Harvey Elliott is expected to be given a chance to reintegrate himself into the Liverpool squad this summer after a nightmare loan spell with Aston Villa that saw him hardly feature.
Elliott played just 277 minutes of football last term because Villa did not want to activate a clause in the deal, which meant they would have had to sign the player permanently if he made 10 appearances.
In turn, he has returned to Anfield lacking match sharpness and fitness, but Andoni Iraola has already confirmed the versatile midfielder, whose preferred role is the number 10, will get a chance in pre-season.
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Harvey Elliott wants to be Liverpool’s number 10
Iraola held a press conference this week, in which Elliott was a talking point.
On the 23-year-old’s future, he said: “Harvey is here with us, I have seen him with the eagerness to show up, get super ready. He’ll have a chance in pre-season; we’ll need him, and it’s a good sign.
“I hope we can see him in a good place. I think Harvey comes from last season, had to be difficult for him, strange situation; they couldn’t even play him, and I think he uses this experience, the bad situation, to make himself even more eager to be a Liverpool player.”
It remains to be seen if Elliott does enough to impress his new boss in the next month or so.
But if he does end up remaining at Anfield beyond the summer transfer window, he has already made it clear he’d like to play as a 10.
Speaking back in August 2024 when Arne Slot was still in charge, the player said: “I think the positions [in the] formations that he plays, there’s a few that are very my style of play, especially the No.10 role. “I play it at England [U21s], so I know it very, very well.”
When pressed on playing as the 10, he added: “I hope so, yeah.
“It’s something I’m working towards. I need to prove it. It’s not really going to be given to me, especially with the quality that we have in and around the team. It’s going to be very hard.
“I’ll be happy to play wherever but if I had to choose a specific position, it would be there.”
Elliott went on to play just 360 minutes of Premier League football in that campaign, and the competition for a starting berth in the central attacking midfield role has only intensified since.
Dominik Szoboszlai has just had his best season in a Reds shirt, and as long as Liverpool can sort out their right-back situation, he will be one of the names vying for a start through the middle.
Elsewhere, while his debut campaign was mixed, it is expected that £116m man Florian Wirtz, who also favours the 10 position, will be a regular starter next season.
Finally, though he too was not at his best last term, Alexis Mac Allister, who is in the midst of an excellent World Cup campaign with Argentina, has played as a 10 on occasion for Liverpool.
So, while there remains a chance we could see Elliott used as a 10 next term, it does feel like he’s going to be the third-choice option, at best, in that area.
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