Harvey Elliott is our choice for Liverpool’s Best Young Player of 2022. But was there really any other pick here?
Last season was supposed to be Harvey Elliott’s year. The teenager was getting games regularly only for a bad injury to force him out for months just as he got going. By the time he was back, the stakes were so high that Liverpool couldn’t afford to throw him in.
But now? Elliott looks like one of the best young midfielders around and it’s abundantly clear that Liverpool boast a remarkably special player.
John Aldridge recently called Elliott ‘magnificent’ and that about sums up his rise in 2022. At the start of the season, he was a teenager with a promising reputation. Now Elliott is someone with proven quality – and who could be knocking on the England door before long.
Injuries in midfield have consistently handed Elliott opportunities this year, particularly this season. 10 Premier League starts and four Champions League starts followed – and that sums up Elliott’s quality.
Because here’s a 19-year-old who feels established in Liverpool’s starting XI. It’s incredibly rare, with Trent Alexander-Arnold being the most recent, and it might not happen again for some time.
The big question now is just how good can Elliott become? We’re expecting him to develop fairly rapidly over the rest of the season, especially if he keeps getting a similar number of games. By the end of the campaign, he may look even more special than he does now.
Liverpool’s Best Young Player of 2022
Elliott is the obvious choice here but one other player certainly deserves a mention in Stefan Bajcetic. The player only turned 18 in October and has managed to make an impression every single time he’s featured with the senior side.
Bajcetic wasn’t really on last season. Now, though, he’s quickly becoming a genuine first-team option and one who could hold down a long-term squad place.
He’s got a long way to go before reaching the heights of Elliott, of course. But Bajcetic is one of the few who could actually reach them.
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