The Liverpool midfielder believes he can still learn a lot from Klopp
He may be 29 and have played at the highest level since his early days as an outstanding youngster at Leeds United, with over 500 career appearances, but Liverpool’s James Milner believes that he can still learn a lot from Jurgen Klopp.
Milner was a Brendan Rodgers signing over the summer, brought in on bank-busting wages and handed the job of being Jordan Henderson’s backup, something which has seen him captain the side for much of the season. Despite all of that, he already seems to have found favour with the new Liverpool manager, despite being pulled off after a few poor displays recently.
But the two-time Premier League winner believes that, even at his age, he still has a lot to learn from the German manager. Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com, Milner said: “You can always learn whether you are 16 or 17, or whether you are 35 or 29.
“That’s football and the manager will still be learning himself. Obviously he has come in with his new ideas, new training methods and things like that, so it’s great for me as much as it is the younger guys.
“Hopefully I can help those younger guys, but I’m still learning myself. Changing managers is always different and I’m still learning the way he wants to play.
“I’ve been fortunate to work under some great managers and he [Klopp] is another one of the top managers in the game. I can learn as much as I can and hopefully put that back into my game, as a team [member] and as an individual and improve.”
The England star wasn’t present for the 48 year old’s first defeat at home to Crystal Palace last Sunday, but feels that the players are learning to play until the final whistle under Klopp.
He continued: “I think there have been times where we’ve got down on ourselves when the result hasn’t been going our way towards the end of the game, but we have to realise it can take 94 minutes to break a team down and keep going no matter what the score and no matter how we are playing.
“We could have had the worst game ever but if you are still in the game in the last minute and if you keep pushing forward, you can get a goal and I think that comes from belief.
“Maybe times this season where we maybe have played well and had a number of shots – a silly amount of shots – and we haven’t got the goal that we needed to get the three points and get the win.
“But we have to make sure that we don’t let that hamper our attitude and our belief going into future games. Every game is different and no matter how the game is going, if you are still in it coming into the last minute you need to keep pushing and go for that goal.”
