James Milner is reportedly on the brink of leaving Manchester City on a free, having failed to agree a new contract with the club he joined from Aston Villa. Milner is being linked with Liverpool, the club who wanted to sign him from Aston Villa prior to him signing for City when he did. Rafa Benitez was interestingly obsessed with the prospect of bringing him to the club alongside Gareth Barry, who also joined City.
The link with Milner is an interesting one. Milner comes in at the age of 29 possibly as a long term replacement for Steven Gerrard, who is heading to the MLS. Milner comes as an experienced professional, no-nonesense style midfielder. Nobody has ever doubted his work-rate or desire to win. The only issue is that he is not a sexy footballer. Graeme Souness famously remarked “We’ll never win anything with a team of James Milner’s.” This is probably true. Milner is a cog and he’ll be as such for Brendan Rodgers.
Milner wins a high number of tackles, completes a lot of interceptions and clearances. He isn’t going to score a great deal of goals. He’s only got 10 goals in 137 appearances in the Premier League for Man City. In this regard he’s not a Gerrard replacement in the like-for-like sense. He won’t score as many goals or take as many long range efforts.
But this isn’t what he’s being brought in for. He will provide a lot of experience and also the stability in the middle of the park. Milner can operate as a central midfielder and also as a hard working winger. It’s not unlikely that he’ll feature as a wing-back in certain systems either.
He could even feature as the holding player alongside in Jordan Henderson also without much hassle. In this regard he’d be a great option. It certainly makes sense to bring in an experienced player like him with Gerrard leaving. Especially someone who is so hassle free and just gets down to work. His adaptability is crucial to a side like Liverpool who implement very fluid tactics. Rodgers would surely love to have him in the side, even if he isn’t going to start every game.. With Liverpool having some younger midfielders they also need to bring in the experience of someone like Milner to usher in a new dawn so to speak. All in all it’ll be a very good and pragmatic signing if Liverpool do bring him in.
