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James Milner praised Aston Villa’s young stars in their 4-1 FA Cup third-round loss to Liverpool on Friday as one of them told him it was their first match in two months.
Villa was forced to name a young squad full of players under 23 and under 18 after his first team squad was forced to self-isolate after a coronavirus outbreak at the Midlands club.
Villa’s young squad gave Premier League champions Jurgen Klopp a decent test, with 17-year-old forward Louie Barry scoring a draw in the first half to make it 1-1 at the interval, and the midfielder from Liverpool Milner was full of praise for the young talent on display.
Villa’s team’s median age on Friday night was just 18 and he had to be coached by under-23 coach Mark Delaney, with first-team chief Dean Smith and his entire coaching staff forced to isolate themselves. themselves.
Villa’s ex told BT Sport: ‘One of his guys said they hadn’t played for two months. Not ideal for either team. Nobody wants this, but it is where we are at this stage.
They have done well. They are a good bunch of guys. They worked hard for each other and showed quality. They are good players, they are at Aston Villa for a reason. Even tonight, every time you’re not there, they punish you and we had to leave again.
The way Liverpool advanced to the fourth round may have been more challenging than expected, but Klopp’s side bounced back after three games without a Premier League win.
The Reds drew lowly Newcastle and West Brom before suffering defeat at the hands of Ralph Hasenhuttl on Monday night to increase pressure on the defense of the Premier League title.
Milner admits that Liverpool have lacked that attacking quality that saw them compete for the title last season, but said it was good to rectify some previous problems against Villa’s young side.
Sadio Mane opened the scoring after four minutes at Villa Park and three goals in five minutes from Gini Wijnaldum, Mane and Mohamed Salah gave the Reds a beautiful victory after Barry’s shocking draw.
Milner added: ‘We didn’t want to take it for granted and definitely not in the first half, they got the goal and we had to keep playing.
‘We had situations, occasions, where we were going into areas and we didn’t get the final ball or the final run (right). That has been the story of the last two games. It’s good for us to work on that.
‘We have to keep improving. We never blame effort, but things are not going well for us right now. But you saw the attitude of the guys trying to fix things. ‘
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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