Even amid the bitter disappointment of a last-gasp FA Cup defeat to Manchester United, Harvey Elliott was able to see one potential positive for Liverpool – in turn shedding a light on how intense the pursuit of multiple trophies has been for the Reds.
The quest for a possible quadruple ended at Old Trafford on Sunday but there are still two more trophies on offer to add to the Carabao Cup that’s already been claimed.
Speaking after yesterday’s match, which was settled after extra time, the 20-year-old candidly admitted that going out of the domestic cup will leave him and his teammates fresher for the run-in to the season.
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Elliott said (via The Mirror): “Now we can focus on other things; it frees up a few weeks for us. Not as many games any more so the lads can be fresh and we can recover properly and focus on the rest of the season.”
He added: “Our confidence is always there; it isn’t going to affect us at all. We’re going to be annoyed that we didn’t win but we’re going away with internationals now, so we can forget about it and come back after the break fresh again ready to crack down and fight for the rest of the season.
“Confidence-wise it’s not going to do anything to us because we had the game in our hands, had many chances but just didn’t put them away. It’s always going to be there and we just need to keep going as a team.”
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Liverpool have just played nine matches across four competitions in the space of just 30 days, so it’s inevitable that those endeavours would take a toll on the players’ fitness – even Jurgen Klopp admitted that he wanted to substitute some of his starters yesterday given the workload they’ve had of late.
In the eight games the Reds have had in the past month (two of which went to extra time), Elliott has played for 637 of the maximum possible total of 780 minutes (not including stoppage time), which illustrates how intense the fixture list has been.
When we played every single match possible in chasing down a quadruple two years ago, the players understandably looked leggy towards the final two or three weeks of the season as the tank ultimately emptied.
We’d have only had two extra games from now until the end of May had we reached the FA Cup final, but nonetheless it ensures that even if we go all the way in the Europa League, we’ll have one free midweek before the conclusion of the campaign.
Of course Elliott and his teammates will have been gutted to lose yesterday, especially right at the death against United, but his comments show just how gruelling it is to be pursuing four trophies at once.
We dust ourselves down and go again from Brighton on Easter Sunday onwards!