James Milner: We want to make LFC world champions for first time

The Reds begin their bid for the trophy against Mexican side Monterrey on Wednesday night, with the winners set to face either Flamengo or Al Hilal in Saturday’s final in Qatar.

Ahead of the meeting with Monterrey, Milner joined manager Jürgen Klopp at a pre-match press conference to discuss the game, the tournament and more…

On his expectations for the Club World Cup and whether it is in any way a ‘distraction’…

We want to continue our good form. We have been in good form and we want to continue that. If it’s a distraction with a chance to win a trophy, that’s a pretty good distraction to have! We just want to keep being successful and winning trophies; you have to be successful to be at this tournament so hopefully we can go out there and play like we have been and win the two games.

On whether it’s ‘surreal’ with the Reds playing a Carabao Cup quarter-final back at home…

Yes, it’s a bit strange. Obviously, we wish the boys well and hopefully they perform like they can. We know there’s a lot of good young players who will be involved. I am sure we will try to watch it as best we can – we’ve got a bit of a lie-in in the morning, so that will help us there!

On how the players are ‘living in the moment’ at such a busy time…

It is not easy to do, but it is something this squad is very strong at: concentrating on the next game. That’s always the most important game and the only one you can control. The boys are working hard in training and at the moment it is just recovering, that’s difficult in itself. We have to recover game to game, prepare and concentrate on the next one. The boys have done it very well so far and hopefully we can keep doing that. In terms of schedule, it’s no different to what we would have had if we hadn’t been here – we’d have been playing against Villa and a game at the weekend in the Premier League anyway. So, nothing has changed for us, really.

On whether this tournament is a step into the unknown…

It is different, obviously, but we have played against teams all over the world with our international teams as well. So that experience will come in handy. The analysis we do before every game is very thorough and we know a lot about the side. We know a bit about them and we’ll know a bit more about them after we’ve had the meeting at the hotel, we’ll be fully prepared. We know it’ll be tough, we know they’re a team with plenty of quality and they have earned the right to be here as well. We know it will be tough.

On loving life after signing a contract extension with the club last week…

It’s nice to be playing at a club like Liverpool at this moment in time, with how well we’re playing. It’s exciting times since I have been at the club, we seem to be improving all the time. Big changes – changes to the ground, changes to the training ground and getting a couple of trophies on the board. It’s important we keep trying to do that more. We know the history of the club but, unbelievably, this is one trophy the club hasn’t won, so it would be nice to add that. It’s very difficult to find a trophy the club hasn’t won so if we could add this to the collection then that would be great.

On what it would mean to be world champions…

I think it is special to be here, you have to be successful to be here. Every other team from around the world has earned the right to be in this competition as well, they are all strong teams and it is going to be difficult. You want to get that winning habit; we’ve had a taste of trophies together as a group and you want to keep adding those. We’re in good form and we have to make sure we keep that momentum going and take that form going into this. Obviously, any time you can win a trophy – and a trophy with this meaning – would be fantastic, but we have got a couple of difficult games to play first.

On working with Klopp and the way he encourages players…

He can be the other side of the coin as well and be aggressive in the other way as well. Obviously, he’s massive for us. You need that energy, the amount of games we’re having, at times it’s tough to have that high tempo every single game and we have to do that as a group, but we need the manager and coaching staff to help us with that, prepare us and get the training schedule right and the recovery schedule right. Touch wood, so far it has been spot on. So hopefully we can keep pushing, keep improving and make sure the manager is happy and we don’t get too many rollickings.

On building on Liverpool’s recent success in the years to come…

Since I have been at the club, it was important to get that first trophy on the board. We were unfortunate in a few finals but you see how the team has moved on and how the club is moving forward, like I said before. I think you have heard many people in the squad talk about it – we don’t want to be remembered as the team who won one trophy once, we want to be known as a group where you forget which year you won which trophy. That’s the hunger within the squad and you can see that in how we react to things; losing the first Champions League final and how we bounced back and got to the final again and won it. It is not easy with success, sometimes it is tough to replicate that once you’ve won a trophy. We haven’t done that yet. The Super Cup, we managed to get over the line but there’s a long way to go in the league. How we’ve started the season, the tempo we’ve started at and the way we’ve played, it takes a special mentality and this group has that. But we also know there’s a long way to go in the season and so many games, so the group is focused on the next step in front of us and this week it’s out here. Hopefully we can deliver in the two games.

On what he knows about Monterrey…

I know a bit. Like I said, we will have our analysis meeting after this so we’ll know a lot more then. It’s the fourth time they’ve played in this, so they will probably have a bit more experience in this competition than we do. They’ll be a team full of quality players, we know that. We know they’re strong, they can change formations, which they have done in recent games, and can flip that. So we’ll have to be prepared for everything. We’ll go more in depth in that this afternoon before we prepare for training later. But we know they will be a strong team.