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Unai Emery has explained why Harvey Elliott was taken off at half-time in Aston Villa's controversial win over Fulham at Villa Park, with the former Liverpool midfielder — technically on loan this season — hooked after 45 minutes.
Aston Villa won the game thanks to goals from Ollie Watkins, John McGinn and then Emi Buendia, the player who replaced Elliott. But Fulham boss Marco Silva was incensed at not getting a penalty for a foul on Josh King when his side was a goal ahead, with the referee booking the youngster for simulation.
The teams were level at 1-1 at half-time, when Elliott was withdrawn. McGinn and Buendia both scored within six minutes of the restart, suggesting Emery's change paid off.
Post-match, the Spaniard said that Elliott was taken off because he is still adapting to life with the Midlands outfit. He felt that Buendia was a better option in the circumstances.
"Keep going, for him and I change him more tactically because Buendia is giving us energy and his adaptation is better than Elliott," Emery said. "He needs time, Elliott. Emiliano did fantastic."
Aston Villa has really struggled to score goals at the start of this season with Elliott still finding his feet. Morgan Rogers has been out of form and Watkins hasn't been scoring regularly.
"[Watkins] is very important for the team because he was not scoring goals," Emery said. "We needed goals through Watkins, Buendia and McGinn.
"Today, with our supporters, we need to connect here and bring the energy. I think our results are bringing balance.
"We are not where we want to be but this result will hopefully help us get better. How the players are connecting and adapting is important.
"Overall we kept the consistency we achieved on Thursday and we started today a little bit under our energy. We conceded one goal and it was again a very difficult moment but we reacted.
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"Winning duels and recovering the ball as high as possible and then we were being aggressive. I think today the result we did come back was through our energy and wishes to come back.
"We draw three matches away and it was not the worst and as well not the best. I told you we were improving and getting better but we needed to improve things. Today we did it.
"Of course, now, we are playing in Feyenoord on Thursday and we have the opportunity to get confidence and it is another opportunity and challenge. And then we can keep being consistent at home and keep adding more players in our structures."
Liverpool.com says: Elliott will be a success at Aston Villa, for sure. He is a really gifted player, though fitting him and Rogers into the same team might prove tricky at times. He's not quite Liverpool level, but he is definitely good enough to play regular European soccer.
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