Soccer: Heskey - my season is down to Houllier

Emile Heskey will stride into the greatest day of his young soccer life admitting a massive debt to Gerard Houllier.

Liverpool’s leading scorer faces Arsenal in the FA Cup Final in Cardiff on Saturday claiming the Anfield chief has made him a better player.

And the 23-year-old will face the Millennium Stadium cauldron bursting with confidence after his first full season at Liverpool.

When Heskey arrived from Leicester last March for £11m, the accusation was that he did not score enough and was not up to the pressure.

Houllier has worked tirelessly on the big hitman to destroy those myths.

Now nobody doubts Heskey as one of the most lethal frontline strikers in the Premiership, with his pace, power and strength honed to a very high level.

He has hit 22 goals already this term, by far his best-ever haul, and claimed: ‘‘I have improved a lot since I’ve been here, and that’s a lot to do with the manager.

‘‘He frequently takes me aside to specific one-on-one coaching on certain aspects of my game, which has helped me a lot.

‘‘When a player is showing confidence everything works well. He shows skills, an array of passing, everything.

‘‘And much of that new confidence has come from the boss, he keeps saying I don’t realise my own strength and ability, and he’s worked hard to make me believe in myself.

‘‘He’s put a lot of confidence in me. I’m scoring more this season purely because of the confidence that has been instilled into me by the boss’s faith.

‘‘I’ve scored in all but one round of the cup and I aim to keep that going in the final.’’

Heskey has been left out far less often than either Michael Owen or Robbie Fowler, completing his 53th game in the Merseysiders’ 60th of the campaign against Chelsea on Tuesday.

He added: ‘‘There’s not really any race between the strikers to finish top scorer, but when you have three or four forwards who can score goals it creates a healthy competition and keeps everyone on their toes which can only be good for the club.’’

These days it is invariably down to who plays alongside Heskey, rather than a choice of two from three, and it would be a major shock if Houllier decided to go with his two smaller front men against the size and power of Martin Keown and Tony Adams.

Heskey’s strength and ability to win and control the high, long balls from defence have become the key to much of Liverpool’s attacking play this season, which has brought them 116 goals already this term.

But you will not get Heskey daring to chose between his England colleagues for his ideal partner.

He said: ‘‘You must be joking! Robbie and Michael are both brilliant players, if you asked me who I prefer to play alongside, I will always say both!

‘‘They are both great goalscorers and it’s a pleasure to play alongside either of them.’’

Now Heskey and his colleagues face three more cup finals this season after those 60 games already completed.

They had hoped to clinch a Champions League spot against Chelsea earlier this week to make the cup final double with Arsenal and Alaves in next Wednesday’s UEFA Cup Final in Dortmund more relaxed affairs.

But because of the 2-2 draw with Chelsea, Liverpool cannot claim third spot in the Premiership until the last Saturday of the season, when they will either be elated or downcast after their cup final double.

Heskey accepts the way the cards have fallen, and is just as determined to finish a fine season in dramatic fashion over eight days.

He said: ‘‘I want to win two more medals and to reach the Champions League. We all know this is the key moment, we all know what we must do to win the finals and to finish third, nobody has to tell us now.’’