Milner picks five players, super sub and manager
Monday 20 August 2018 13:13, UK
James Milner has played alongside and against some of the best players in the world, but who would make his five-a-side team?
Milner's career has included spells with Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City and current club Liverpool. He has also won 61 caps for England.
So who would make his best five-a-side team? And who would the manager be? Ahead of Liverpool's trip to Crystal Palace on Monday Night Football, here's what he said...
"It's tough isn't it. We've got the most expensive defender in the world, the most expensive keeper in the world - I don't want to be causing rifts in the dressing room.
"I'm going for a goalkeeper, a defender, a midfielder and two strikers. It's all about scoring goals isn't it...?"
"An amazing friend of mine, a top person to have in the dressing room and a top, top keeper. In any career you have ups and downs, and he's had a tough few years unfortunately, but he's quality and we've seen it time and time again.
"One game that sticks out for me is against Dortmund [a 1-1 draw in October 2012], with the current manager here at Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp. We could've lost that game 8-0 and he kept us in it, he was ridiculous. We nicked a draw late on with a penalty, so that sticks in the mind.
"I saw him the other day, it's nice to have him a bit closer to home again now and I get to see him a bit more. Obviously I speak to him - I was with him for five years at Man City and also with England, you spend every day together so that's one thing you don't realise how tough it is in football.
"You spend so much time together and then one day a transfer comes in and that's it, you saw it with Danny Ings the other day. You feel close, then it just changes and you hardly see them or you only see them on TV. You need those friendships though, so when things are tough you know they're around for you."
"I've been thinking about this, there's so many names - Rio Ferdinand's in there, Ashley Cole was always a nightmare to play against and great to play with, Vincent Kompany's a great defender, but I'm going for Jonathan Woodgate.
"Obviously he had a few injury problems so people didn't realise how good he was, but he read the game so well, he was a good footballer and went to Real Madrid so you know how good they thought he was.
"He's also a really funny guy and a great one to have in the dressing room - but there's no examples I can repeat on camera. Even if we don't win the five-a-side, with Harty and Woody it's not going to be a dull dressing room.
"The teams he played for and the high regard he was held in to go to Madrid, the injuries definitely held him back. Obviously I'm biased as I'm a Leeds fan coming here and he was a big player, and also Rio playing for us, but unfortunately going to Manchester United probably held him back slightly. He was an amazing player too though, and I was going to upset someone."
"At Man City we obviously had Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry, who you don't realise how good he is until you see him week-in week-out. Frank Lampard, who was a ridiculous goalscorer, and even when he came to City at the end of his career you see the amount of goals he scored. Steven Gerrard was an unbelievable all-round player, but I'm probably going to have to put David Silva in there.
"Just as a player, his touch is ridiculous, the weight of pass and his creativity, he just did some things in training which were just ridiculous. It's a tough decision, I could've picked any one of them, but it'd be him.
"On a smaller pitch, he can pick a long pass but his short passing, getting out of tight spaces with two, three men around him, wriggling out and slotting a little pass in after that - he was top class."
"He's the greatest goalscorer in the Premier League. You can look at others like Thierry Henry who could do everything, then Wayne Rooney, the amount of goals he scored, and I played with him obviously for England, but for the sheer volume of goals he scored I go with Shearer.
"Shearer had a couple of tough injuries too in his career too, and when I went to Newcastle and saw him finish, how hard he hit it and practising penalties, he'd take a few and tell Shay Given which way he was going to go, and he'd still score 90 per cent of the time.
"There's Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane, an unbelievable goalscorer, Carlos Tevez, some of the things he did - and one of the only players my wife has ever commented on to say how good he was. She couldn't believe it, she just made a comment after one of the games about it. She doesn't even talk about football that much, and for her to say that he did something in a game when we were struggling, wriggled past two players and stuck it in the top corner from 30 yards, that's just what he could do.
"But saying all that, I'll probably have to go for Sergio Aguero. The amount of goals he's scored for the time he's been in England, the times he did it, the goals he's scored, the different types, he can make something out of nothing. Three men around him in the box, he'll get out of trouble and get a shot away. He's strong and has got a small centre of gravity, and to score all different types of goals and to have scored as many in the Premier League - and he's scored big goals as well, none bigger than to win the Premier League in injury-time."
"It's such a tough decision with the number of players I've played with, but as an all-round player he's probably the best I've played with. Left foot, right foot, passing short, passing long, scoring goals, getting about, having a bite, tackles.
"You do an overall assessment of a footballer who can do everything, when I first went into the England squad, we were doing a possession keep-ball and he absolutely ran the show, and you look at the players who were in back then and the pace of the session, the passing - it was like pinball and 90 per cent of it was going to him."
"Terry Venables gave me my debut, I had Sir Bobby Robson after that, Martin O'Neill at Aston Villa - but I'll have to say Jurgen Klopp or I'm going to get left out.
"The gaffer is a top manager. You can see it in how we play, we enjoy the way we play. As a team you have to play together, in the style we play, and he moulds that team in and without the ball. We're short on trophies at the moment, we've got to finals and we just need that final piece of the jigsaw.
"He's done great in his career before he came here and we're improving now year-on-year, and things are looking good. For the sake of keeping the harmony and in the good books, and the fact he's a very good manager as well, I'll say Jurgen Klopp."
Watch James Milner pick his dream five-a-side team and then watch Crystal Palace v Liverpool live on Sky Sports from 7pm on Monday
