£60k-a-week Liverpool player is a shock name as the Premier League’s 6th most creative player

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James Milner is the 6th most creative player in the Premier League this season. The Liverpool veteran is having a brilliant season.

James Milner has been a Premier League player for 20 years now – and doesn’t appear to be slowing down all that much. The Liverpool midfielder had his 600th appearance in the competition against Southampton, with records in his sights.

But just how good has Milner, who Capology claims is on £60k-a-week this season, been? Well, looking at Opta Data on Fbref, the veteran player appears to be the sixth most creative in the league right now.

‘Shot Creating Actions’ is a way of measuring creativity. It counts as an action if you produced something that leads to a shot – but it can be the pass that leads to the assist. It could also be a shot that rebounds for someone else, or winning a direct free-kick.

Milner is averaging five such actions per 90 minutes this season. That’s the sixth-best in the Premier League, with Kevin De Bruyne, Willian, Jack Grealish, Said Benrahma and Phil Foden above him. The five names below him make for good reading, too: Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, Son Heung-Min, Bruno Fernandes and Bukayo Saka.

James Milner as a creative player

It’s a shame for Milner that few of these chances led to goals. Only two were converted, in contrast to the seven from Foden, who averages just 0.06 more created per 90.

Of course, Foden benefits from having an attack that finishes chances for fun. De Bruyne does, too, with a monstrous 17 goals from his actions.

And this is a problem Liverpool face. Trent Alexander-Arnold is another fine example of someone suffering from poor finishing. He has the second-worst difference between his ‘expected’ assists and actual assists. Usually, the right-back can count on outperforming what’s expected from the chances he creates as the Reds’ forwards take their chances so well.

That’s not happening this season, however. Perhaps the break after Christmas fixes that.