Journalist calls for Arne Slot to trust in Liverpool maestro with just 9 PL starts this season

Arne Slot has been urged to show more faith in one Liverpool player than Jurgen Klopp has done this season.

That might seem like a peculiar plea to make regarding Harvey Elliott, who’s featured in 51 games for us this term, but only nine of those has come as starts in the Premier League (Transfermarkt).

The 21-year-old capped a player of the match display against Tottenham on Sunday with a stupendous goal, and speaking on the Walk On Podcast, The Athletic’s Andy Jones voiced his surprise that the youngster hasn’t had more game-time of late.

The journalist added that Slot ‘should enjoy’ having such a gifted young talent at the club and could entrust him with having a greater ‘influence’ at Liverpool next season.

Jones said of Elliott: “I’ve been surprised as to how little we have seen of him in some of the games where Liverpool have been really poor in the last month or so, but it’s been a massive year for him and he’s the type of player that Arne Slot should enjoy working with.

“If you get him in the pockets of space, you could see Elliott playing in that role and being able to influence. The next step is being able to do that consistently from the start over 90 minutes, but his steps this season have been brilliant and that goal sort of summed it up.”

There has been an argument that many of Elliott’s best performances this season have come from the bench, and that his lack of Premier League starts is down to him not having the same influence in some matches when he’s been in the first XI.

However, he ran the show against Spurs when entrusted from the start, and it was a proactive performance which sent a clear message that he’s not content to be a mere supersub at Liverpool.

Everyone in the squad will begin pre-season with a clean slate under the new head coach, so the 21-year-old may view Slot’s impending appointment as an opportune time to make an immediate good impression.

Although Elliott is still quite young, he’s armed with the experience of more than 160 senior career appearances already, and he must surely think that now is the time for him to make the leap from sporadic starter to integral first-team presence.

More performances like the one we witnessed last Sunday will do his cause no harm whatsoever.