Harvey Elliott shows the versatility that will make him a Liverpool star

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Harvey Elliott continued to showcase his star quality on Saturday. The teenager got yet another assist for Blackburn.

It’s pretty clear to everyone now that Harvey Elliott has star potential. Doing what he’s doing at 17 is quite remarkable, after all.

And he did it again on Saturday. With Blackburn 1-0 down to Norwich, Elliott came off the bench on 62 minutes.

On 77 minutes, he had his 10th assist of the season. It was a wonderful free-kick from the side of the box, whipped back-post to meet Sam Gallagher’s head.

The assist moves Elliott back to joint-second in the Championship for creating goals. Only Emiliano Buendia has more with 12.

But the teenager showcase something else with the assist – his versatility.

Opportunities

Elliott has five goals this season and 10 assists. He’s getting a variety with his assists, too.

This one was from a set-piece but we’ve seen dribbles, crosses from open-play, through-balls – Elliott is very capable of what’s needed. And that’s the trait of a star.

He isn’t milking one aspect of his game. He’s not a set-piece specialist or someone who whips crosses in for a target-man.

Elliott is a versatile creator and that’s a skill that will scale with a club like Liverpool. Put him around better players and more opportunities to create will arise.

You can go further with it, though. Per Whoscored, Elliott has played five different positions for Blackburn this season: Right-wing, left-wing, forward, attacking-midfield, and centre-midfield.

He’s also picked up two assists in seven games as a substitute.

The bulk of Elliott’s output has come from the right and that’s almost certainly his long-term position. But the fact he can deliver from elsewhere gives him a far greater chance of reaching his potential.

It means that when he’s finally in the Liverpool first-team squad, opportunities will open up for him all over the place. Elliott is far more likely to get games and thus he’ll develop quicker.

He doesn’t need to wait for Mohamed Salah to vacate the right-flank, in other words.

There’s a lot to love about Elliott’s potential and his talent gives him star potential. But it’s his versatility that should unlock it going forward.