Virgil van Dijk explains what Harvey Elliott needs to do now after his performance vs Burnley

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If there was one standout performer from Liverpool’s victory over the weekend against Burnley – it will have been Harvey Elliott.

Not for the first time this season, the 20-year-old stepped up after coming off the bench and delivered a pivotal performance. In the second-half, Elliott was involved in both of Liverpool’s goals. Setting up Luis Diaz to help the Reds take the lead. And then delivering an inch perfect cross to Darwin Nunez to settle the victory later on in the game.

It now means Elliott has five goal contributions in the Premier League for Liverpool. All of them having come off the bench. He’s simply become Jurgen Klopp’s super-sub, or the new Divock Origi as we’d like to call it. And now Virgil van Dijk has been talking about what the Liverpool youngster needs to do next in order to cement his place in the team.

Virgil van Dijk on what Harvey Elliott needs to do now

Speaking to the Liverpool ECHO after the Burnley game, Van Dijk was full of praise for Elliott. He also explained what he thinks Elliott now needs to do to make the next step in his evolution as a player.

“Harvey is so young,” Van Dijk said . “He goes through a lot of things personally. He would love to be playing week in week out. But obviously playing at the highest level, you also have to be patient and then grab your moments when you get them. He has to keep going. Don’t be frustrated that you don’t play as sometimes it is part of the business, but when you get your opportunities, you have to perform and that’s what he has done in this case.”

We understand it can be frustrating for players like Elliott to consistently start on the bench for Liverpool. A player of his quality definitely deserves to start more than the three games he has started for Liverpool this season. But Van Dijk is right. It’s all about patience and hard-work. Elliott is still extremely young and has plenty of time to break into the starting eleven. His time will come eventually. But for now he’s just so useful as a squad player.