Harvey Elliott On Liverpool’s “Big Improvement” Against Ajax

Liverpool started the 2022-23 season generally playing well if not exceptionally but failing to get results. Then their play started to fall off, aligning with those poor results. After six Premier League rounds and their first Champions League tie, they looked in trouble.

In their second Champions League tie, they rebounded, putting in a strong performance against Dutch leaders Ajax and taking a much needed three points. Now, they need to build on that and show that it wasn’t a one-off but rather a return to the norm for this group.

“I think we were at it from the get-go,” reflected young midfielder Harvey Elliott, who has been one of the Reds’ few consistent bright spots in the early part of the season. “It’s always nice to come away with the win and I think it’s a big improvement from last week.

“I think the boys showed great fight and desire to turn things around and put on a show and put in a performance we know we can week in and week out, so I’m proud of the boys and thankful for the fans for backing us. I’m just very thankful we came away with the win.”

However, it will be some time before Liverpool get to play again, with their upcoming match against Chelsea postponed due to the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II being held in London this weekend meaning that sufficient policing would not be available for the match.

With their game this past weekend against Wolves also postponed, it means the three matches already played are it for September—giving a side dealing with injuries and form struggles some potentially useful time off but risking fixture overload down the road.

“I think it’s time to rest and recover,” Elliott noted. “It’s a busy period that we’ve had and although we wanted to play we can use these days coming up as a recovery day and to make sure that we are ready to go after the internationals and turn it around.

“We had a little period of the season we didn’t really want to happen and a little dip in form, but now we’re all ready to go and hopefully we can use this international break and use these next couple of days coming up to make sure we are ready to go and firing.”