Harvey Elliott could be sent back to Liverpool as Emery makes blunt statement | Football | Sport

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has admitted Harvey Elliott‘s displays have fallen short of what is required to secure a place in his starting XI. The Liverpool loanee has been left on the bench for each of Villa’s last three matches, including Thursday night’s shock Europa League loss to Dutch minnows Go Ahead Eagles.

Elliott has featured just five times during a loan spell that will become permanent once he reaches double figures in appearances. However, only two of those appearances so far have been starts, with one seeing him hauled off at half-time. Emery explained: “I am being very, very demanding myself to choose in each match the player to start and the players on the bench and the subs players, and firstly is always trying to get the best performance collectively, through individual players.

“Harvey is a 10 number in our structure, in our shape, and he plays some matches and there is still adaptation to add himself individually in our structure, the task we have. Of course, he is training well, and his commitment is being very well as well, but his performance was not enough (up to this point).

“At the same time, we have other players who can play as a 10 and they are performing well, and I have different players.

“This is the main reason he is not playing the last matches minutes, but he has to continue working like he is doing in the training session and of course getting his confidence in the performance we need through him.”

Elliott, who captained England Under-21s to European Championship success in the summer, is also capable of operating out wide on the right flank, but Emery is hesitant to deploy him there. “His quality, in my opinion, is to play No 10,” the Spaniard added.

“He can maybe play wide right, like John McGinn, but he will need more time. At the beginning I signed him thinking him to play No 10 and getting the performance and getting him to play consistently for us. There are other players who can play there.”

Elliott departed Liverpool for Villa on transfer deadline day, sealing a loan move with a £35m obligation to make the switch permanent at the end of the season – provided he has featured in 10 matches for the club.

The boyhood Red revealed in September following his return to Merseyside with his new side for a 0-0 stalemate at Everton: “It was very difficult. First of all the decision to leave and then on top of that to find the best club. There were a few difficult decisions I had to make.

“I had to sit down and speak to the team and go into a lot of detail, but it was the decision that was made and the decision was to come here. I’m over the moon. As I said in that interview (when I signed), I’m so happy to be here and I really want to kick on, to get this club where they deserve.

“With this team, anything is possible and we just need to fight together and keep going. I mean for me, I loved every minute of it; every second, every day. I wouldn’t change it to be honest, I learned so much from being there and experienced many things.

“But I think the most important thing for me when I was making the decision was to be playing first-team football. I need to be in a team where I’m getting regular minutes.

“Whether that’s starting or coming off the bench, just having that feeling of going into a matchday knowing you’re going to play, that’s the only way I can improve now.

“The love I have for Liverpool is still going to be there forever, that’s not going to change, I’m still going to be watching and looking out for them from afar. I’m wishing them all the very best.

“But sometimes in football you need to be selfish. I made the decision to leave because I wanted to do what’s best for me. I take all of my experiences and everything I learnt from Liverpool. Hopefully I can start to kick on now.”