Fabio Carvalho is ´the perfect player´, claims Liverpool team-mate

Harvey Elliott knows all about Liverpool’s new “perfect player” Fabio Carvalho and expects the rest of the Premier League soon will, too.

Carvalho, like Elliott, came through Fulham’s academy, and the pair are separated by less than a year.

They never played together in Fulham’s first team, with Elliott leaving for Liverpool a year before Carvalho’s professional debut, but the Portugal Under-21 international has now followed his former youth team-mate to Anfield.

Both men face a battle to get into a Liverpool attack that was boosted on Friday by news of Mohamed Salah’s new contract, with Sadio Mane’s departure offset by the signing of Darwin Nunez.

However, Elliott started three of the Reds’ first four league games last season before dislocating his ankle, and he is confident Carvalho also has the quality to break into the team.

“He brings everything, in all fairness,” Elliott told Liverpool’s official website. “He has a great attitude, he has the flair, the skill, the determination, and he can score and assist as well.”

A key part of the Fulham team who won the Championship last season, Carvalho contributed 10 goals and eight assists – a goal involvement every 158 minutes – with his 139 shot involvements ranking 15th across the entire division.

Still just 19, he was the youngest player to score five goals, provide five assists, attempt 50 shots or create 50 chances.

“He’s the perfect player, in my eyes,” Elliott continued, “and to have him on board and to have him in the building and around us, he’ll only make us better players as well, and it will only make him a better player. 

“It’s been a long time, and to hopefully share the pitch with him again and to have that link-up, it’ll be great and I’m just looking forward to it. 

“Hopefully he can show everyone why we signed him.”

Carvalho’s Premier League debut could come in familiar surroundings, as Liverpool face Fulham on the opening day of the new season.