Harvey Elliott credits influence of Liverpool leaders after scoring twice to send England U21s to Euros final | OneFootball

Harvey Elliott says that he has taken lessons from the leaders at Liverpool into his role for the England under-21s.

The Liverpool midfielder scored twice in England’s 2-1 win against the Netherlands, booking their place in the final of the U21 Euros.

Elliott is also one of only two players who won the tournament under Lee Carsley in 2023.

Reflecting on the leadership role he has assumed this summer, he said: “It’s a different situation because coming from Liverpool, there’s a lot of leaders in that team.

“I think now it’s using my learning, using what I’ve seen the leaders at Liverpool do and how they construct the team. When times are tough, how they bring themselves back up and the team back up.

“There’s so many emotions throughout the game, highs, lows, where we feel tired. I think just using what I’ve learned and being around to try and keep the guys going, keep the team going.

“Even if I’m on the bench, I try my hardest to keep positive, keep the team going.”

The 22-year-old mentioned that he has learned from key figures at Liverpool, taking aspects of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk’s roles to influence him in the England dressing room.

“I think them guys in particular, if you look at so many moments throughout the season, where the likes of Mohamed Salah, for example, has had to score us goals, important goals, winning goals,” Elliott said.

“Towards the end of the season, Van Dijk came up and scored a header in the 90th minute. I think just small things like that, the leadership, to not give up, to keep going to the final whistle and take these opportunities, I think that’s just leadership within itself.

“You can speak as much as you want on the pitch, you can say whatever, but at the end of the day, when the moment comes and you need to show up and you need to, for example, in my situation, score a goal, it’s about how you take that. Those opportunities are where it’s vital.”

With four goals in the tournament so far, Elliott is second in the scoring charts behind Germany’s Nick Woltemade.

He has done a stellar job of showing that he is capable of performing when needed – a key question that has been asked of him previously.

However, Elliott believes that his experience both with Liverpool and the national team has helped him to elevate his performances in the big games.

“It’s a situation where I kind of know what it takes to be in the end stage of these tournaments,” he said. “I’ve experienced it before and I’ve seen players do it before where they’ve had to step up, especially when times are tough and our backs are kind of against the wall.

“It’s just about how you dig deep, how do you keep going and fight to the very end.

“To be able to contribute two goals and win the game, I’m proper made up, but it’s one of them where we have a final to think about now. We can’t get too carried away and we need to recover, rest and go again.”

England will now play Germany in the final on Saturday evening after they beat France 3-0 in their semi-final.