James Milner was known as the beacon of professionalism within the Liverpool dressing room and he tried to influence everyone positively during his time as our vice captain but it wasn’t always possible.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast, the 37-year-old said: “One of the young lads at Liverpool who come through, amazing ability, bit of a joker, great lad but maybe didn’t apply himself as much as he could. He didn’t do what he should, all the time.
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“I remember in pre-season and we’re in the ice baths and we had 10 minutes, 15 minutes talking at him and it was one of those where, yeah you feel he’s listening but you know it’s in one ear out the other.
“You think, ‘we’re going to have to have that chat again’ and you get down the line and we have the conversation again and keep pushing him, every little thing.
“It’s tough because you see so many players who are amazing and have the ability but don’t realise the opportunity they have until it’s gone and it’s too late and they’re 24, 25 and they’re out of the game because they haven’t embraced all the facilities.
“They have everything and the kid at Liverpool is doing so well now and I’m delighted for him and you can see the character, how he’s changed and he’s kept that bubbliness and everything he’s about but he’s doing really well and his attitude’s topnotch and you know, sometimes, you just need to help him find that path, or the right way to do that.”
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It wasn’t revealed who the young player was and so we can’t draw too much from this, other than that the current Brighton man was hugely important at Anfield.
Let’s hope that these standards have rubbed off on Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and the rest of the current leadership group at Jurgen Klopp’s disposal.
You can view Milner’s comments (from 12:59) via High Performance on YouTube:
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