"It's always tricky" - James Milner opens up on the 2022 pre-season

Liverpool midfielder James Milner has given his thoughts on the club's 2022 pre-season.

The 36-year-old has been at Anfield since 2015, so he's completed quite a few pre-season programmes under the watchful eye of manager Jurgen Klopp.

However, Milner revealed that the sessions never get any easier despite his experience.

"I think it’s the same every season, it’s always tricky, you don’t know where you stand, how good the pre-season has been," he told the club's official website, as quoted by Anfield Watch's Twitter account.

"Everyone is obviously all over the place, people are playing different minutes, different times of training, some players came back later than others. It’s the same for every team and it’s never easy.

"It’s a complete new season, you’re not going to go into the season knowing exactly where you are. All we can do is what we’ve done every year: work as hard as possible, do the preparation as well as possible, get the fitness working.

"It helps, the group we’ve had; we’ve been together a long time, with a few new additions obviously. Darwin (Nunez) doesn’t seem to have struggled too much settling in, with the goals he’s been banging in already. That’s great to see.

"All you can do is prepare as well as you can and hopefully you’re ready. The amount of time we’ve been together, that helps. We’ve been through pre-seasons, we’ve been through ups and downs, won trophies and lost trophies. That definitely helps going into a new season."

Anfield Watch Verdict

Going by Milner's comments, the players will be ripe and ready to go when the 2022-23 campaign comes around.

The Englishman could be entering his final season at Anfield. His contract expires next summer.

Milner has been a superb player for Liverpool. The midfielder has found the back of the net 26 times and registered 44 assists in 289 appearances for the club's first-team.

Milner has also helped the club win six major trophies. He will be remembered as an Anfield legend.

If the 2022-23 campaign is to be Milner's final season at Liverpool, hopefully he can win another trophy or two before he departs.

Only time will tell if that is to be the case.