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Photo by Roland Krivec/DeFodi Images via Getty Images
The young midfielder featured for an hour of the loss against Salzburg on Wednesday.
Preseason is afoot, my friends, and that includes meaningless losses in preparation of meaningful wins during the real season. The Reds were defeated by RB Salzburg on Wednesday by one goal, when the old problem of lacking finishes reared it’s ugly head once more. Not to worry, there’s plenty of time to work on that particular problem, right? Well, with the Community Shield on the upcoming Saturday, maybe not.
Upstart midfielder Harvey Elliott thinks there’s loads to learn from the loss, and told the club website so following the match.
“I think if you look at the game and the full 90 minutes, they showed that they’re obviously a great team,” said Elliott, who featured for an hour of the clash.
“As well as that, they’ve been back a lot longer than us and started the season before us. All credit to them, they gave us a great game and it’s a great test for us to work on and put into the weekend against City, which is going to be another hard test.
“Good steps but it’s unfortunate we couldn’t get the win tonight. But there’s a lot of positives, but a lot of negatives that we need to reflect on and make sure we put right on the weekend.”
The inability to finish is not a new problem for Liverpool, and became a frequent struggle in the last season - no need to be reminding what happened there. If there’s anyone that can recognize that struggle, though, it’s Elliott.
“I think that was our main concern today – obviously our finishing and our ability to finish situations off,” Elliott continued.
“We had so many chances and obviously luck didn’t come with us as well today. At least we created the chances, at least we got into the positions to finish it off but it’s just a shame we couldn’t do that today.
“But hopefully we can reflect and work on it in the couple of days that we have leading up to the weekend and make sure we put it right when it matters on the weekend against City.
“Spirits are high in the changing room. It’s not nice losing but a lot of positives to take and at least we got into situations where we could’ve finished the chances off. Let’s hope we can do it on the weekend.”
Thankfully preseason matches are more about fitness than about wins or losses, so surely this one won’t stay long in the mind ahead of the trip to King Power on Saturday for the Community Shield. Starting the new campaign with a trophy in the cabinet would be the definition of hitting the ground running, after all.
“It’s great to start the season with potentially some silverware,” Elliott agreed. “Who better to start off with than against City? It will be a great test for us.
“We need to make sure we recover now and reflect on this game, and reflect on how City are going to play and how they are going to come out, and make sure that we’re at the races – I’m sure our boys are.
“As I said, they’ve been wonderful this pre-season and in this game, just hopefully we can put it right at the weekend.
“We are looking forward to it and we’re all hoping to get some silverware to start the season off good. Hopefully we can get us some silverware to go into the season all guns blazing, which I’m sure the lads will be.
“Hopefully we can smash it against Fulham and start off the season with a great win. But we’re focusing on City now – that’s the next game and the next aim’s to make sure we go out and win and put things right.
“To be able to play in England again, home soil in a way in front of the home fans in England again, we’re all excited and we all can’t wait to put on a show in front of our fans.”
