Arne Slot will take charge of Liverpool and inherit a player in Harvey Elliott who has ended the season in excellent fashion.
When it comes to the debate as to who the Premier League’s best-ever midfielder is, there are several candidates to select from.
Depending on what team you support is likely to sway persuasions. Sections of Liverpool fans will be steadfast that it’s Steven Gerrard, while Manchester United followers may be vehement the tag belongs to Paul Scholes. Chelsea zealots will clamour for Frank Lampard and Arsenal fanatics might argue it is Patrick Viera.
Yet over the past decade, there is little wrangling. The undisputed crown goes to Kevin De Bruyne. There was some scepticism when Manchester City purchased the Belgium international for £55 million from Wolfsburg in 2015. De Bruyne had already had one stint in England at Chelsea but lasted two years and made just nine appearances. Some doubted whether he could produce at City despite displaying his qualities in the Bundesliga.
Anyone who was unconvinced De Bruyne’s fee represented value for money has been emphatically proven wrong. It’s the stark contrast. Based on what he has achieved, City underpaid. De Bruyne has been the talisman to lead the Etihad Stadium outfit to six Premier League titles, the Champions League, two FA Cups and five League Cups.
Perhaps why City’s title triumph this season went all the way to the wire was because De Bruyne missed three months with a hamstring injury. Yet since returning to fitness in the new year, he has been imperious. In 2024, De Bruyne has recorded an incredible 16 assists in all competitions. How every manager in the Premier League must be envious of Pep Guardiola to have such a tour de force.
Yet Arne Slot is inheriting one of his own. Jurgen Klopp is leaving behind a squad that is very much on an upward curve rather than departing when he knows the Reds are on a decline. Throughout the current set-up, there are players aplenty still to hit the peak of their powers. One of those is Harvey Elliott.
Klopp confessed his one regret from his final season as Reds manager is not playing the 21-year-old enough. In fairness to Klopp, he has tried to remedy that in the final few weeks, with Elliott starting the German’s last four games as Anfield supremo.
Elliott had largely been used as an impact substitute for the previous 18 months. There was no berth for him in the starting line-up, with Mo Salah the bona fide first choice on the right flank while the likes of Jordan Henderson, Curtis Jones, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister were largely preferred in midfield.
But certainly since the turn of the year, Elliott has stepped up markedly. He was excellent deputising while Salah was at the African Cup of Nations before he suffered a hamstring injury. By Klopp’s own admission, Elliott was Liverpool’s best player during that period but came out of the XI when Salah was back available and got minutes ‘here and there’.
Even when coming on as a substitute, Elliott made an instrumental impact. And in this calendar year, only De Bruyne has more assists in all competitions in terms of Premier League players. The England under-21 captain created goals against Burnley, Fulham, Tottenham, Aston Villa and most recently Mac Allister’s header in the 2-0 victory over Wolves. He also engineered efforts in FA Cup games against Southampton and Manchester United as well as four over two legs in the Europa League last-16 triumph against Sparta Prague.
In the 4-2 win over Tottenham, Elliott also scored a sublime long-range goal to go with teeing-up Cody Gakpo’s strike. Stats-based website WhoScored gave the former Fulham youngster a match rating of 9.12 – about as good as it gets.
Perhaps the greatest achievement for Elliott so far is that by the age of 21, he had already made more appearances (109) than Liverpool’s greatest academy product in Gerrard (94).
There have been some doubts as to whether Elliott could shake off the moniker of being a super-sub. He has insisted he is determined to be a regular fixture rather than someone pigeon-holed to bring on to turn a match around. In recent weeks, Elliott’s performances have displayed he can become a key cog under Slot.
