Alan Shearer was keen to praise Harvey Elliott for his ‘pretty special’ opener in Liverpool’s FA Cup replay with Wolves.
The youngster, fielded further afield in a spot generally reserved for Mo Salah, unleased a devastating effort from range in the 13th minute of action to hand the visitors an early lead at the Molineux.
“We’ve only had one bit of quality in this match so far and it was pretty special from Harvey Elliott but other than that it has been scrappy,” the former England international told BBC One (via BBC Sport).
Whilst no doubt a scrappy affair in the first-half of action, Jurgen Klopp’s men deserve every bit of a credit for a more intense, energetic performance by far compared to the disaster-class registered on the South Coast in the 3-0 defeat to Brighton.
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The German tactician may have his reservations about keeping a youngster like Stefan Bajcetic in the first-XI for his side’s upcoming clashes in the English top-flight, though it’s equally hard to justify sticking with more senior options who offered little in the way of dynamism in the middle of the park.
At the very least, we should be looking to keep both Naby Keita and Thiago Alcantara in the midfield going forward – if we can manage to keep both injury-free for a prolonged period of time – until further reinforcements can be arranged.
For the moment, that seems like an unlikely eventuality, which leaves us with some difficult rotational choices to make for the remainder of the campaign.