Exclusive interview: Emile Heskey on Liverpool FC’s Mo Salah and Arsenal’s Declan Rice

We spoke exclusively to former England and Liverpool FC forward Emile Heskey to get his thoughts on how the Premier League season is shaping up.

Emile chatted to us about his old club Liverpool FC and how Mohamed Salah continues to star for the Merseysiders despite his advancing years.

The ex-Leicester City and Aston Villa striker – who won 62 England caps – also offered his thoughts on how Arsenal’s season could pan out. Read on for the full exclusive interview.

Emile Heskey spoke exclusively to The Sport Review this week (Photo: The Sport Review)

Mohamed Salah scored his 200th and 201st career league goals for Liverpool FC at the weekend. How important do you think he still is to Liverpool FC and what do you most admire about him as a player?

He’s just as important as ever. When you’re looking at focal points and good passages of play, they all tend to go through Mo Salah. I don’t think there’s a better outlet than Mo Salah, especially when you’re under the cosh and all you want is to create something on a quick break. [It] is fascinating at the age that he is – I think it was Arsene Wenger’s thing that you kind of limit their minutes at a certain age – [but] you kind of want him [Salah] to keep playing as many minutes as possible.

He’s done fantastic, and to hit the targets that he has with 200 league goals, you’re talking about a winger doing phenomenal feats. I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place with that because I’m a forward and we’re kind of going obsolete because of the wingers. Wingers are getting all the goals and creating a lot of chances. I wouldn’t say the forwards are obsolete but they’re not as much of a focal point now because of the rise of this type of winger.

Mohamed Salah and Jurgen Klopp (Photo: Marco Iacobucci / depositphotos.com)

Alexis Mac Allister has started all of Liverpool’s league games so far. What have you made of his impact?

I think he’s done fantastic. He was someone that was needed, when you look at the midfield. This is where Liverpool FC and Jurgen [Klopp] are fantastic. They look at the ages and the players they have and when they need to replace them with younger and more athletic [players]. You’ve got him [Mac Allister] in there who’s got a fantastic eye for a pass.

There’s nothing worse than midfielders that keep going backwards and sideways because you [can] give teams opportunities and not really challenge them. But when you’ve got a player like that who can actually break lines and who can find players in between, you can break forward [and] it’s phenomenal how quickly and how many goals you can create from it.

Alexis Mac Allister (Photo: Mark Cosgrove / News Images / depositphotos.com)

It was a bit of a disappointing season for Liverpool FC last year, how do you see this season shaping up? Will they be in and amongst it for the title?

Yeah, I think so. They’ve just got to be relentless and ruthless [because] you know City are going to be ruthless. Arsenal are there or thereabouts, so they [Liverpool] have got to be relentless. I can see [that] it’s got to be another near-perfect 100 points, ninety-something points because City are relentless. They might lose a game here or there, but they won’t be drawing too many. They’ll be winning a lot of games and they’ll be winning them with a lot of goals as well.

So I think Liverpool definitely have an opportunity but they’ve got to be relentless like they were in the season where they pushed them and lost out by point point. They’ve got to be relentless like that.

Jurgen Klopp (Photo: Vitalii Kliuiev / depositphotos.com)

One of the talking points at Arsenal is Mikel Arteta’s decision to play David Raya ahead of Aaron Ramsdale this season. Raya has looked a little bit shaky in recent games. Do you think Arteta needs to say something publicly about who his number one is and how do you think he should manage the situation?

It’s a tough one to manage to be honest with you, because we have a public perspective and a private one. We don’t know what he’s actually saying in private, but in public you want to know who is the number one. As a fan, you want to know who the number one is. If he’s going to make mistakes, when is the next one’s opportunity? As a fan sitting there, you just want to know.

This is one of the things managers have to manage as well. The manager will be managing the changing rooms and the players, then he’ll be managing up to the CEOs and directors. But then he’s got to manage the fans as well. They have an expectation and want to know too. A manager’s job is very tough because there are so many stakeholders that you need to keep in the loop. Do I think he’s done that well enough? Probably not, because there’s a lot of gray areas when it comes to the goalkeepers [at Arsenal]. But he has his way of doing it.

Mikel Arteta (Photo: Mark Cosgrove / News Images / depositphotos.com)

Do you think Ramsdale is likely to make his way back into the team after Raya’s recent games?

As a player, you will always get your opportunity. It will either be in a cup game or when another player is not having the greatest of times. You have to be ready to take that opportunity. I believe he [Ramsdale] is, because I’ve watched him for a few years now and I thought that his distribution especially is fantastic. Having time sat out, not knowing whether you are number one but then being told you’re joint number one – can you still keep focused and stay ready to play when called upon?

Aaron Ramsdale (Photo: Vitalii Kliuiev / depositphotos.com)

One player who’s made a big impact at Arsenal this season is Declan Rice. What have you made of his start?

It’s exactly what I expected to be honest with you. He’s a fantastic player [and] he’s an ambassador for football. He lets his football do the talking. He doesn’t need to be ranting and raving about anything, he just lets his football do the talking. He’s quite simple in everything that he does, but he’s effective in everything that he does.

He probably reminds me a bit of James Milner back in the day, he’s probably [an] eight to nine of of 10 every week – and that’s the consistency and the level that you need to be playing with at Arsenal, because you can’t afford to drop. And they can’t afford to drop points either because City won’t be.

Declan Rice (Photo: Marco Canoniero / depositphotos.com)

What you make of Arsenal so far? Do you think they’ll be in and amongst it this season as well?

Yeah, I think they will. They’ve probably got a little bit more experience this time around, but that will still be building. I still think they’ll be there or thereabouts. Them and Liverpool are probably the ones that will challenge city. And to be fair you can’t knock what Spurs are doing, Ange [Postecoglou] has done a fantastic job so far.

• Emile Heskey was speaking to The Sport Review on behalf of luckyblock.com