For a while James Milner thought he had found his suspect. Behind the scenes at Manchester City the England midfielder had been quietly trying to establish whether one of his colleagues was responsible for “Boring James Milner”, the spoof Twitter feed that regales its quarter of a million followers with updates of him ironing, tidying his cupboards or on one memorable occasion finding out he had one sock inside out and deciding he should tell Gary Cahill.

More than once Milner thought he had rumbled the culprit. “We thought we were close. We were going through it at the club. There were a few tweets about Asda so I was asking the masseurs where they shopped. One did say Asda so I thought I was close but it turned out it wasn’t him.” That, incidentally, was a Twitter conversation initiated by @BoringMilner revealing he could not sleep because he was “only two or three brews away from running out of milk”.

At least he can see the funny side. “It’s not doing badly, whoever it is. My foundation has 15,000 followers so I think it needs a few retweets.” Yet Milner is aware, too, that nobody else in the England squad would inspire that kind of account, and what it probably says about the public perception of him, however unfair it may be.

By now he is wearily accustomed to the allegation: that he is the safe choice, the conservative pick, known for his graft and professionalism, someone who brings conservatism and perspiration while others represent excitement andflair. He is an attacking midfielder who doubles up as a defensive midfielder and it is put to him on the sixth floor of a Miami hotel that it will be seen as “negative” for Roy Hodgson to play him in the World Cup, rather than a flier such as Raheem Sterling.

“The opinion of the manager and my team-mates is really the only one that matters to me,” he says. “But you can look at the number of goals I’ve created in the Premier League in my career and see where that puts me. I’m sure I’d be quite high up in that. If a footballer can do that, create goals but also do a job for the team defensively, is that a bad thing? People say I’m a containing player. Maybe if I was lazy they wouldn’t think that. If I kept more energy to go forward, what would the perception be then? Would I be lazy and shouldn’t be playing because of that?”

What he is saying, in effect, is that it is an asset to be able to attack and defend rather than one or the other. He nods. “If you’ve been attacking and don’t have the engine to get back, that’s that. If you have the engine to go both ways, it allows you to do both aspects of the game.”

And, besides, he rejects the allegation that he is a boring footballer. “At the start of the qualifying campaign we had Moldova away and won by a big margin [5-0]. I played then. At club level we’ve won games by big margins when I’ve played. We won by six at Manchester United and I had a hand in two or three of the goals.

“I’m both [attacking and defensive]. But I’m not sure sometimes if the versatility tag can be a blessing or a bad thing. Sometimes it works for you and at other times people put you in a category. Going into the last World Cup I was playing central midfield every game. Then I got there and played wide. Now I’m playing right or left more than in the middle for City and for England.”

At City his inability to nail down a regular position has left him wanting to move after the World Cup (something his club say they will not let happen) amid interest from Arsenal and Liverpool. He has no appetite to discuss his reasons for becoming restless at “an amazing club” and, sitting directly to his left, a Football Association press officer tries his absolute best to block questions on the subject. Yet Milner could be forgiven for feeling undervalued sometimes, for both club and country.

Another four appearances will take him to 50 England caps and Hodgson has started with him in just about every big match of his two years in charge. And yet Milner would probably not come outwell in a public poll to choose which two wide players out of himself, Sterling, Danny Welbeck, Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain should start the World Cup.

What he has in his favour is a history of support from Hodgson and far more big-match experience than his rivals. “I’ve played a hell of a lot of games in my career,” he points out; 507, to be precise – at the age of 28.

The next one will come on Wednesday if Hodgson is true to his word about changing the entire XI when England take on Ecuador at the Sun Life Stadium. Hodgson had intended to start work on his experimental side in the training session that was called off because of the torrential rain.

“It’s nice for me, this weather,” Milner put it. “It’s like being at home again.” And then he was off, not to do the ironing or line up his shoes but heading back to the team hotel and a manager who appreciates him as reliable rather than boring.

What they say ...

Roy Hodgson, 8 September 2013 ”We know what James will do. James isn’t and doesn’t pretend to be as exciting as some of the wingers we sometimes use these days.”

Steven Weeks, ex-schoolteacher, 28 February 2012 ”James is still exactly the same really nice, calm, quiet, totally unassuming, popular lad he was at school but I always thought that, inside, he had the sort of controlled aggression that takes people to the very top.”

Glenn Roeder, 28 February 2012 ”James’s really is Mr Perfect, he’s an A-star person … He said ‘no thanks’ to Newcastle’s brat pack. James can seem a goody two shoes but he deserves every bit of success going. Unlike the vast majority of professional footballers he works to his maximum and extracts every last ounce of ability.”