Heskey gives verdict on what needs to happen next for Salah at Liverpool after Slot drop | OneFootball

Former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has given his verdict on what needs to happen next to Mohamed Salah, after Arne Slot’s Premier League champions returned to winning ways without their long-time talisman at West Ham on Sunday.

Salah has come under fire for his role in a disastrous run of form that pushed Liverpool manager Slot to the brink of a humiliating sacking a few months after he guided the Reds to Premier League title glory.

Slot finally bowed to pressure to drop the Egyptian from his line-up against the Hammers, with Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz producing impressive performances in the 2-0 win at West Ham.

With Salah set to miss a few weeks as he prepares to join the Egypt team competing in the African Cup of Nations, this may be a moment for Liverpool to start preparing for the post-Salah era.

Yet Heskey insists this is not the moment to write off a player who has been Liverpool’s talisman since he arrived at the club in 2017.

“It’s easy to say Liverpool looked better without Salah in one match at West Ham, but we need to remember the magnitude of this player we are talking about here,” Heskey told Football365 with BetWright Casino.

“Salah has not been playing well, but you can’t say he won’t come back and make a difference later in the season. His record has been so good and you can’t just write a player like that off.

“What we do know is that Salah will be going away with Egypt soon to play in the African Cup of Nations, so Liverpool will have to do without him anyway.

“I don’t know if leaving him out on Sunday was a prelude to that from the manager and he needs to come up with a plan of how it will look without him. I don’t think it’s a case of taking Mo Salah out and everything changes.”

Heskey, who played 223 games for Liverpool between 1999 and 2004, went on to suggest Salah may need to consider changing how he looks to influence matches at the back end of his career, as he believes his lack of pace is now a concern.

“Things tend to slip away gradually when you reach the age he is at now,” stated Heskey, as he reflected on 33-year-old Salah.

“You get to a point where you realise things are not moving as well as they used to and then you need to change the way you do things and how you play.

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“We have seen the best doing this down the years. I look at someone like Alan Shearer and he scored as many goals at the back end of his career as he did when he was in his 20s. He figured out how to work with his own body and get the end results. It’s tough when you are heavily reliant on pace as you know that will fade a some point.”

Isak’s classy goal that gave Liverpool a lead at West Ham could have been a key moment for the Sweden striker who has struggled to find his best form since a £125m move from Newcastle last summer, with Heskey convinced there is more to come.

“It was a nice composed finish from Isak,” he added. “A lot of people slash at a chance like that when they have been on a bad run, but that was a nice pass into the goal.

“Isak has still got a long way to go. I don’t know whether it is just his fitness or if it’s understanding what is needed in that Liverpool team, because it has been a big change for him.

“He’s left a team that was more counter-attacking to join a Liverpool team that has a lot more of the ball.

“As a striker, you need to have more patience when you play in a team like this. You need to learn how to work in the little pockets of space that you will get and take your chances, so he is still working that out.”

Liverpool will look to build on their win at West Ham when they take on in-form Sunderland at Anfield on Wednesday night.