'James Milner is a warrior'
James Milner showed he is a 'warrior' for Liverpool in Saturday's 4-1 victory over West Ham United.
The midfielder captained the Reds in the Premier League clash and was industrious throughout, with a closer look at his statistics revealing just how much of an influence the No.7 had on getting the home side on the front foot.
Milner contested nine tackles – three times as many as any of his teammates – and won eight, and led the way in duels for Jürgen Klopp’s men with an 81.3 per cent success rate.
The Englishman also enjoyed 125 touches and attempted 100 passes as Liverpool picked up their form after a 10-day break in comprehensive fashion.
And while the attacking trio of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah took many of the plaudits for their goals, Neil Mellor picked out Milner as the afternoon’s top performer.
“There were a lot of candidates and it’s hard to pick one. But I thought James Milner was absolutely outstanding. It was a captain’s performance,” said the former Reds striker on LFCTV’s Premier League Review Show.
“Very early on in the game he got a whack and it was a sore one, he almost went over on his ankle. It was a strong challenge from [Pablo] Zabaleta, his old teammate at City. But his reaction just typified the sort of player he is.
“He is a warrior out there – I think that’s a good word to describe James.
“He will keep going. He’s a team player. He’ll work tirelessly hard whatever position he is in. He’ll do the simple things really well. One thing about James is that he’ll never let you down. He reads the game extremely well.
“The front three get the headlines because of scoring goals, but James does things which you almost don’t notice. But he does it so effectively and so consistently.
“He must have covered every blade of grass at Anfield and again was the player for Liverpool who ran the furthest – over 12 kilometres.
“With his contribution, his influence, his reactions – for me, yes, [Andy] Robertson was outstanding and the goalscorers were outstanding, but James Milner with his all-round contribution throughout the game stood out more than anyone.”