Jurgen Klopp salutes ‘role model’ James Milner as Liverpool march on

Jurgen Klopp saluted “role model” James Milner after Liverpool maintained their quadruple challenge with a 1-0 Premier League victory at Newcastle.

The 36-year-old former Magpie, who made his senior debut for Leeds almost 20 years ago, was one of five men drafted into Klopp’s much-changed starting line-up for a vital league game sandwiched between the two legs of the Champions League semi-final clash with Villarreal, and turned in a fine individual display.

Asked if he had come across a fitter 36-year-old, Klopp said with a smile: “No, but it would be interesting to look at Luka Modric. Is he not 36 as well? It was obviously a good generation.

“No, it’s difficult to be fitter than Milly. He’s a role model. I have told him, I can tell the whole world – nothing we have achieved in the last few years would have happened without James Milner, it’s as easy as that.

“Whether he was on the pitch or not, he’s set standards in a way not a lot of people can set standards, and it educated all of us.”

If Milner excelled at St James’ Park, so too did his team mates as they stretched their unbeaten league run to 15 games to keep up the pressure on Manchester City courtesy of Naby Keita’s 19th-minute strike.

They probably should have won even more comfortably, but Klopp was more than satisfied with a controlled display in the wake of Wednesday night’s 2-0 victory over Villarreal at Anfield.

The German said: “It was incredibly difficult for the boys today, to be honest, it’s clear. We played two and a half days ago.

“Coming here, a team in form, six home wins on the bounce, great weather, everybody in a good mood, pretty much everything was prepared for another home win.

“The only group who wanted to avoid that was my players. It was an