Ally McCoist praises ‘brilliant’ Harvey Elliott as Liverpool exit FA Cup

By Milo Clay

Ally McCoist was left amazed by Liverpool youngster Harvey Elliott despite their FA Cup exit at the hands of Brighton today. 

Jurgen Klopp’s men got off to a decent start on the south coast as they created plenty of openings. Elliott was a real bright spark throughout the opening 45 minutes for the Reds and gave Mohamed Salah a brilliant opportunity to open the scoring. 

The 19-year-old played a perfectly-weighted ball through to Salah in the 24th minute, but the Egyptian winger dragged his effort wide of the post. 

And McCoist waxed lyrical about Elliott’s pass on ITV 1 (29/01/23, 13:54), while also praising the youngster for his first-touch. 

McCoist left amazed by Elliott 

Elliott went on to open the scoring himself as he finished brilliantly in the bottom corner after being played through by Salah. But it was his playmaking just a few minutes beforehand that impressed McCoist. 

“I fancied him [Salah] all day. What a pass this is from Elliott. Webster just gets caught on the wrong side, doesn’t he? This is the ball here, doesn’t see him going. Lamptey looks as though he’s just playing him onside,” he said. 

“But what a pass! The weight of the pass is perfect, the finish is poor by that man’s [Salah] standards. Timing of the run looks as though it was great, he just tries to side foot it in that far corner. Let off for Brighton.” 

Elliott had another chance during the first-half and McCoist described his first-touch as ‘brilliant’, but ultimately his second let him down.

Brighton managed to level the scoring through Lewis Dunk just five minutes before half-time. Tariq Lamptey’s long-range effort took a kind deflection off the Englishman which took the ball past Alisson Becker. 

Elliott continued to impress during the second-half but the £4 million midfielder was replaced by Jordan Henderson at the hour mark. 

The youngster was arguably Liverpool’s brightest player before he was replaced and was involved in all of their best moments. 

Klopp’s men were eventually undone by a moment of magic from Kaoru Mitoma. The Japanese forward produced an exceptional piece of skill before volleying the ball past the helpless Alisson.

Liverpool fans will be frustrated to see another opportunity for silverware slip away today, especially after they lifted the FA Cup last season.