There were nothing but positives for Liverpool on Wednesday as they put West Ham to the sword in the Carabao Cup.
The Reds hit five past the Hammers in the quarter-finals of the same competition last season and were equally as ruthless this time around, too.
With Arne Slot making nine changes from the team that beat Bournemouth at Anfield on Saturday, it was a show of how much depth is in the Liverpool squad right now.
Cody Gakpo made another claim as to why he should be starting and is showing signs of building a budding partnership with Kostas Tsimikas down the left-hand side.
Meanwhile, a completely changed Liverpool midfield suggested that Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai may not be as secure in their spots as first thought.
One man who would have felt a slight pang at that was probably Harvey Elliott. The 21-year-old would no doubt have started this game had he not been currently injured. No matter, Harvey was at Anfield anyway to cheer on his teammates.
Harvey Elliott reacts to Tyler Morton bow
It has been a frustrating start to life under Slot for Elliott. Having made just one substitute appearance for the new Liverpool head coach, he was injured while away with England U21s in September.
It seems that Elliott could still be out for a little while and, keen character that he is, he’ll be itching to get back on the pitch.
In the meantime, others in the Liverpool squad are pulling ahead of him in the selection stakes.
There had been a bit of a debate prior to the game as to whether Slot would select Tyler Morton. Injury to Elliott has opened the door for Morton as Liverpool’s sixth-choice in midfield.
Had the 21-year-old not been picked to play any part in the Carabao Cup victory, it could have signalled the end of Morton’s Liverpool career in earnest.
As it turned out, Slot did have the Liverpool academy graduate in his plans. Despite not starting, Morton came off the bench as an 82nd minute substitute.
It was a first Liverpool appearance in almost three years for the youngster. And taking to his Instagram stories, Elliott showed that he was there to support his mate.
“Here he is,” wrote Liverpool’s No.19, sharing a photo of Morton next to Slot ready to come off the bench. Clearly taken from the Anfield stands it was nice to see Elliott at the ground and he threw in a couple of hearts in eyes emojis for good measure, too.
When will Harvey Elliott be back?
Upon initially getting injured, it was reported that Elliott will likely be out until the end of October.
As there have been no updates since then, that’s still when we’d expect to see the attacking midfielder back in action.
From there, there is still plenty of football to be played this season and Harvey will get his chance. But there’s little question that he won’t be happy with how things have gone so far.
Nevertheless, it speaks to Elliott’s character that he is still there turning up to support the team even while not being able to play himself.
As for Morton, he has been deemed ‘outstanding’ in the past and it was a decent little cameo against West Ham. He showed that he could be one of the players to benefit from Elliott’s absence over the next month.
