Emile Heskey identifies same problem Jurgen Klopp needs to address again and explains why Mo Salah will leave Liverpool

In the first part of a Ladbrokes Fanzone exclusive, Emile Heskey spoke to us about Mo Salah’s next move, Liverpool’s defensive problems and his spell at Anfield.

Mo Salah will leave Liverpool for Saudi Arabia

Mo Salah has been heavily linked to a Muslim country, not just to be a player, but to be a figurehead and ambassador in the long term. So, I think there is a possibility he will leave Liverpool. It is great that they managed to keep him because again, he is integral to everything they do on the pitch. Just look what he has achieved and what he has done.

Klopp problem has come back around again

I think Liverpool are at an eight out of ten so far this season. They are still in the hunt and that is the main thing. Winning is integral to everything they do. They are there or thereabouts. Yes, you can nitpick sometimes but the fact they are still in the race is the most important thing.

Defensively Liverpool still need a couple of new signings. I think Alex Mac Allister has settled in really well, although I don’t think he is playing in his preferred position. When you come into a club, you play where the manager sees you fitting in and he has done that well. When Jurgen Klopp joined Liverpool, strengthening defensively was one of his main focuses and he achieved that, but it’s come back around again, and he needs to renew that.

I’m enjoying seeing Tottenham in title race

Man City are such a juggernaut and you really can’t look past them. They are so relentless with everything they do. Everyone else has to go after them and push them. It is great to see three or four teams in the hunt though as opposed to them just running away with it. I am enjoying seeing Tottenham up there too. I don’t want to see the same teams all the time, so that is great.

I was Liverpool’s record signing…did I feel pressure?

Liverpool as a footballing city is passionate, lovin, and mad! When I say mad, I mean just mad for football. They really get behind you too. Look at Darwin Nunez now…he works his socks off and they love that. They forgive the other bits.

I went to Liverpool as a record-signing but I felt no pressure whatsoever. It was weird. Everyone kept telling me that I moved for £11 million but the reality for me was that I moved because it was football. I has been at Leicester since the age of nine, born and raised there, and then came through the ranks to join the first team. I had a wonderful time there; you just have to look at what we achieved. In the five years when Martin O’Neill was in charge, we went to Wembley four times – three cup finals and a play-off final. So it kind of became the norm to go to cup finals and I just wanted to push myself.

I was in the national team at the time, and I wanted to show what I could do. When you are linked with a club like Liverpool, a club that’s synonymous with winning trophies, you want to take the opportunity and the leap. I did it, but without feeling the pressure. I was just like, “OK, let me just play football”.

The toughest part was moving to Liverpool; the football was easy. I had never really left home, and I was living around the corner from my parents, so the reality was I had never left them before either. I know it was just two hours down the road, but I could have been on the other side of the world. That’s how it felt. It felt different to me, and I struggled with that. I had two kids at the time, so that was a help.

On a professional level, Gerard Houllier really put an arm around me when I arrived. He was brilliant. Player liaison Norman Gard was fantastic to me too. He really helped me settle down and get used to being in Liverpool. They had everything in place to help anyone who came to the club.

I think my relationship with Houllier was like one you would have with a teacher. And actually, he was a school teacher! He had this calming nature with you in the way that he spoke to you. He was brilliant. Remember, I had come from being under Martin O’Neill who was unbelievable. It’s hard to put O’Neill into words, but he was unbelievable in the sense that you would run through a brick wall for him. You just wanted to do your very best for him. He would give us very simple information, not too much. His view was, “you know what you’re good at, so go and do it”. I certainly wouldn’t describe him as a calm person and he is definitely someone you don’t want to be on the wrong side of. When you are on his good side, he is unbelievable.

However, Houllier was very different. We learnt so much about football, the game, and you as a person. He would sit down with you and start going through every detail. It was fascinating. Weird at first, but after a while, you would go on that pitch and there was nothing you didn’t know.

My best year in football

2001 was my year, winning the League Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Cup, Charity Shield and the UEFA Super Cup and then scoring in that win against Germany.

Again, I had moved from Leicester who had gone to the League Cup final in ’97, ’99, and 2000, so that kind of felt like the norm for me. When I moved to Liverpool, I was like, “what are we going to do now?”. It is a weird one. I go back to my Leicester days and you win a League Cup and you celebrate it, whereas at Liverpool we never really celebrated it. It was more of a case of “ticked that box, now what’s the next high?”, and it just kept going like that. Because of the magnitude of the club, those wins were expected. It’s only when you retire that you look back and realise the achievements. I now think to myself, “Did I really do all that in one year?”.

Proudest moment and biggest Liverpool regret

My proudest moment in a Liverpool shirt was actually putting it on and making my debut, closely followed by scoring against Everton. I am referring to that 3-2 result in 2001. Just before I moved to Liverpool, I played against them with Leicester. It was a good game, nothing special though. Just a game of football. But then you go and play them in a derby, and it is not just a game of football. They were possessed. It is something totally different. For my first Merseyside derby, I went into the game naïve. It didn’t take long to understand what it meant, and you would just feed off the crowd and your local players. The local rivalry was ferocious and the bragging rights were everything. We never lost!

The only regret I have is actually leaving Liverpool. They went on to win the European Cup that year. I still had a year’s contract so I could have stayed. That one was hard.

Winning the UEFA Cup was mad. It was a crazy journey. I played away in all these different places that I had never been to. I was lucky enough to play away for Leicester against Atletico Madrid, but that was just one round. To keep going and playing so many games at Liverpool was just a phenomenal journey. Obviously, I played international football and there was travel every month or so, but this was consistent.

I have never been intimidated by a player but I played against Walter Samuel at Roma and I remember thinking how strong he was. He was probably the only player where I thought, now I am in for it, this will be a tough battle. But I relished those battles.

I am very chilled, but playing against Brazilian Ronaldo was pretty cool. The only person I would actually be starstruck by is Romario. He is my favourite player of all time.