“Like a new signing.”
The dreaded football cliche predominantly reserved for players returning from injury, it is usually dusted off when a side haven’t been as active in the transfer market as they would perhaps like.
It has not been used as much at Anfield as you would expect in recent months, given the spate of injuries Liverpool have been inflicted with up against their own lack of transfer activity.
With FSG on particularly fragile ground as a result, especially as the Reds find themselves falling behind Man City in the title race, it is perhaps wise that Jurgen Klopp hasn’t uttered such a phrase in any Liverpool press conferences or interviews recently.
After all, it would only rile up the Reds fanbase and give the vocal minority another stick with which to beat the club’s owners with when it comes to their lack of spending.
And besides, there are only so many times you can declare the likes of Thiago Alcantara and Naby Keita as ‘like new signings’ before it wears particularly thin given their recurring injury lay-offs.
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But if ever there was a player Liverpool could justify using such a phrase for, it’s Harvey Elliott.
Returning to team training this week having been sidelined since September with a dislocated ankle, right in the midst of the January transfer window, he won’t be thrown back into Klopp’s starting XI just yet as the Reds continue to manage his return.
But his return will prove particularly timely as Liverpool push ahead in the second half of the season.
Still only 18, the teenager was making only his 13th Reds appearance when a challenge from Pascal Struijk halted his campaign in its tracks just four games into the season.
Given his age and lack of top-flight experience, it would be easy to dismiss Elliott’s role at Liverpool, with any attempt to dress him up as ‘like a new signing’ and emphasise such inflated importance to club merely out of desperation.
He had only made two Premier League appearances apiece for Fulham and the Reds prior to the current campaign after all, with last year’s loan to Blackburn Rovers, where he scored seven goals and recorded 11 assists from 41 Championship appearances, essentially his breakthrough season.
But the Premier League’s youngest ever player is no ordinary 18-year-old and had already shown in the formative weeks of the season how crucial he could be for Liverpool, having impressed watching Reds in the second tier last year and sown seeds as to how he could be unleashed in the top-flight following his return to Anfield.
With Klopp reinventing Liverpool’s attacking style, with the right-sided midfielder pushed further forward to combine with Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Elliott has thrived in such a role with ease both in pre-season and at the start of the campaign before being struck down by injury.
The fact that Jordan Henderson, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all took time to adjust to the new requirement in his absence highlights how such a position was modelled with him in mind.
Prior to pre-season, the teenager had never fulfilled such a role, instead featuring predominantly as a right-winger with occasional appearances on the opposing flank or behind a striker.
Yet still equally capable of filling the aforementioned positions courtesy to his time at Ewood Park and experience in youth football, he reiterates how big a miss he has been for the Reds in the past four months.
When struggling for midfield options after losing Thiago, Keita, Curtis Jones and James Milner to injury, prompting Tyler Morton to be promoted, he could have been a solution.
When Liverpool lacked attacking options to bring off the bench to turn a game, he could have been a match-winner.
And when Salah, Keita and Sadio Mane all departed for the Africa Cup of Nations at the start of the month, leaving the Reds further depleted, he could have been a natural replacement.
Instead, Klopp has been forced to field square pegs in round holes or turn, with calls for Kaide Gordon to be fast-tracked highlighting the short-term desperation.
The timing of Elliott’s return now is almost cruel, coming just too late to cover for the absence of Salah, Mane and Keita, with him no doubt ready to return just as the trio return and when the likes of Divock Origi, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Thiago are themselves back from injury.
But that still leaves Liverpool space to manoeuvre when it comes managing the youngster, and ensuring he can be as influential as possible when back available for selection.
You could see how happy Klopp was to have the youngster back, judging by the bear hug he was pictured giving him ahead of training, and judging by assistant manager Pep Lijnders’ assessment of the teenager following his return, Elliott is chomping at the bit to pick up where he left off back in September.
“He didn’t lose his football brain during the time he was off,” the Dutchman told reporters ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Arsenal. “Yesterday, it would be a crime not playing him if you see him train like that.
“Some players don’t knock on the door, they run through it. And Harvey is a player like that in each session.
“But he is coming back from a long-term injury so we need to take our time. The most important thing is he gets team fit and prepares himself well for the moment he is really ready.
“It’s great to have him back. You saw in pre-season and in the first games of our season how he influenced our game, our style and our right side.
“We’re really happy that he’s back with us on the pitch, not individually on the C-pitch in the back, but with us doing all the things we normally do.
“We like the players with goals in them. We like the players who don’t just have dribble or technique but always search for the last pass and he influences our game a lot.”
Elliott is a player who has always caused a lot of excitement around Anfield since joining from Fulham in a £4.3m in July 2019, that's what happens when you sign the Premier League's youngest ever player, even though he has essentially only been an established first team player for a few short weeks at the start of the current season.
His potential is there for all to see, and he demonstrated his clear ability in the Championship last year, with his career to date simply a lengthy warm-up for his eventual blooding, similar to how new signings would regularly learn their trade in the reserves in the days of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.
As such, Liverpool fans are yet to really get a true glimpse of just how good he can be and how he really fits into their side.
But more importantly, neither have the rest of the Premier League with Elliott very much Klopp’s secret weapon hidden in plain sight.
While the Premier League title might be drifting out of sight, the Reds still have aspirations for the Champions League, League Cup and FA Cup in the months ahead.
And with Elliott ‘running through the door’ to play his part and make up for lost time, Liverpool are on the verge of finally unleashing a ‘new signing’ that has been two and a half years in the making.
