Albion Analytics: James Milner

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

The midfielder joined us on a one-year deal at the beginning of July.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2023-07-11T06:00:00Z

James Milner joined us after eight years with Liverpool.

Albion confirmed the one-year signing of James Milner to add valuable experience to the squad.

The 37-year-old has appeared 619 times in 24 Premier League seasons, dating back to 2002-03, and ranks third in the all-time appearance table, one of just four players to appear more than 600 times. If he plays more than 13 league matches next season, Milner will overtake Ryan Giggs (632) into second-place. “His experience speaks for itself with the amount of games he has played and the trophies he has won throughout a decorated career,” said Albion technical director David Weir after the veteran midfielder joined.

Milner ranks 11th among English players for Champions League appearances (73) and is a positive goalscoring omen. The 61-cap former England international is second to only Gabriel Jesus for the most Premier League games he has scored in without losing any (P54, W43, D11), including 14 match-winning goals in those matches.

The longevity of his career is even more impressive considering the athleticism with which Milner plays, covering the most distance per-90 minutes of any Premier League player last season, a crown which he has won or been near the top of in many campaigns.

He has had seven separate seasons of recording ten or more direct goal involvements (goals plus assists) in all competitions, including in five straight seasons between 2014-15 (his final season at Manchester City) and 2018-19; 15, 21, 11, 13 and 13 were his outputs then.

Milner was the most creative player in the 2017-18 Champions League, recording 9 assists as Liverpool ended as losing finalists to Real Madrid. Compared to his teammates, he made the most progressive passes (70) and the second-most passes overall (507/631 completed), attempting the most crosses (48) and won the joint-most tackles (14/25, tied with Trent Alexander-Arnold).

Milner offers reinforcement in multiple positions across the pitch. Expecting Roberto De Zerbi to continue with the 4-2-3-1 that had so much success last season, Milner can operate in the double pivot as well as at full-back on either side — he has made 70 appearances (5,750 minutes; 63.8 full 90s) as a central midfielder and 50 as a full-back (4,430 minutes; 49.2 full 90s) since the start of 2014-15.

It is similar to the positional flexibility that Pascal Gross and Moises Caicedo showed last season, with Caicedo the sixth-most statistically similar midfielder to Milner in the Premier League in 2022-23.

It would be remiss to suggest that Milner is purely a dressing room signing. He ranked inside the top 15% of top-five European league central midfielders last season for, per 90 minutes, passes attempted (65.8), progressive passes played (7.2) as well as progressive passes received (7.1) and tackles (2.9). He ranks inside the top one-third of his positional peers for shot-creating actions, progressive carries, clearances, aerial duels won, blocks and touches in the opposition box — a true all-rounder.

And with the departure of Alexis Mac Allister, there is opportunity for a new primary penalty taker. Milner has scored 30 of his 35 career penalties, converting them way above the average rate (85.7%, average is 76%), scoring his last nine in a row, but he hasn't taken a non-shootout penalty since 2019. In August 2018, Milner became the first Premier League player to score eight consecutive goals from penalties.