‘I liked him a lot’… James Milner says manager who Liverpool sacked was actually ‘great’

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James Milner has declared his disappointment at having only worked briefly with Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool.

Rodgers was the manager who took Milner to Anfield, having seen him walk out of Manchester City on a free contract in 2015.

It was the beginning of a glorious Liverpool career for the veteran, who made over 300 appearances before leaving last year. But just months after his arrival, Rodgers was out the door, replaced by Jurgen Klopp. The rest is obviously history as Liverpool, Klopp and Milner won it all.

Now at Brighton, Milner has been looking back on his time with the Reds on the ‘Football’s Greatest’ podcast with Jeff Stelling. There, the 38-year-old declared his regret at not having been able to work with Rodgers for longer.

“Brendan, like Sir Bobby [Robson], I was unfortunate not to work with him for longer,” said the Reds former No.7. “Great coach, great manager. I liked him a lot for the time that I was with him. Then Jurgen comes in and we didn’t play a slow style under Brendan, it was just the personality of the manager and the standards he wanted.

“I remember the first game was Spurs away and the tempo of the game was just like out of this world, both teams were going at it and the level was just 100%. The training was a lot longer, a lot harder, players were getting injured while they adapted to it but he had to get what his expectations were down early.”

Milner reveals Rodgers regret

There are perhaps only a couple of Liverpool players who would truly have benefitted from playing a little bit longer under Rodgers.

We don’t think Milner is necessarily one of them, as he went on to have a superb career at Anfield and struck up a great relationship with Klopp.

But maybe the one who stands out the most in that regard is Christian Benteke.

With Liverpool in need of a forward ahead of the 2015/16 season, Benteke was the man who Rodgers wanted over any other.

However, the Reds transfer committee reportedly favoured a certain Roberto Firmino instead. So the story from the Liverpool ECHO goes, the recruitment team allowed Rodgers his wish of signing Benteke with the trade off being that Firmino would arrive as well.

Of course, the Northern Irish coach had no idea how to properly use Firmino. And with Benteke also struggling to get going, he was fired in October.

From there, we all know the story with Bobby. He flourished under Klopp to become a true club legend. But Benteke was shipped out in the summer after only one season at Liverpool.

It isn’t that the Belgian was a bad player, although his record since leaving Anfield has been poor. It was more that he simply wasn’t a Klopp player. Had Rodgers stuck around and turned things in his favour, maybe Benteke would have lasted far longer and done exactly the same. We’ll never know. As for Milner, he’s right, really. Brendan is a good coach. We don’t think the Yorkshireman can claim to have been too hard done by, though.