Liverpool starlet Harvey Elliott is already elite.
Players need to make five appearances in order to qualify for a Premier League winners’ medal, but the attacker has played just seven minutes of top flight football across two substitute appearances.
He’s currently the only man to have been picked by Jurgen Klopp to play for Liverpool in the league who’d miss out on a medal, although Curtis Jones needs to make the field against Chelsea or Newcastle United to reach the required number.
Jones has started one game and made three substitute appearances.
But the online taunting of Harvey Elliott for missing out shows how elite he’s already become. The Liverpool starlet is only 17-years-old, and has just turned professional.
That means people are mocking him for not making more than five appearances in the best league in the world when he was just 16. The fact that he’s even on anyone’s radar at that age is remarkable, never mind that social media is gloating at him.
"After being goaded on Instagram, the attacker responded with an incredibly mature response. He said: “Not about me lad it’s about the team and I’m over the moon for them all to be receiving one (medal).More from Rush The KopSet to return, Virgil Van Dijk facing heavy criticism back homeLiverpool making late comebacks all the rage once againWolves tilt gives Klopp opportunity to tinker with lineup following international dutyPlayers to watch in the matchup with WolvesPredicting Liverpool’s Next Five Premier League Fixtures“They all deserve it more than anything so I’m going to be celebrating as a supporter with the fans.”"
Elliott already plays football with an elite mentality and it’s mad to think how young he is. The pace of his development is highly encouraging and it’s clear the former Fulham lad is primed to make his breakthrough sooner rather than later.
Will it be next season? It’s hard to tell. Harry Wilson and Xherdan Shaqiri might still be knocking around a post-COVID bloated squad as transfer values dip, but Elliott will outlast them all.
Klopp has spoken about how all of his players deserve to be recognised for their efforts this season, regardless of whether they’d made five Premier League appearances or one.
But the rules are the rules, and it seems odd that the manager couldn’t shoehorn him into a few more sub cameos.
Now that teams are allowed to make five changes, and after the title was secured, Klopp has a lot of wiggle room in regards to the players he sends on.