Emile Heskey believes Mohamed Salah must adapt his game to remain influential, despite the team’s recent win without him under manager Arne Slot.
Former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has offered his assessment of Mohamed Salah’s future at the club after manager Arne Slot finally “bowed to pressure to drop the Egyptian” from the line-up in their 2-0 win against West Ham on Sunday.
The benching came as Salah “has come under fire for his role in a disastrous run of form” since Slot guided the Reds to Premier League title glory.
According to a report from Football365, Heskey cautioned against prematurely writing off the forward, despite the victory seeing Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz impress in his absence.
The 33-year-old Salah is also set to miss matches as he prepares to join the Egypt team for the African Cup of Nations.
Heskey, who played 223 games for Liverpool between 1999 and 2004, insisted the conversation must remain measured, saying:
“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.”
He added: “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.”
The ex-striker did suggest that Salah needs to consider changing his approach, as he believes the Egyptian’s “lack of pace is now a concern.”
Heskey compared this necessary evolution to the career of Alan Shearer, explaining:
“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.”