing bad.
"He was playing good, but I changed him thinking about the energy Emi Buendia gives us in that moment, and his skills as well. He has to continue working, preparing and adapting of us, understanding everything, then using our quality in his structure."
"It's a big, big, big compliment for our performance staff and the people that work in this building," Slot said when Elliott's move exit was confirmed.
"Every time a player leaves — Tyler Morton does really well at Olympique Lyonnais — so that tells you how we bring players through other clubs.
"Harvey is in a very good place, going to a very nice club with Aston Villa. I think it's in the interest of everyone when he didn't get the playing time he probably deserved for the quality player he is.
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"He conducted himself always so well. It wasn't only when he said that this was his club that he wanted to say this to the fans. He acted [the same] inside [the club] — with him not playing so much — he was always doing what was in the best interest in the club. He deserves a big compliment for that.
"I know everyone always talks about Mo [Salah], Virgil [van Dijk] and the others if we win the league. But players like him were definitely also the reason why we could win it, because he always was positive if he had to play five or 10 minutes, he helped the team.
"That is partly the success of the team is [that] the ones that don't play that much have the right mindset. I think he is completely ready now to show the quality he has at Aston Villa."
Liverpool.com says: Elliott will come good at Aston Villa. He's a big talent but he just needs regular minutes to show what he can do. When that happens, he is at a good club to kick on and reach the next level.
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