Former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has sent a harsh message to Alexander Isak, telling him to “work harder”.
The Reds are in somewhat of a crisis at the moment, having lost four league games in a row. They were also knocked out of the Carabao Cup with a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace during the week, which has put Arne Slot under some pressure.
Liverpool have a chance to get back to winning ways this weekend with a game at Anfield against Aston Villa; however, if they lose, it could see them drop into the bottom half of the table for the first time under Slot.
Ahead of the game, former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has criticised Alexander Isak, who has struggled to hit the ground running at Anfield so far, suggesting he has to work harder to get results.
Heskey told 10bet Casino: “The thing for me is when you are not scoring goals, you need to still contribute to games. It looks like his fitness is not quite where it should be. It looks like he’s huffing and puffing a bit, so he just needs to get his fitness up a bit to put in the graft that is needed at the highest level. But the only way to get that match fitness back is in training, and obviously when thrown into games, work even harder.
“I saw Andy Robertson talking about them needing to work harder to get the best out of themselves. They’re great players. They’ve shown it time and time again. It’s there, they need to unlock it by working harder.”
Heskey tells Arne Slot to prioritise Ekitike over Isak
Slot has a selection headache at the moment, as Hugo Ekitike has been performing well since joining in the summer, however, it is so difficult not to start Isak in each and every game, due to how good we know he can be in the Premier League.
However, Heskey has said it should be easy for Slot to decide, and that he needs to begin to prioritise Ekitike until Isak begins to work things out.
“I said it before, but he [Ekitike] was going to be annoyed that he was sitting on the bench, because when he came I think he was the one who hit the ground running, who looked exciting. He’s scored goals, he’s created chances, he’s been a pest, and that’s what most forwards should be. Forwards should be a pest to their defenders, and he’s been that.