Jurgen Klopp says James Milner did ‘outstandingly well’ against Phil Foden as Liverpool beat Manchester City 1-0 at Anfield. The veteran midfielder faced some critical opinions.
No Joel Matip, no Trent Alexander-Arnold, no Ibrahima Konaté. Liverpool were up against it as Manchester City came to Anfield, needing to hold back the best attack on the planet without three key defenders.
In fact, Jurgen Klopp had to play James Milner at right-back. The 36-year-old midfielder would be defending Phil Foden – a player who ran him ragged in this fixture before. It wasn’t exactly ideal and plenty of people expected Milner to have a torrid time.
And yet, Liverpool kept a clean-sheet as they shut City down. After the game, Klopp was full of praise for Milner, who exceeded expectations.
“James Milner – come on, how many people thought ‘oh no Milner v Foden’?” Klopp told the BBC. “But he did outstandingly well, we had to find a few solutions but they all did incredibly well.
“You cannot get by with nine good [individual] performances against City.”
James Milner against Phil Foden
Foden did have the ball in the back of the net at one stage, of course, only for a VAR decision to rule it out correctly. But other than that, the young English playmaker wasn’t too threatening.
Did he have his moments? Of course. Foden is a great player and he was up against a 36-year-old playing out of position. But the fact that Milner kept him pretty quiet is a fantastic feat.
The player deserves all the praise coming his way, then. Shay Given actually went as far as calling him ‘brilliant’ after the game, feeling he kept Foden ‘in his pocket’ for 90 minutes.
All we can say for sure if that, yet again, Milner stepped up and delivered for Liverpool. He’s done it time and time again and there are remarkably few players who can reach this stage of their career and put in a display like this. Out of position, against the best attacking team in the world, against an in-form player, with your team struggling for form.
Milner is something special.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
