Michael Owen says he hasn’t seen £60k-a-week Liverpool man play this well for years

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Michael Owen says he hasn’t seen James Milner like this for years. The Liverpool midfielder is out of contract next year.

Michael Owen believes James Milner is playing his best football for years this season, despite Liverpool’s struggles. The former Red used Milner as an example of the team not actually coming to the ‘end of a cycle’.

“All these people saying ‘this is the end of a cycle’. I’m not having that at all,” Owen told BT Sport. “I mean, what players are at the end of their cycle?

“[James] Miler is playing as good as he has for years at the moment. [Jordan] Henderson’s getting on, okay, but playing very well himself.

“The rest of them, the ageing players, the likes of [Virgil] van Dijk and Fabinho, they’re still brilliant. [Mohamed] Salah. They’ll still be brilliant for another few years. So I don’t think this is the end of the cycle at all.”

Michael Owen hasn’t seen James Milner play like this for years

We’d go along with that. Milner has had some find performances this season, despite it being nearly 20 years since his Premier League debut. His longevity is unbelievable.

Milner’s display at right-back against Manchester City was perhaps the highlight. He stepped in for Trent Alexander-Arnold and consistently kept Phil Foden quiet. Doing that out of position at 36 is unheard of.

But there have been solid midfield performances, too. Milner was pretty great against Napoli last night before leaving the pitch, for instance, who are arguably the best side in Europe right now.

Liverpool’s reliance on him is the only scary part. Milner really can’t do this for much longer and there’s a reason he only signs one-year contracts at this point, having signed one for £60k-a-week in the summer, per Capology. He’s supposed to be playing a bit-part role, with Milner assessing the likelihood of his career continuing at the end of each season.

Well, at this rate, he’s getting yet another one-year deal. Whether Owen is right or wrong about it being the ‘end of a cycle’ at Liverpool, he’s definitely right about this not being the end of Milner’s.