Arne Slot has refused to be drawn on speculation linking Harvey Elliott with a move away from Liverpool but admitted the midfielder has made his frustrations known at a lack of game-time this season.

Elliott is yet to start a Premier League game this term and was left on the bench on Tuesday night as the Reds were held to a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest. The England Under-21 international has started just two games this term, against Southampton in the Carabao Cup last month and the recent 4-0 victory over Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup.

The former Fulham teenager has featured for just 43 Premier League minutes so far this term, with a foot fracture in September leading to a near three-month spell on the sidelines between early September and late November.

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Elliott was linked speculatively with a move away from Anfield earlier this month, with Brighton & Hove Albion and Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund both credited with an interest and while Slot did not shed any further light on those reports, the Reds' head coach suggested it "would be weird" if the 21-year-old was entirely happy with his current standing in the squad.

"The last thing you asked (Elliott's game-time) is completely sure," Slot said. "It would be weird if he would come to me and say: 'I'm so happy with the playing time I have at the moment'. But the first thing you ask me (transfer speculation) is the same answer every single time.

"We don't talk about rumours where people talk about players who are in contract talks or if we are linked with players or our players are linked with other clubs. That he wants to play more he should because if he was happy with his current situation that would be the wrong thing.

"But every single day he is working as hard as he can. But like Federico [Chiesa] - because many people ask about him, who is in competition with Mo Salah - Harvey is in competition with four or five very good midfielders, you may agree with me or not.

“And I like the way we played in the last 20-25 minutes at Forest so that for me is not a reason to change. If you want to bring that moment back, we played quite well in the first hour but we didn't create a lot then I made a substitution.

"I put Ryan Gravenberch as a centre-back and took Ibou (Ibrahima Konate) out because I wanted to create more chances. But if we then at a certain moment create a lot of chances I don't see it as necessary to make another change because we were all waiting for us to score a goal.”

Elliott is expected to be part of the squad that travels to face Brentford on Saturday afternoon.