Jurgen Klopp’s skill as a psychologist generally involves getting into his players’ heads. When he had submitted his team, however, he showed an understanding of the wider world and anticipated the reaction of everyone else, of the Liverpool fans and the neutrals alike. “James Milner – come on, how many people thought ‘oh no, Milner v Foden’?” he asked. It was Phil Foden, who tormented Milner at Anfield last season; Phil Foden, who scored a hat-trick in a Manchester derby two weeks earlier; Phil Foden, a generational talent against a man from another generation, a player who faced David Seaman when he first took on Manchester City. The menu at Anfield seemed to consist of Milner on toast.
But, after spending 100 minutes out of position against the team Klopp believes is the best in the world, Milner had become part of the first defence to shut out a team with Erling Haaland this season. It is not in Milner’s nature to complain and perhaps that means he is likelier to be landed with thankless tasks.
A disproportionate number of his outings at right-back appear to come against either Wilfried Zaha or Foden and, in a season when, finally, age seemed to have caught up with him, this felt the most thankless of his many thankless tasks. Milner isn’t even Klopp’s second choice in the position any more; had either Joel Matip or Ibrahima Konate been fit, Joe Gomez would probably have been at right-back. Instead, Milner was. It seemed a case for Age Concern. “But he was unbelievable,” Klopp said.
The Liverpool manager often seems to appreciate the tales of the improbable, the days players beyond their level, when wholehearted endeavour reaps a reward. Milner rode his luck at times: had Foden’s disallowed goal stood, perhaps some would have wondered why he was quicker than Milner to the loose ball. There was a moment when he lost a cross-field ball in the sky, times when he seemed to be backing off Foden.
Yet his afternoon amounted to a triumph of concentration and determination, of willpower and nous, of the common-sense that has underpinned his game for two decades. His match ended with the unlikely sight of Trent Alexander-Arnold, fit enough to start on the bench, coming on in front of Milner. Klopp did not want to disrupt his back four. “Our defensive line, for sure, that was the best game we have played this season,” Klopp said. “That is how we have to defend.”
Between them, they made seven tackles and 22 clearances but the moment that epitomised Liverpool’s resistance came from Virgil van Dijk, a header from under his own bar denying Haaland an equaliser. “How we defended the box and especially the six-yard box was absolutely exceptional,” Klopp said. Yet if the Dutchman was back to his imperious best, it was a tale of two halves of the defence. Van Dijk and Andy Robertson represent the pedigree side; before kick-off Milner and Gomez looked the fallible duo, and not merely because Liverpool’s right side has been weaker this season, with Alexander-Arnold the face of their problems. Perhaps it made it odder that Pep Guardiola overloaded his right side with his creative players, moving Joao Cancelo and Kevin De Bruyne to that side. But City had the ball more on their left, eyeing the Gomez-Milner axis. If the pre-match billing was that a decisive duel could be Haaland against Van Dijk, the Norwegian sought to play against Gomez.
Understandably, too. His previous start as a centre-back was in Naples. In the worst performance of Klopp’s reign, Gomez was the worst player on the pitch, a liability who was removed at half-time. On his return to his preferred position, he was arguably the man of the match. Such is the conundrum of Gomez, whose ceiling is higher than virtually anyone else’s and whose floor is lower than theirs. Injuries have interrupted his career and the last two seasons feel wasted years. Konate had started to look the future, which Gomez was supposed to have been. Then came an illustration of his potential. “It is just great for Joe that he can show what a player he is,” Klopp said. “He is an outstanding talent, a great player, and today he was sensational. It was a mature performance.”
It was a magnificent performance, a masterpiece of defiance in a flawless rearguard action. The supposed weak links became the faces of an improbable triumph. For Gomez, it ought to be the kind of display he replicates more often. For Milner, approaching his 37th birthday, it could prove the last time he exerts such an influence on a game of this magnitude. But if this season has offered evidence of his decline, if Klopp was aware it led many to underestimate Milner and if his extraordinary longevity opens the possibility of a repeat, the odd couple proved the right men on the right side of a remarkably resilient defence.
