James Milner has hailed the 'incredible' performance level of his teammates after Liverpool came back from a goal down to beat Southampton, taking the Premier League title race to the wire.
Fielding a much-changed side, the Reds fell behind to an early Nathan Redmond strike but hit back before the break through Takumi Minamino before a second half Joel Matip header secured a vital three points that piles the pressure back onto Manchester City going into the final day of the season.
Milner was an outstanding performer for the Reds, playing the whole match and covering two positions, following an injury to Joe Gomez, but typically the 36-year-old deflected all of the praise onto his teammates.
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Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, he said: " The guys are incredible. The guys that maybe don’t play as much, but you should see them at training every single day. The level of performance, and when they are needed to step up they have and it is a special group of players and a special football club that will fight till the end. We keep going, all we can do is take it as far as we can."
Having lost number of players to injuries and fatigue during Saturday's gruelling FA Cup final against Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp made nine changes to his side for the trip to St Mary's. But despite the disruption, Liverpool were still able to conjure a superb performance that was excellent value for the three points.
Milner said: " It shows how ready everyone is. It shows how ready they are mentally, even if they are not playing as many minutes as they would like. The intensity and desire in training everyday to be able to come and play the way we play, it’s special and that comes right from the top from the manager and the attitude of the players."
Milner was involved in Southampton's opening goal when Redmond's shot deflected off his thigh in the 13th minute before arrowing into the top corner, but the versatile Yorkshireman, who made his Premier League debut in November 2002, 145 days before teammate Harvey Elliott was born, was more than pleased with his team's reaction to going a goal behind.
He said: "Alisson would have probably saved it if it hadn’t flicked up off me, it was a bit unlucky. But from then it was backs against the wall and we don’t like to make excuses, but the emotion of the weekend, how much we put into the weekend then coming here soon after, going one down, there are no excuses with these guys, they keep pushing it."
A first half injury to Gomez forced Milner to switch to right-back for the remainder of the match and although admitting he would rather be pulling the strings in midfield, he was only too happy to do whatever it takes to get the result over the line for Liverpool.
"It’s not my favourite switch in the world to be honest, but what’s needed," Milner said. "Joey (Gomez) got a nasty one on his ankle so couldn’t continue, but it was unfortunate because I was enjoying it in the middle and Joey has been fantastic when he has played this season, so I hope he is okay. But, it was what the team needs and it was a great team performance."
Milner and his teammates, who haven't lost a Premier League game since December 2021, now face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday know that even if they beat the midlands outfit, they must rely on Manchester City to come unstuck against Aston Villa at the Etihad, otherwise the title will be heading back to Manchester. But Milner, who has three Premier League medals to his name - two with City and one with Liverpool - accepts that all Klopp's men can do is concentrate on themselves and then hope that fate takes care of everything else.
He summarised by saying: " Try and win our game. That’s all we can do and that is what we have been trying to do since January after being so far behind and we went for it again in January and had a mental reset if you like, and since then we have really pushed. They are an incredible team to go up against this season, and I think we have done ourselves proud this season but we have won today, and tried to keep the pressure on Manchester City ahead of the weekend.
"That was all that we could do, we have took it to the last game and we have done that. Like I say, it wasn’t going to be easy coming here, it’s their last home game so we know they were going to come out looking for a result but we have managed to come here, get a result and keep the pressure on for Sunday. "
