Having struggled to find their identity for large parts of the season, Liverpool's third goal at the Johan Cruijff ArenA on Wednesday evening was a passage of play pleasing enough to trigger a wide smile from manager Jurgen Klopp.
Dropping infield to receive the ball from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah let the ball run across his body before executing an exquisite defence-splitting pass for the freely-moving Harvey Elliott to latch on to. The 19-year-old's penetrative run beyond the last line of the Eredivisie champions' defence was met by unsuccessful, half-hearted tackle attempts from Edson Alvarez and Jurrien Timber, leaving Elliott all alone to compose himself prior to releasing an unstoppable strike into the roof of Remko Pasveer's net and secure the Reds' place in the knockout stages of Europe's premier competition.
In doing so, Elliott became the first teenager to score in back-to-back Champions League games for Liverpool, after opening his European account in the closing stages of the 7-1 thrashing at Rangers earlier in the month. In fact, Alexander-Arnold is the only player younger than the midfielder to score for the club in the Champions League.
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For a season that has been riddled with frustration - highlighted by the inability to defeat a bottom-of-the-table Nottingham Forest side just six days after conquering Manchester City - Elliott has been one of the few shining lights at Anfield this term. Following the agreement of a new long-term contract on Merseyside in August, just 13 senior appearances after he last extended his terms, he is already beginning to repay the club's latest show of faith after missing the bulk of the 2021/22 season with a serious ankle ligament injury
Lining up in a 4-1-2-1-2 system for the penultimate Group A clash in Amsterdam, Elliott was deployed in a right-sided No.8 position alongside Jordan Henderson, with Fabinho roaming behind. While it was a far from convincing first 30 minutes on the continent for the Reds, who should have been punished by Steven Berghuis and Dusan Tadic before Salah opened the scoring with a deft flick, the performance of the former Fulham scholar was without a doubt one of the most prominent takeaways.
Elliott has found himself playing a starring role in the Liverpool side this season and, in truth, starts at Ibrox, Old Trafford and at Anfield against Manchester City have probably come much sooner than the 19-year-old would have anticipated when he penned his latest deal.
While his starting berth came as a result of Thiago Alcantara's early-season injury lay-off, Elliott's continued presence in Liverpool's starting XI has been down to nobody other than himself and his performances have even started murmurs that he could have an outside chance of making Gareth Southgate's England squad for this winter's World Cup.
However, as expected with any young players, there have been bumps in the road, with the brutal 4-1 thrashing in Naples the obvious low point. However, there has equally been a string of coming-of-age performances from the youngster in the Reds' hour of need.
"Harvey crowns his really good performance with a sensational finish," was Klopp's cheerful verdict in the bowels of the Johan Cruijff ArenA after the victory in midweek. "So that's all, individually, very helpful and for the group as well, and that's why we are really happy for them."
Supporting Roberto Firmino, Darwin Nunez and Salah in attack, Elliott - a winger for all of his pre-Anfield career - has been able to add a dimension to the midfield that has been lacking for many a year; goals. Despite scoring just four times since making the move from west London in the summer of 2019, with his maiden strike coming against Cardiff City in February, Liverpool's No.19 has now found the back of the net three times in his last nine starts for Liverpool.
Previously Klopp had positioned his midfield trio as the supporting stanchions of the team's attacking talents, with Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum assigned the self-sacrificing roles of deputising for full-backs Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson when they ventured forward. While that is a tactic that helped deliver an abundance of success to Merseyside, the latest tinker from the Liverpool boss suggests Elliott could be about to help spark an attacking revolution.
Elliott's formative years as a winger, coupled with the relentless demands of the Liverpool boss from his midfielders, had raised questions about where his future at Anfield lay as he tried to come to terms with the defensive side of the game in a three-man, largely unprotected, trio in the early weeks of the campaign.
It was in Naples, as Klopp persisted with his tried-and-tested 4-3-3 that Elliott's defensive shortcomings were unfairly highlighted as himself, Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez were singled out for unflattering team performance at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. But since the shift to a 4-1-2-1-2, the midfielder has been discharged of such heavy defensive responsibility and instead granted approval to exhibit his qualities in more damaging areas of the field.
In fact, Elliott's 25 shots across the Premier League and Champions League this season have been taken from an average distance of 17.9 yards from the goal - just inside the penalty area. For comparison, the more restricted and less mobile midfield duo of Henderson and Thiago are chancing their luck for an average of 23.7 and 28.9 yards.
Similarly, the teenager is only behind Salah (396) and Alexander-Arnold (352) when ranking those in the Liverpool squad for their number of touches in the attacking third across all competitions. While metrics can frequently be skewed and offer false interpretations, Elliott's total of 990 minutes is a comprehensive enough sample size to suggest he is one of the most attack-minded players within the squad and Klopp is doing his utmost to profit from that.
"Since Harvey has been playing for the first team he is incredibly consistent," said Klopp in his pre-Leeds press conference on Friday afternoon. "So, he started last year's season incredibly consistent. He was in the team and probably a standout player early in the season.
"Now in a team which is not in a perfect moment, he has a really consistent season so far. Good for him and very good for us as well that he is now scoring as well. It’s a thing he has to involve in his game, definitively. This one [Ajax goal] I didn't expect with the right foot but in general scoring goals must be part of each offensive player on the pitch. That's what he is now slowly, but surely doing. So, yeah, really good what he is doing so far."
Elliott, to his credit, at times plays the elite level of the English game like he's involved in a game of street football as he ducks and dives from defenders double his size; but even with such natural elegance and grace in possession, his positional intelligence must not be understated. His goal in Amsterdam encapsulated the brilliant understanding he has fashioned with Salah as the Egyptian dropped between the lines and Elliott took up a central position at the tip of Liverpool's diamond.
Such fluid rotation will only help Elliott progress on Merseyside and continue his exceptional form during the early weeks of the season. The hope is that once Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz return from injury and Nunez becomes more settled in his surroundings, Liverpool will be a force to be feared across the Premier League once again as Klopp looks to rebuild the latest Liverpool dynasty.
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