Steve Nicol has admitted that he has sympathy for Liverpool supporters regarding Jurgen Klopp’s long injury list and has raised concerns over James Milner having to start games for the Reds.
The former England international has been a great servant for the club and has won every single major trophy since arriving at Anfield back in 2015, but at 36 years of age, the No. 7 has struggled to have positive impacts on games so far this season.
The ex-Manchester City midfielder signed a one-year contract extension in the summer but with the Anfield outfit experiencing a number of injuries in the midfield department already this season, he’s had to feature in every game so far.
That is something that concerns Reds legend Nicol.
“There’s no question, you have to sympathise with Liverpool as far as the injuries [are concerned]. You’re having to play James Milner, who signed a contract basically to be able to give other players a rest and come on for half an hour. That’s what James Milner signed a new contract for and that’s why they asked him to do it,” Nicol told ESPN (via The Boot Room).
“But he’s having to play in your biggest game of the season, and Harvey Elliott is a rookie.
“This guy is learning his trade and so when you’ve got two of your midfielders in the position they’re in, one with no experience and one with too much experience, then the engine room is going to be in trouble.”
We certainly believe that you can never have ‘too much’ experience and Milner is a great figure to have around the AXA Training Centre and in the dressing room.
Harvey Elliott will have learnt a lot from the veteran midfielder but we understand that we shouldn’t be relying on a 36-year-old week in and week out.
In terms of the teenager, he’s been one of our best players so far this season despite us having a slow start to the campaign.
Supporters need to remember that the former Fulham star is just 19 years of age and although he appears to have all the ability in the world and bags of potential, we can’t demand too much from him at such a tender age.
The England U21 International has started all but one of our seven games so far this term and with many others not performing to the level that you’d expect, our teenage star has been one of our few shining lights.
Naby Keita, Curtis Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jordan Henderson are all sidelined through injury at the moment while Thiago Alcantara only returned from a hamstring injury against Napoli earlier this week.
Our start to the season has been far from ideal but with the Spain international now back fit we’re hopeful that our campaign can get back on track starting with the visit of Ajax in the Champions League on Tuesday.