Former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has revealed the most astute tactical manager that he played under during his professional career.
The ex-England international signed for Liverpool for a fee of around £11 million back in March of 2000, bringing an end to his six year stint with hometown club Leicester City FC.
Heskey would go on to play a pivotal role in his first season at the club, scoring 22 goals in all competitions whilst becoming a member of the 2000-01 treble winning squad.
He made a total of 223 appearances for Liverpool during his four years at the club, hitting the back of the net on 60 occasions before he made the move to Birmingham City for a fee of around £6.25 million at the conclusion of the 2003-04 Premier League season.
Speaking in a Reddit forum, Heskey didn’t hesitate to name Gerard Houllier as the best ‘tactical’ manager that he worked with throughout the course of his career.
“Gerard Houllier. And that was the first time I really got into that sort of tactical nous, etc. I’d gone from Martin O’Neill, who was a fantastic man manager. You’d run through a brick wall for him, if he told you – go run through that brick wall. You look at him first. And then you’d go and do it. That sort of manager.
But then Houllier was really tactical, tactically on point. And we really went to the into detail. Sometimes we’d say too much detail, especially from coming from when you didn’t really have to, we had no detail, then go into all that detail is probably at times, but you go on a pitch, you know everything. So I’d probably say Houllier.”
Houllier managed Liverpool for six years between 1998 and 2004 having previously worked for Paris Saint Germain and as the coach of the France national team.
He led the Reds to that memorable treble in 2001, although his time on Merseyside eventually came to an end at the end of the 2003-04 season. Houllier eventually made a return to France as the manager of Lyon.
