Jürgen Klopp 'regret' can point Arne Slot to one Liverpool change he should make

Jürgen Klopp has been in an honest mood in recent weeks. With nothing on the line and the Liverpool manager set to depart when the final two matches of the campaign are out of the way, the German has been speaking his mind.

First, Klopp didn't hold back when discussing the early kick-off argument that he has long made to the Premier League. That was ahead of Spurs. Now, before facing Aston Villa, he has opened up on his biggest 'regret' of the season.

"It’s not that I go back and think ‘OK, what did we all do wrong?’," Klopp outlined on Friday. "But if I regret one thing a little bit it’s that Harvey [Elliott] didn’t play often enough maybe.

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"Because in a very important, intense period — January, a lot of injuries — he played really good. He was probably our best player, right wing, right midfield, all these kinds of things.

"Everybody came back and he had minutes here, minutes there and he didn’t start anymore, came on, big impact. But it’s really nice that he could show that [against Tottenham]."

If Klopp had his time again, perhaps Elliott would have featured more, though he has been very effective as a super-sub on numerous occasions. You can't have him both starting and also doing that job every week — you only get the benefit of one or the other — but it would be fair to say that Dominik Szoboszlai has looked jaded for a while now. Elliott could have perhaps helped save his legs.

Next season, however, Elliott has proven himself more than capable of stepping up again and playing even more. Arne Slot will be his own man, clearly, but the Dutchman has already admitted that he will give the German a call for some advice before starting. One of Klopp's tidbits might just be to use Elliott a bit more.

With just nine Premier League starts this season so far, there is definitely scope for Elliott's role to increase next season. The form that he is in at the moment should not go unnoticed and it needs to be in the center of the pitch that he is deployed rather than from the right, where is lack of explosive speed is exposed.

To see the best from Elliott (and Szoboszlai and a few others, in fact), Slot will need to play with number eights in his midfield rather than a 4-2-3-1, but in the right system, the Liverpool number 19 is ready to kick on a gear. Klopp might think he has made an error by not utilizing him even more, but Elliott will only get even better under Slot.

If you had to bet on one Liverpool player's role increasing substantially next season, it would be him. Slot has been picked partly for continuity so there won't be massive changes — but Elliott's position in the squad could easily be much larger.