James Milner has praised his teammates for putting in a solid display in yesterday’s 1-0 defeat of Newcastle at St. James’ Park.
The veteran midfielder was one of five changes made by Jurgen Klopp from Wednesday’s victory over Villarreal and the 36-year-old singled out Joe Gomez and admitted that he’s surprised at how good of a crosser our No. 12 is.
“[It’s] credit to the boys [and] how hard they train when they’re not playing the games and the work that we do with the fitness guys and the physios,” the No. 7 told the club’s official website.
“To be fighting on all fronts at this stage of the season, [playing] every three days and putting the energy and levels of performances the boys are putting in, it is credit to the full squad.
“You need every single player and it’s credit to the attitude of the boys as well because it’s not always easy when you are not playing.
“For Joey, for example, to come in this morning and perform like he did again was incredible. [He won] headers, they were loading his side, and going forward. I’ve realised over the last few months what a good crosser of the ball he is! It’s pleasing.”
Gomez deputised for Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back on Tyneside yesterday and put in a superb performance.
He’s struggled for regular game time this term and has found himself behind Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate in the pecking order to partner Virgil van Dijk at centre half.
As we are still competing on all fronts, our entire squad has been and will continue to be called upon in the coming weeks.
Our performance was solid against Eddie Howe’s side, who had won their last four games, and we’ll need to be right on it again on Tuesday night when we travel to Spain and look to book our place in the Champions League final at the end of the month.
Although Gomez performed superbly, you’d expect Klopp to bring Alexander-Arnold and Matip back into the XI for our game with Unai Emery’s outfit.
It’s refreshing to see that our German boss can rotate but still expect the same high standards and quality performance.
This is the best our squad has looked for some time and it’s certainly an exciting time to be a Red.
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