Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool youngster has been ‘exceptional’ in training this week

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Liverpool will surely have to play better than they did last weekend to pick up three more Premier League points against Brentford tomorrow.

The Reds were sloppy against Burnley at Anfield last Saturday. With a number of players out injured, suspended and ill, Liverpool laboured through the game.

One player who that description could not be attributed to however was Harvey Elliott. The 20-year-old came off the bench at half-time to change the game for Liverpool. He was ultimately the match-winner, setting up both Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz as the Reds won 3-1.

Elliott’s excellent display led to a question about his form during Jurgen Klopp’s pre-Brentford press conference today. Although Klopp insisted that the youngster can still get even better, the manager did praise his performance in training this week.

“There is of course a lot of potential still in him,” Jurgen said. “It’s a joy to work with him. The two assists obviously helped a lot because he was flying through the week.

“Exceptional, absolutely exceptional how he trained this week. You can see, the best thing to inject the player with is confidence and that works the best with goals or assists or good performances.”

Klopp raves about Elliott

Although Elliott turned the game in Liverpool’s favour last week and has trained well, it would still be a surprise to see him start tomorrow.

Klopp also alluded to the fact that the former Fulham prospect is still better off the bench than from the beginning of games.

“When he came on he was brilliant, when he started it was not exactly the same,” admitted the 56-year-old. “But it is not a problem because he is young, he has time and he will be there 100 per cent.”

Dominik Szoboszlai’s injury has created a slight opening for someone to step into the Liverpool midfield. On last week’s display, Elliott marked himself out as a real candidate.

But Klopp is completely right. When he has started games, Liverpool’s No.19 has not always looked like the same player.

Furthermore, Brentford are a strong, quick and physical side. Good as he is, those are not attributes you associate with Elliott. He can struggle against such teams especially when playing in midfield.

Instead, better for the England U21 international to come on when the Bees are tiring and do his best to make an impact again.

Eventually, enough of those cameos will start to result in more regularly featuring on the team sheet. But for now, Elliott just needs to keep delivering in his current role.