Jurgen Klopp has insisted Harvey Elliott will go on to be so much more than a Liverpool super-sub as he continues to develop.
The German also revealed that the young midfielder has been ‘exceptional’ in training since receiving a significant confidence boost last weekend.
As he has done on a number of occasions this season, Elliott provided a telling contribution in laying on two assists as Burnley were beaten 3-1 at Anfield, on Saturday.
When asked if the 20-year-old has been knocking on his door for more regular starts as a result, Klopp replied: “No, Harvey’s not doing that, but we had talks anyway.
“With Harvey, we always forget how young he is. He is just that long here, had a bad injury, before the injury he was first on the team sheet probably.
“Young players go through different moments in the early days of their career – flying, not flying. All young players do that, it’s completely normal in football in general, but the younger you are the more likely it is.
“Harvey was incredibly important and I am sure he knows that. Is it that he wishes he starts each game? Yeah, probably he wants that. But when he came on he was brilliant, when he started he was not exactly the same.
“But it’s not a problem because he is young, he has time, and he will be there 100 per cent. It is not that he will be for the rest of his career the super-sub or whatever the public calls him.”
This season, Elliott has played 32 times across all competitions, but just 15 were starts, and only three of those came in the Premier League.
Klopp continued: “It is just, take your time, have a real impact in the game, learn the game, understand the game, use your skillset better and better and better. There is a lot that he is already doing really well and there is a lot of potential still in him.
“It is a joy to work with him but the two assists obviously helped a lot because he was flying through the week. Exceptional, absolutely exceptional how he trained this week.
“You can see, the best thing to inject in the player was confidence and that works best with goals or assists or good performances.”
While Elliott won’t want to categorise himself as a ‘super-sub’, if he ends his career with a legacy as big as David Fairclough’s, he won’t have done too badly!
