Houllier hoping for Heskey hot streak

Gerard Houllier believes Emile Heskey could be set for a glut of goals to stop the “silly jokes” doing the rounds about him.

Heskey is “one of the good guys” according to the Frenchman and does not deserve such abuse – and his goal yesterday can have done him no harm.

The big striker with a big heart, who reportedly gave £100,000 (€143,000) to his former club Leicester’s financial fighting fund last season, grabbed his first goal of the term against the Foxes to ensure Liverpool’s first home win of the season.

The much-criticised Heskey also dug England out of a giant hole when he came on as substitute in Macedonia recently and helped England come from behind to win, finally winning some grudging praise from his detractors.

But the jokes have just kept coming, most recently one suggesting David Blaine doing nothing in a box for 44 days pales compared to Heskey doing nothing in the box for the last four years.

“Emile has had a lot of stick and a lot of silly jokes about him. We are working to support him,” Houllier said.

“When he starts scoring he keeps scoring. It is a matter of confidence for him. He has tremendous assets about his game which he does not use too often. He has power, speed, aerial ability. He can be devastating to defences.

“That goal should be the start of things, he is on the scoresheet now and that will give him plenty of confidence.

“But he plays with finesse when maybe I am looking for something else from him. But he is not a nasty person and you are not going to change that, but he needs to use his attributes more often than he does.”

Even after seeing his club’s benefactor put the points beyond his side following Michael Owen’s penalty, City boss Micky Adams had words of support for Heskey, who was only in the team because of the broken ankle suffered by Milan Baros last weekend.

He said: “I want Emile to succeed not just because of what he has done for Leicester, but for what he is as a player.

“He is always a handful. He put Gerry Taggart on his backside a few times and not many people do that.”

Leicester managed to unnerve Liverpool with a late rally, a strike from Marcus Bent and the sort of aerial bombardment the Anfield side do not always handle well.

Adams made no excuses for the policy and insisted: “We are what we are. It is difficult for a club of our stature to go to a big club and open up and try to compete.

“At places like Liverpool and Chelsea you must have a game plan, defend well at one end and take the scraps that come your way at the other.

“If the game had gone on a few more minutes we would have reverted to our strengths. It would not have been pretty, the ball would have been hammered into their box at every opportunity, I make no apologies for that, it is what we do well.”

What Liverpool are slowly beginning to do well is attack with mobility and style.

They dominated possession, with the midfield trio of El Hadji Diouf, Harry Kewell and Vladimir Smicer looking increasingly dangerous the more they play together.

It is a gamble when not in possession as Steven Gerrard is sometimes left manning the barricades single-handed as the other wandering midfield stars do not always make it back into defensive positions.

But the new style has put Liverpool back into the top six. Owen is scoring regularly, the club is coming out of its rocky start and Heskey is smiling again - and not at jokes at his expense.