Patrice Evra has told Manchester United’s official website that Liverpool ace James Milner was the ‘most annoying’ player he ever faced in his career, as he was always frustrating.
Evra spent eight-years at Old Trafford, in which the Frenchman won five Premier League titles. While missing out on another on the last day of 2011/12 to Milner’s Manchester City.
Milner and Evra faced one another once that term, as the Citizens thrashed the Red Devils 6-1. Manchester United won the reverse, but Milner only featured briefly in stoppage-time.
The Red Devils’ trip to the Etihad Stadium in April 2012 was only the second time that Evra and Milner did not play ample minutes against each other with both in matchday squads.
Including Evra’s brief stint at West Ham in 2018 after Milner had joined Liverpool in 2015, they played at least 15-minutes against each other in 21 matches across all competitions.
Evra only faced ex-Chelsea and Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech (24) more. While also facing Gareth Barry and Steven Gerrard 21 times, but with marginally more minutes than Milner.
No player left a more frustrating impression on Evra than Liverpool ace Milner, however.
“It’s not the toughest one, but the most annoying one was James Milner,” Evra said.
“People always expect me to say another one, but James Milner and the reason was because he was always defending more than myself.
“I’m someone, I’m an attacking defender, so he frustrated me so much because he was following me everywhere.
“Even if I was going in the toilet, he was going to follow me. I would say the most annoying is James Milner.”
Liverpool ace Milner a thorn in Evra’s side
Milner was certainly a thorn in Manchester United hero Evra’s side during the Frenchman’s encounters with the £140k-a-week Liverpool ace.
Only Samir Nasri, John Terry and Cech held Evra to a lower points per Premier League game average than Milner. The trio held him to 0.91 ppg over 11 games, 1.1 over 10 and 1.15 over 13 respectively. Milner, meanwhile, kept Evra to just 1.18 points over 17 meetings.
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