Harvey Elliott was left out of the Aston Villa matchday squad entirely against Man City and will be ineligible to face Liverpool next weekend
Aston Villa’s Harvey Elliott(Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)
Harvey Elliott has been dealt a new blow after being left out of the Aston Villa matchday squad entirely for their home clash with Man City. The midfielder joined the Villans on an initial loan move from Liverpool with a £35m obligation to buy back on transfer deadline day.
However, the 22-year-old has found his game-time limited since moving to Villa Park. He scored on his full debut for the club away at Brentford in the League Cup last month, but was taken off at half-time in his only other start for Villa against Fulham.
Featuring for just 167 minutes to date, Elliott has been an unused substitute for Villa’s last three clashes against Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur and Go Ahead Eagles.
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And despite Unai Emery’s side suffering a shock defeat in the Netherlands last time out, that was not enough for Elliott to earn a reprieve as he found himself left out of the Villa squad entirely for the visit of Man City.
Emery made two changes to the side that beat Tottenham Hotspur in Villa’s last Premier League outing as Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Buendia came into the starting XI in place of Donyell Malen and Evann Guessand. Meanwhile, Tyrone Mings took Elliott’s place in the matchday squad after returning from injury against Go Ahead Eagles.
The Liverpool loanee already knows he will suffer the same fate next week when the Villans travel to Anfield, with Elliott ineligible to face his parent club due to the regulations regarding Premier League loan transfers. Consequently, home clashes with Maccabi Tel Aviv and AFC Bournemouth are now his only further opportunities for game-time ahead of the November international break.
Elliott’s loan move to Villa will be made permanent once he makes 10 appearances for the club, reports ECHO sister site Birmingham Live, but he remains on the fringes at Villa Park following a frustrating final season at Liverpool where, despite winning the Premier League, he started only six times.
Emery recently claimed that the 22-year-old had not been playing well enough to get into his Villa side.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery(Image: UEFA via Getty Images)
“I am being very, very demanding myself to choose in each match the player to start and the players on the bench and the subs players,” the Spaniard admitted recently. “And firstly is always trying to get the best performance collectively, through individual players.
“Harvey is a 10 number in our structure, in our shape, and he plays some matches and there is still adaptation to add himself individually in our structure, the task we have.
“Of course, he is training well, and his commitment is being very well as well, but his performance was not enough (up to this point).
“At the same time, we have other players who can play as a 10 and they are performing well, and I have different players.
“This is the main reason he is not playing the last matches minutes, but he has to continue working like he is doing in the training session and of course getting his confidence in the performance we need through him.
“At the beginning, I called him and we signed him thinking he would play as a number 10 and get the performance we need from him to play consistently.
“At the same time, Morgan (Rogers) can play there. Emiliano (Buendia), John McGinn, and also Youri Tielemans played there before. Even the last 10 minutes against Tottenham, I played with Ross Barkley.
“It is because they can compete in this position. I will want to see his development in our structure, with his qualities to help us. We will give him minutes and chances to play in case his development is going well.”
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Meanwhile, Arne Slot explained his decision to sanction Elliott’s departure, along with the likes of Jarell Quansah and Caoimhin Kelleher, ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Brentford.
“In general I don’t think it’s a healthy situation for a player to be on the bench longer than a year or miss out on many games in a year and then go into a next season,” the Dutchman admitted at his pre-match press conference on Friday. “It’s so hard for them to keep giving everything on a daily basis.
“So, that was also one of the reasons why we thought it was best for Jarell Quansah, for Harvey Elliott to find another club.
“For Caoimh, like I said, goalkeepers are a bit of an exception, but he did this for so many years that he felt it was time for him to start playing – and he has shown that he is right because he is doing really well.”
While Elliott is still expected to complete a permanent move to Villa, his absence from the matchday squad, when his transfer is dependent on appearances, will be enough to raise eyebrows further following a difficult start to his time in the West Midlands.