Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has admitted Harvey Elliott's displays have fallen short of what is required to secure a place in his starting XI. The Liverpool loanee has been left on the bench for each of Villa's last three matches, including Thursday night's shock Europa League loss to Dutch minnows Go Ahead Eagles.

Elliott has featured just five times during a loan spell that will become permanent once he reaches double figures in appearances. However, only two of those appearances so far have been starts, with one seeing him hauled off at half-time. Emery explained: "I am being very, very demanding myself to choose in each match the player to start and the players on the bench and the subs players, and firstly is always trying to get the best performance collectively, through individual players.

"Harvey is a 10 number in our structure, in our shape, and he plays some matches and there is still adaptation to add himself individually in our structure, the task we have. Of course, he is training well, and his commitment is being very well...