Liverpool sold Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich for £65m in July during a big summer of change that saw £116m Florian Wirtz arrive from Bayer Leverkusen
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Emile Heskey has claimed Liverpool will have no regrets over selling Luis Diaz but admits patience is needed before Florian Wirtz fully settles on Merseyside.
Former Reds striker Heskey, who was a key part of the squad that lifted the UEFA Cup, League Cup and FA Cup in 2001, says the decision to offload Diaz to Bayern Munich in July for £65m made sense from a business perspective.
Heskey thinks the call to move Colombia international Diaz on in the summer has afforded Cody Gakpo an opportunity that he has yet to grasp in the Liverpool team this season after three successive defeats against Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea.
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“I think Gakpo needs to come into his own,” Heskey told Pundit Arena. “I think he’s got to show a little bit more, especially on that left wing. He needs to show a little bit more for me.
“I was hoping he could be the one that would be stepping into that void that Luis Diaz has left. I don’t think they regret selling Diaz though, business is business.
“No matter how much a team spends on a player, they’re still going to need a little period of bedding in and it might be longer for some than others. When you look at Luis Suarez, he hit the ground running.
“But not every player’s like that. Wirtz is needing that bedding in [period], especially with the price tag because that will be in his head as well.
“I don’t think [Wirtz’s start] would have dented his confidence. Sometimes you’ve got to take someone out of the firing line. You’ve got to remember this and we talk about it all the time with this being the toughest league in the world and being the most relentless as well.
“So some players need to be taken out the firing line and taken out the firing line for their own good, because if you ask the player, they’ll say, ‘no, keep me playing’. And it might not be right for them.
“So sometimes you take them out the firing line, give them a little freshen up, and then put them back in and slowly bring them back into the team. When you look at the intensity that he has to play at in this Liverpool side, I doubt he would’ve had to play like that ever before.
“So he’s got to get used to that and then as well, when you’re talking about defensively, you’ve got to say some of the Premier League defences are the best in the world. So I think you’ve just got to give the players like Wirtz time.”
The Premier League champions return to action on October 19 when they entertain Manchester United at Anfield and Arne Slot enters the most-watched club fixture in football on his worst run as Liverpool boss, having lost three in a row before the international break.
Former England striker Heskey added: “Defensively, he wants to get things solid again. Konate and Van Dijk were solid last season but it just looks a little bit jaded.
“Obviously with the full-backs, Trent’s not there anymore, Frimpong and Kirkez are just bedding in. So Slot is trying to find that match that Robertson, Van Dijk, Konate and Trent had.
“They were solid and he’s got to try and find that again. It might not look exactly the same, but it’s got to have some sort of solidity to it.
“If you’re talking about out and out strikers, I’d rather have Isak starting than Ekitike because I’ve seen him do it before. Don’t get me wrong, I think Ekitike has done fantastic and he’s got so much to give.
“I’d be interested to see if it could be done with two of them up front or one of them on the left drifting in with Kerkez coming and overlapping a little bit more.”