Harvey Elliott’s troubled loan at Aston Villa appears to have gone from bad to worse with the Liverpool star left out of their squad entirely for the visit of Manchester City in the Premier League.
Elliott has not started a game for Villa in almost a month and did not make it off the substitutes’ bench for Unai Emery in any of their last three matches.
But now his position as a squad exile has intensified with his lack of selection at all against City. Elliott, 22, has a £35million obligation to buy included in his Villa deal but now major questions are being raised about his future.
Asked about Elliott this week, Emery said: ‘I am being very, very demanding myself to choose in each match the player to start and the players on the bench and the subs players, and firstly is always trying to get the best performance collectively, through individual players.
‘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).
Harvey Elliott was axed entirely from Aston Villa’s squad for Manchester City’s visit
‘At the same time, we have other players who can play as a 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.’
More to follow.
