OPINION
James Milner was undoubtedly one of the star’s of Liverpool’s early season success. At 32 years of age the former Manchester City man appeared to be better than ever.
However, the Englishman has recently experienced a surprising reduction in his amount of first team football. For whatever reason, manager Jurgen Klopp no longer seems to fancy him in the middle of the park.
Georginio Wijnaldum, who was equally impressive in the early goings this term, has been an automatic selection throughout the campaign, but Miner has seen himself usurped by Jordan Henderson, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabinho of late.
That has to be concerning for the veteran, but perhaps Klopp is merely managing his minutes in order to keep him fresh for the entirety of the season?
On the other hand, though, the German might be beginning the phasing out stage of Milner’s Reds career. Like Brendan Rodgers with Steven Gerrard before him, the former Borussia Dortmund chief might have decided that a beloved player’s days as an automatic starter are over.
In the month of November Milner has played just 205 minutes out of a possible 360, including just 25 minutes in the team’s last two Premier League games.
The midfielder was excellent against Arsenal at the start of the month, scoring of course, but was decidedly less impressive against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League a few days after.
Perhaps that signalled to Klopp that Milner isn’t able to play two games in such quick succession any more, especially when one of them was a hugely demanding clash with the Gunners.
Obviously the Reds’ wealth of midfield options has contributed to this phenomenon – Shaqiri’s ascendancy, in particular, has proved toxic to Milner’s first team chances.
However, it does seem as if Klopp is trying to work out what life would look like without the Englishman. It’s a positive long term approach, but it’s one that could see Milner getting more and more used to life on the Anfield bench.
