Neil Taylor has lost his Premier League place in Dean Smith’s Aston Villa side – and his EFL Cup performance against Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott won’t help him.
In Neil Taylor’s defence, Harvey Elliott is no ordinary 16-year-old.
The Aston Villa veteran is not the first nor the last poor left-back to be given the runaround by one of the most exciting teenagers to emerge in English football since the turn of the millennium.
Still, being ran ragged by a teenager who was born a matter of weeks before Liverpool signed Harry Kewell in the summer of 2003 isn’t a good look for an experienced defender with 43 international caps on his CV.
Taylor was handed a rather rare start for Aston Villa on Tuesday night as Dean Smith’s side played host to a Liverpool side with an average age of just 19 in the EFL Cup quarter-final. The eventual 5-0 scoreline, however, felt like something of a hollow victory for a Villa side who were nowhere near as dominant as the result suggests against a team full of teenage debutants.
And Taylor’s performance against the magisterial Elliott, a constant threat on the right-hand side with his skill and vision, has done little for the Welshman’s chances of ousting summer signing Matt Targett and reclaiming his place in the Villa starting XI.
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