Alan Shearer has waxed lyrical about Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott after the 19-year-old’s fantastic winning goal against Wolves on Tuesday.
Elliott spotted Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa off his line and blasted the ball over him to score the only goal of the game in the FA Cup third-round replay.
Liverpool take on Brighton away in the next round – a fixture they lost 3-0 in the Premier League on Saturday.
Elliott has been one bright spark in a bitterly disappointing season for Liverpool, and Shearer was a big fan of his performance at Molineux.
“There were no serious questions [from Wolves],” Shearer told BBC. ” They put more bodies up front and started to switch the play a bit more late on, but Liverpool were never seriously threatened.
“I thought Harvey Elliott was outstanding. He took great confidence from his goal and showed some neat and tidy touches.
“Liverpool had to prove something tonight – it couldn’t have been any worse than the weekend. Klopp needed to send a message to the players who played [at Brighton]. The players who have come in have gone out and performed.
“It wasn’t pretty, but when they asked for a moment of quality, they got it from Elliott.”
Klopp loved that winning feeling, something he has not experienced nearly enough in 2022-23.
“[I enjoyed it] a lot. A lot,” the German manager told BBC. “It is a pretty rare feeling, it feels like ages ago that we had that feeling.
“We had to fight hard at the end, but that’s the nature of the competition. It feels great for the moment. It was the reaction we wanted to see, and the boys delivered.
“[Elliott] was good, especially with an early knock on the ankle. The goal was exceptional. But I had a few men of the match today, just the others didn’t score.
“It was really good passion. A cup game. Great! It is my job to help the boys, and find a formation they can feel. But on the pitch the boys have to make it.
“I liked the game a lot.”
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Elliott said the team must take the performance on Tuesday night into Saturday’s huge mid-table clash against Chelsea.
“It was a good turnaround,” Elliott said.
“The last few results haven’t gone our way. We haven’t performed to the best of our ability. But tonight is a stepping stone for the next couple of games. We need to take this into the weekend, so this is the perfect way to go into the next game full of confidence, and hopefully we can put it right [against Chelsea] in the Premier League.
“I’ve been judged a bit on assisting and goals, and it’s definitely something I’ve been working on, so thankfully it came off today.
“It’s a big sigh of relief because I feel like I personally haven’t been at my best, so to get the goal is good for my confidence. Milly was screaming ‘shoot!’ so if he’s screaming, I’m gonna have to do it!
“A massive thanks to our fans; I know it’s been freezing tonight.”
Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui felt slightly hard done by in his side’s 1-0 defeat.
“I think we started to play well,” the Spaniard explained. “We had two or three clear situations – not chances but clear situations. We conceded a goal out of nothing.
“It’s not easy playing against Liverpool, but in my opinion we deserved more from the second half.
“We wanted to go so far in the cup. We’re sad of course. The most important is the Premier League, but while competing in the cup we had a big will to win in it.”
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