As one era ends at Anfield, a new one begins. Jürgen Klopp’s incredible nine-year run brought every trophy possible (bar the Europa League) to the club, and Arne Slot is the man tasked with ushering in new successes to the Reds.
The early signs have been positive, bar a behind-closed-doors defeat to Preston, Slot’s side has beat Real Betis, Arsenal, and Manchester United – scoring six goals and conceding just once.
While results don’t matter in pre-season, getting your ideas across does. The former Feyenoord boss’s ideas have been clear.
While some themes have remained from the previous regime, others have changed. One key difference is that Liverpool now operates with an attacking midfielder (or number 10).
Harvey Elliott’s Liverpool career
One player this could benefit massively is Harvey Elliott. Despite being just 21 years old, Elliott has racked up over 160 appearances for the club he supported as a boy.
The majority of these, however, have come from the bench. Elliott has suffered from injuries, but he’s also suffered from not having an established position in the side. His best spell came as the right-sided central midfielder in a 4-3-3, fluidly combining with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah.
He’s also been used as a back-up to the Egyptian, due to Liverpool’s lack of options in that area. The truth is though, while he can do both – they don’t really optimize his strengths.
His strengths are very much on show when you get the England under-21 in the final third of the pitch.
He’s putting up 0.22 expected assists per ninety, which ranks him in the 64th percentile for attacking midfielders and wingers in Europe’s top five leagues (bear in mind he’s played a lot of football in central midfield where that would rank him in the 94th percentile).
Last season he had 6 assists, and during his time on loan at Blackburn – where he was able to start further up the pitch – he had…
Author : Danny Corcoran
Publish date : 2024-08-11 15:08:19
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Author : soccernews
Publish date : 2024-08-11 15:15:54
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.