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Harvey Elliott’s move to Aston Villa hasn’t quite worked out how he would’ve planned so far, and the former Liverpool star will miss yet another game today as the two sides meet at Anfield.
The 22-year-old left the Reds during the summer transfer window after six years on Merseyside, having been eager to pick up more playing time after finding it hard to come by under Arne Slot last season.
A move to Villa looked to be a great opportunity for him, given he would still be playing in Europe, and for one of the Premier League’s top managers in Unai Emery. The reality though has been a lot different so far.
Elliott has made just five appearances since joining Villa on transfer deadline day, and has started just once in the league thus far. He has been named in the squad on four other occasions, but has been left on the bench each time.
And his misery was compounded last weekend when he was left out of Emery’s squad completely for the game against Manchester City, despite no reports of an injury.
Elliott will miss out again this weekend as Villa visits his former side, although this time, his absence was always on the books. Although he left Liverpool in the summer, it was on an initial loan deal, meaning he is ineligible to face what is still his parent club for the time being.
Villa does have an obligation to make Elliott’s move permanent next summer, although even that may be in doubt now, with the clause subject to the England U21 star making a certain number of appearances for his new club this season.
The number has previously been reported to be just 10 appearances, but should he continue to find himself out of favor with Emery, Elliott could in theory end up back at Anfield next summer.
Explaining why he has left Elliott out recently, Emery said last week: "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.
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"Harvey is a 10 number 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 10 number 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."
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