Liverpool youngster Harvey Elliott was captured annoying Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho with a cheeky gesture during yesterday’s 7-0 victory.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – MARCH 05: Harvey Elliott of Liverpool celebrates after Darwin
After an incredible performance in the middle of the park, the 19-year-old was subbed off by Jurgen Klopp in the 85th minute.
Clapping the fans as he walked off, the midfielder caught the passing eye of Garnacho – who’s side were 6-0 down at the time.
Much to the amusement of Liverpool fans, Elliott was videoed winking and smirking at the United player as he left the pitch.
This moment was captured and uploaded to TikTok, which later circulated on Twitter.
Okay. I now love Harvey Elliott pic.twitter.com/dIIBdVlWpy
— CF Comps (@CF_Compss) March 6, 2023
Elliott annoyed Garnacho with cheeky smirk
With many incredible displays against United yesterday, Elliott was the one Liverpool player who probably put in his best performance of his career.
As per Squawka statistics, the 19-year-old dominated defensively.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – MARCH 05: Harvey Elliott of Liverpool celebrates after Darwin Nunez of Liverpool (not pictured) scores the team’s second goal during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester United at Anfield on March 05, 2023 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
He won possession on nine occasions, also winning seven duels and a further four tackles.
Furthermore, he completed two out of two take-ons, created a big chance and finished the game with an assist.
Ahead of the match-up, some Reds fans were worried about the teenager’s inclusion.
However, Elliott proved his doubters wrong, asserting himself as one of the best midfield options Klopp has at his disposal.
‘ON FIRE’: PATRICE EVRA WOWED BY ONE LIVERPOOL PLAYER V MANCHESTER UNITED who Rio Ferdinand called a Tormentor.
Patrice Evra has praised Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah on Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel for his performance against Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United at Anfield in the Premier League on Sunday.
The former Manchester United defender has said that Salah was “on fire” for Liverpool.
Another former United defender, Rio Ferdinand, has noted that the Egypt international forward “tormented” defender Luke Shaw.
Salah scored two goals and gave two assists for the Reds.
Liverpool hammered bitter rivals Manchester United 7-0 at Anfield.
PATRICE EVRA AND RIO FERDINAND ON MOHAMED SALAH FOR LIVERPOOL V MANCHESTER UNITED
Evra said: “Mo Salah, you have to give credit to him. He was on fire.”
Ferdinand said: “Tormented Luke Shaw.”
WORLD CLASS
In our view, Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah produced a world-class performance against Manchester United at Anfield in the Premier League on Sunday.
The former Chelsea attacker was arguably the best player on the pitch and was a force to be reckoned with.
The Manchester United defenders simply could not cope with him.
Salah took his chances against the Red Devils.
And that was massive.
We have seen on many occasions this campaign when the Egyptian has failed to score.
He has been getting chances, but he has not been clinical enough.
It was different against United.
Jurgen Klopp’s ‘Fab Four’ was not built overnight – now Liverpool’s new attack is taking shape
It was not until the sale of Philippe Coutinho in 2018 that golden trio of Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino began to gel
Among his many qualities, Liverpool’s new record Premier League goalscorer Mohamed Salah has an excellent memory.
Before leading Jürgen Klopp’s forward line to its annihilation of Manchester United, Salah issued a reminder that, contrary to popular belief, the legendary attacking trio including himself, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino took months to gel.
“We could not do the pressing in the first season. It took time to do it properly. Our system – counter-pressing – is not easy to adapt to quickly,” said Salah.
It is informative to verify Salah’s recollection. Although Salah hit the ground running with an extraordinary 44 goals in his first season, and Firmino and Mané were already making an impression with moments of individual brilliance, the front three evolved rather than arrived fully formed.
In the first 19 Premier League games of Salah’s debut Anfield season, he started alongside both Firmino and Mané just seven times as Philippe Coutinho, Daniel Sturridge and Dominic Solanke were part of a forward line rotation. When what became the established trio did start, results and performances were erratic. Liverpool won only three of those first seven games with Salah, Mané and Firmino upfront – an inauspicious start to what would become the most feared trident in European football.
The front three which demolished United 7-0 must travel considerable distance to justify early comparisons to the one which fired Liverpool to Premier League and European glory, Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo selected with Salah for only the fourth time on Sunday.
There are, however, encouraging numbers. Those four games have yielded 10 goals and four assists. Mané, Salah and Firmino had seven goals and five assists between them over the same period.
As is often the case when charting Liverpool’s rise under Klopp, all roads tend to lead to the sale of Coutinho to Barcelona for £142 million in 2018, when despite the clamour for the manager and owners to buy a direct replacement, the starting XI became more balanced.
The turning point was the visit of another Manchester side, Pep Guardiola’s City, beaten in an Anfield thriller on Jan 14, 2018, the front three all scoring to inflict the soon-to-be-champions’ first league defeat. Klopp felt it was a symbolic moment after a high-profile departure.
“It’s not that I said in a meeting, ‘Boys, it would help a lot if you could win tonight so nobody speaks about Phil Coutinho anymore’,” Klopp said after that game.
“But it was important to show we can play without him and we did that. That’s a very important statement.”
You could replace the name Coutinho with Mané, or to some extent Firmino given his imminent exit, and Klopp might have expressed the same sentiments on Sunday night.
What changed five years ago was the interconnections between players who had familiarised on the training pitch for the previous six months, aided by the emergence of the flying full-backs, Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, and a more pragmatic midfield allowing what was in effect a ‘front five’ to run riot.
Salah, Mané and Firmino started 14 Premier League games together over the second half of that season, and their legend grew.
Klopp hopes these echoes resonate as he tries to end this campaign in the top four, and sprint out of the traps to mount a title bid next season. But there is already sure to be one key difference.
The Liverpool coach is a matter of weeks from a situation he has craved all season: a selection dilemma upfront. Luis Díaz is already in light training and Diogo Jota is edging closer to full match sharpness. Neither expect to be understudies when everyone is fit, so attacking responsibilities will be shared more than in previous years. That was the plan in July.
“We had two or three or four years where it was always clear before the pre-season we started up front with Sadio, Bobby and Mo. Now the door is open for pretty much everybody,” Klopp said, last summer’s plan wrecked when Díaz and Jota were injured.
Mané, Salah and Firmino also had an athletic midfield trio with a similar age profile to ensure the high intensity was more than occasional, and Liverpool spent big on Virgil van Dijk in 2018 to fill the glaring void at centre-back.
The euphoria at full-time on Sunday does not change Klopp’s priority. His next-gen attack looks in safe hands. The expensive midfield upgrade comes next.