There are seasons when Liverpool fans would not have wanted to miss a game, and this is not one of them. In a troubled campaign, one Liverpool supporter has a unique distinction. In the sort of scenario few envisaged six months ago, the team’s only ever-present is boyhood fan Harvey Elliott. Twenty-nine matches have brought 29 appearances from a player who is still a teenager for another 10 weeks. He created at least one more game with a wonderful winner against Wolves to progress Liverpool to the FA Cup fourth round.
Elliott did not make the matchday squad for the FA Cup final Liverpool won in May. Perhaps the best goal of a brief career took them into this season’s fourth round. A chest-beating celebration was an indication of what it meant. By his own admission, he had been among the recent underachievers. He was horribly at fault for a goal at Brentford. “Personally, I have felt I have not been at my best form after the World Cup,” he said. Liverpool had their character questioned after the capitulation at Brighton. Jurgen Klopp had said insisted he would not be too loyal to the stalwarts of past glories and instead ended up suggesting Elliott may have played his way into the team against Chelsea on Saturday.
