Arne Slot has revealed he had an “honest” conversation with Harvey Elliott about his form earlier in the season, but believes he is now showing his faith in him.
Elliott is likely to make his first start of the Premier League campaign in the coming weeks with Slot planning to rotate his side for the final four games.
But having so far played only 651 minutes of football this season, starting four of his 24 appearances, the midfielder has suggested he may reluctantly consider his future.
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While he hopes to spend his career at Anfield, speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Elliott said: “You never know what is going to happen around the corner.”
Asked about that interview and whether he has a big future at the club, Slot gave a frank assessment of his form and a more positive outlook moving forward.
“I think first of all it’s very important that players who are here with us would like to stay, that’s a bit compliment to everyone working here,” he told reporters on Friday.
“Harvey is one of the players who hasn’t had as much playing time as he maybe deserves, but like some others he’s in competition with so many good players that mainly I’ve chosen.
“Also partly because he was injured for a long time and I’ve been honest with him, the first part after he came back from his injury he wasn’t the same as he was before his injury.
“But the last few months he’s back to his old level again.
“There was no need for me to start with different players, but I think if you look at the amount of minutes that he had in the last one or two months and the time before, you can see it goes up already.
“So that tells you that we like, I like, him more now than I did the first months when he came back from his injury.”
Elliott will be among those brought into the side over the clashes with Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton and Crystal Palace, with Slot confirming he would rotate with the title already won.
No wholesale changes are planned and instead the head coach views the situation as one which allows the likes of Elliott to “prove for themselves” that they warrant a bigger role.
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“I don’t think they have anything to prove to me, because I see them every single day in the training ground and I’ve seen them playing for us in the past or this season,” he explained.
“Federico not in the past, but he has had a great career at other clubs as well.
“So don’t think these players have to prove the quality players they are, but I think they want to prove for themselves that they are good enough to play for us.
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“I already know that they are and probably they themselves know this as well. So no, I don’t think that they have a point to prove.
“I do think they would like to play, but as I said, it’s not that now all the ones that have played all the games are not going to play anymore and all the other ones are going to play now.
“I’ve done this one before, Plymouth away, and I got quite a bit of criticism from you [journalists] didn’t I? And that is probably not an honest chance.
“We will mix it up, but it’s not going to be four games with the same lineup as we had against Tottenham.”
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