Liverpool told to sign £58m Chelsea flop to exchange Mohamed Salah | Football

Emile Heskey has named three possible replacements for Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah, including Chelsea flop Christian Pulisic.

Salah, 33, is predicted to depart Anfield this summer following by far his least productive season for Liverpool.

The Egyptian superstar had scored 25 or more goals in all but one in every of his previous eight seasons on Merseyside, establishing himself as one in every of Liverpool’s biggest ever players.

But Salah is destined to fall way in need of that figure having scored just seven goals up to now this season.

Salah was heavily linked with a move ahead of the January transfer window after criticising each Liverpool and manager Arne Slot in an explosive interview.

Clubs in Saudi Arabia expressed interest in a deal but Liverpool decided to attempt to move on from the fall-out and kept Salah on the club.

A summer move feels inevitable, nevertheless, with Salah an increasingly less essential member of Slot’s squad, as highlighted by his substitution in Sunday’s late win over Nottingham Forest.

As Salah continues to be linked with an Anfield exit, former Liverpool striker Heskey has named three possible replacements for the most effective players of his era.

Heskey identified PSG’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia as his first-choice pick and West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen as one other who could fill the void left by Salah’s imminent departure.

Pulisic could all perform that role, in response to Heskey, as he would ‘love’ to prove his disappointing spell at Chelsea was ‘only a blip’.

Chelsea spent £58m to sign Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund in 2019 but sold the American for just £20m 4 years later.

Pulisic was a part of Chelsea’s Champions League-winning squad but largely underwhelmed at Stamford Bridge, scoring 26 goals in 145 appearances.

The 27-year-old has been tentatively linked with a return to the Premier League in recent weeks, nevertheless, having enjoyed a revival at AC Milan, netting 42 goals across the past three seasons.

‘We’re talking about replacing Mohamed Salah and I believe as fans you’ve got to take a look at something different because you’ll be able to’t replace Mo Salah,’ Heskey told OLBG.

‘I remember one season I used to be chatting with someone who said Mo’s had a nasty season. He’d scored 25 goals! I’d like to have had that bad of a season. We’re talking about someone scoring 20 plus, nearly 30 goals a season for 10 years.

‘I believe we’ve just got to take a look at something different and it won’t suit the manager anyway to have someone like Mo Salah. He might want to alter the formation.

‘I do know that he was talking a couple of 4-4-2 diamond midfield and never having high and wide wingers and that might need something different.

‘I don’t think you’ll be able to replace Mo Salah but I do just like the lad from PSG, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. He could be my go-to.

‘Would Jarrod Bowen be a downgrade from Mohamed Salah? I believe most players are a downgrade in comparison with Salah but to be honest with you Bowen is a special kind of player and he would probably help the formation because he’s going to work a little bit bit harder than Mo.

‘I’m not saying Mo doesn’t work hard but Bowen has a special work rate and work ethic because he’s coming from West Ham and before that the lower leagues. It’s totally different.

‘I actually quite like Christian Pulisic. He may be very direct. He probably didn’t get as many goals as I’d have liked him to get at Chelsea but I believed he gave defences problems.

‘Obviously after an excellent World Cup, being at home with the pressure on him, he is unquestionably someone who could offer something different to Mohamed Salah and even Cody Gakpo immediately.

‘Mo left Chelsea to go to Italy and take a look at what he’s done for Liverpool. I believe it’d be great to see someone like Pulisic come back into the Premier League in the identical way.

‘I’m guessing he would love to indicate that his time at Chelsea was just a little bit blip. He was only a young lad when he got here over.’

Liverpool won the Premier League by ten points last season but made a dismal title defence, slipping 16 points behind current leaders Arsenal.

Slot’s side would have been even further back had if not been for Alexis Mac Allister’s injury-time winner against Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

Liverpool, sitting sixth within the Premier League, will hope to spice up their top-four hopes after they face relegation-battlers West Ham next weekend.

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