James Milner was turned to by Jurgen Klopp to manage the final exchanges against Aston Villa and by doing so, the veteran now sits fourth in the Premier League‘s all-time appearance charts.
The 35-year-old was brought into the fray in the 84th-minute as Villa continued to build up a head of steam following Mohamed Salah‘s penalty.
Adding a touch of experience and no-nonsense tackling, Milner was injected off the bench for the fourth league game in a row following his spell on the sidelines with injury.
And Saturday’s outing not only took his season tally to 13 but his career Premier League total to an incredible 573 appearances, taking him into the division’s top four of all-time.
5??7??3??@JamesMilner is now 4th place on the all-time @PremierLeague appearance list! ? pic.twitter.com/TaO3l2WLhE
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 11, 2021
By doing so, Milner surpassed ex-Red David James’ total of 572 Premier League games, of which 214 were with Liverpool.
Milner, on the other hand, has featured for Liverpool in 184 out of his 573 league games to date having joined the club in 2015, with the veteran also having played for Man City, Aston Villa, Newcastle and Leeds United.
And now the No. 7 is now behind only Gareth Barry (653), Ryan Giggs (632) and Frank Lampard (609) in the all-time Premier League appearance standings.
It’s an incredible feat for the 35-year-old who is now in his 19th year as a professional, and he would need to feature for at least three more seasons to surpass Barry at the top.
And his importance to Liverpool has readily been noted by Klopp throughout the years, and did so back in October.
“He is an important part of the squad, not only if he plays but in the dressing room he is an incredibly influential player,” Klopp said.
“It is nice he can have these both things; being a real engine in a dressing room and on the pitch as well.”
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