Former Liverpool star Emile Heskey has backed Arne Slot’s decision to drop Mohamed Salah against Eintracht Frankfurt.

After a promsing start to the new season, Liverpool have had quite a fall in recent weeks. They lost four back-to-back games across competitions and slipped down to 3rd in the Premier League. However, the Reds have finally bounced back with a smashing 5-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.

Following four straight defeats, Emile Heskey urged the Merseyside club to bench Mohamed Salah, who hasn’t been in the best of form. Slot did exactly what the former Liverpool star wanted, and they did get the desired result last time out in the Champions League.

Heskey on benching Salah

During an exclusive interview with TEAMtalk, Heskey said: “Mo Salah’s not doing great, so he is the one who would be sacrificed. Because when you’re playing Mo, he likes to play high and wide, but if you’re playing two up front, that one can’t stay out there, so he needs to really tuck in.

“Mo can’t tuck in. So I think he might be the one [Slot drops] if you’re going to play the two up front, and I think it’ll be interesting to look at the two up front.

“I think we haven’t seen partnerships for a long time, since probably the 2010s, probably 10 or 15 years ago – proper strikers playing together.

“I think that would look really, really good for Liverpool and interesting.

“It would pose a different solution and a different challenge for opposition defenders, because they’re so used to not marking two strikers now and only having one to deal them.

“If they have two forwards against them, the runs that they make are going to be interesting, because then the defenders will actually have to defend properly.”

Salah hasn’t looked back since joining the Merseyside club in the summer of 2017. He has been one of their mainstays over the years and has played a big part in all the success they have had. While he had an impressive 2024/25 campaign, the Egypt international hasn’t started the new season in the best of form.

He seems to be a shadow of his former self, and with the club struggling, Heskey wanted Slot to take the bold call of dropping him in favour of Hugo Ekitike. He was keen on seeing the French striker pair up with Alexander Isak in the final third.

Ekitike steals the spotlight in Salah’s absence

While Isak is yet to hit top gear, Ekitike certainly made the most out of the opportunity with a goal. Overall, he has six goals and an assist in his 12 outings, which is an impressive return given it is his debut campaign in England.

Despite Salah being on the bench, the Reds secured a thumping 5-1 win over Frankfurt, and Heskey believes Slot was on point with his decision not to start the Egyptian international. The Dutch manager made a tactical change to start with two number nines.

Given how attacking in nature Salah is and the fact that he hardly contributes to the defensive side of things, his absence might have actually helped them dominate the proceedings against Frankfurt. Going forward, it will be interesting to see if Slot continues to have the 33-year-old on the bench or not.