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Forgotten Liverpool man Harvey Elliot has found himself in the firing line after a lack of pre-season left him overweight at Valencia.

The Liverpool midfielder joined the Spanish side on loan at the end of the window but has enjoyed limited minutes with his new side so far. That won’t come as much as a system shock give what happened at Aston Villa last year.

But it was a bit of a shock for Valencia, who discovered they had signed a player who hadn’t had a proper pre-season with Liverpool and was overweight.

Fitness issues causing worry

Indeed the 23-year-old currently epitomises a player who has the desire to impressive but not the physical capacity to deliver it.

That’s not happened because he’s out of shape. Which, in turn is the result of an unconventional pre-season in which he was shopped around more than he was brought up to speed.

The lack of fitness has been evident in the games he’s played so far. He was even left out of the picture entirely against Alavés because the match was deemed to be too intensive.

He’s a far cry from the Elliot who dazzled in the past and convinced Liverpool to sign him. The Elliott who received nothing but praise and opportunities from the likes of Jurgen Klopp.

This iteration is a player who arrived at Valencia well above his ‘optimal playing weight’ say Marca. Now he needs to use the international break just to get up to scratch. It’s almost a second pre-season for him.

Not worth his weight in gold

Liverpool's Harvey Elliott
Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott

Valencia was seen as the perfect place for a restart but at the moment his fitness is holding him back.

They’re less than happy as the player represents a significant financial outlay. Valencia are covering almost the entirety of his Premier League level salary.

Elliott is actually earning the third highest salary in the squad. That in itself is a significant cost given the perilous state of their finances. It’s a significant weight on those limited resources, one perhaps they couldn’t afford but went for anyway.

Now it is the player’s significant weight that they’re focused on, in the sense that it has to come down in the next three weeks so he can get his Valencia career on track.

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