James Milner has the monumental task of filling in the gap left by Steven Gerrard
The 29 year old English midfielder James Milner was signed by Liverpool on June of the current year on a free transfer. One of the main reasons of why Liverpool secured the services of Milner was to help fill in the space that was left by the departure of Steven Gerrard who made his move to the MLS.
Milner is expecting to have a central role in the midfield department of Anfield and the former player of Manchester City revealed that it was because of Brendan Rodgers that he decides to join Liverpool as the manager promised Milner to have a secured starting position in the central midfield.
Liverpool’s summer signing, James Milner said: “I want to play football and play more centrally if I can and that’s where the manager said he sees me playing. What he said to me made me want to come and play for him straight away.That’s a big thing for me coming to the later stages of my career. I want to play as much football as I can.
When I’m sat at 45 and retired, I want to look back and see what I’ve done and that I’ve played games, rather than having come to the end of my career and tailed off’’
Danny Ings, Roberto Firmino and Nathaniel Clyne are a few of the other summer targets that Brendan Rodgers has secured for Liverpool so far and even though James Milner is the oldest one and not the most flashy or exciting of players from that bunch, he might be the most important signing of Liverpool yet.
One of the things that differentiate James Milner from the rest of Liverpool’s signings is the fact that he is a secured bet. At the age of 29, Milner was one of the players which covered most miles per 90 minutes in the previous Premier League. He had an average of 7.27 as he ran more than every single other player of the English league except for Mathieu Flamini and George Boyd.
In that same previous season of the Premier League, Milner provided 7 assists as well as scored 5 goals. This might not be the most impressive of statistic but taking into consideration that he was performing in Manchester City where superstar talents play in, it’s hard to stand out but Milner silently managed to do it.
With everything being said, Milner is a player who is an all-around great player with energy and heart in the midfield and will surely help out Liverpool in their task of replacing Steven Gerrard, it won’t be easy replacing him but Milner has everything he needs to do it.