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Posts Tagged ‘danish’

• Centre-half fears for his prospects at Anfield
• ‘If I’m not playing I have no reason to be here’

Daniel Agger has added to Roy Hodgson’s complications at Liverpool by revealing he will look to leave the club if he cannot regain a regular first-team place.

The Denmark international returned to the side on New Year’s Day following a three-month absence with a calf injury but, having been overlooked by Hodgson for his favoured centre-half role earlier in the season, he fears for his prospects under Liverpool’s beleaguered manager. Agger has endured an injury-plagued five years at Anfield but remains a key defender in a squad that will be without Jamie Carragher for at least another month as he recovers from a dislocated shoulder.

Speaking to the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten today, the 26-year-old said: “I still have three years left on my contract with Liverpool but it’s not me who decides if I’m playing. If I’m not playing and I’m not injured I have no reason to be here. I now have a certain age and I feel I have the level to play at this club. So if I’m not going to play and I’m on the bench for a while, obviously I’m not interested in being here. Then I must see what options I have.”

Agger was responding to reports that he had been offered for sale to Wolfsburg and Juventus recently, claims that Hodgson has rejected. The Liverpool defender said: “I have the attitude that if anyone wants to get rid of me and they are doing something on my behalf, I really expect that you’d walk up to me and say it to my face. If not, I don’t believe it, but that’s the world of football and you just have to accept that.”

The Liverpool manager may opt to rest Agger away at Blackburn Rovers tomorrow night given the player’s recent inactivity and with the FA

• Wolfsburg claim Agger is being touted around Europe
• ‘Agger has not been offered to anybody,’ says Hodgson

Roy Hodgson has denied that Liverpool are looking to sell Daniel Agger during the January transfer window after reports that the Danish defender was being offered to clubs around Europe. Agger’s agent criticised Liverpool for going behind the player’s back after Wolfsburg claimed that they had been given the chance to buy him but Hodgson has attempted to put an end to the speculation.

“Daniel Agger has not been ‘offered’ to anybody,” said Hodgson on the Liverpool website. “Agger is a Liverpool player and there’s a good chance he’ll be in the Liverpool team on Saturday [against Bolton].

“So if ever you hear Agger is being ‘offered’, it’s not by Liverpool – it’s by unscrupulous people who are second-guessing and looking at players who have not been in the team in the last couple of weeks and suggesting they might be available. But anytime you read that, it is untrue.”

Hodgson’s statement comes after the Wolfsburg general manager, Dieter Hoeness, suggested that Agger was up for sale. “We’ve been offered the chance to buy Agger but politely rejected it,” said Hoeness. “It is my impression that he is being offered to clubs around Europe.”

That prompted Agger’s agent, Per Steffensen, to express his surprise at Liverpool’s apparent desire to offload the player, who has featured nine times this season for Hodgson’s side but has not played since September due to a calf problem. “If a club wants to get rid of a player the most obvious thing is they tell the player about their plans,” he said. “That hasn’t happened.”

LiverpoolRoy HodgsonWolfsburgTransfer windowAlan Gardnerguardian.co.uk

• Striker expected to make first Europa League start of season
• Hodgson: I learned a lot last week against Northampton

Roy Hodgson has declared Fernando Torres free of the injury problems that have plagued the Liverpool striker throughout 2010 and admitted the scar of Northampton Town influenced his decision to recall the Spain international for the Europa League.

Torres is available to make his first start in the competition this season against Utrecht tomorrow as Liverpool seek their first win in four matches. Steven Gerrard has been rested in readiness for Sunday’s league game against Blackpool and may require an injection for a troublesome back problem after that match but Hodgson believes Torres’s improving fitness and confidence warrant the forward’s inclusion in Holland.

A 45-minute appearance against Trabzonspor represents Torres’s only European football since he scored twice against Benfica in the Europa League quarter-final in April, with Liverpool keen to nurse their record signing back to full fitness after a series of hernia, knee and groin problems. But Hodgson said: “The injury problems are behind him now and we can’t bring those up any more. They were supposedly cleared up when he went to the World Cup. Because then he didn’t meet up to some people’s expectations then there were theories about him being injured. But really he was recovered from injury and the injury he picked up in the final was very minor and had cleared up when he got back to us. We have been trying to keep a close eye on him but I wouldn’t dream of playing him if he wasn’t right.”

Torres, despite struggling to rediscover top form this season, has been involved in Liverpool’s last four goals in the Premier League and Hodgson believes the 26‑year‑old’s confidence is also restored. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with his confidence but, yeah, he’d like to have that goal,” the Liverpool manager said. “The thing with top, proven goalscorers is that you know it will come again.”

Hodgson admitted Torres’s inclusion was an insurance policy after the embarrassment of going out of the Carling Cup to Northampton on penalties with a second string last week.

“One of the benefits of having him here is that when you are drawing or losing to Northampton and you have left all your best players out to prepare for the weekend, then you would like to have your best players to change things,” he said. “Maybe that’s one of the things I learnt from last week – but I learnt lots of things last week.”

Daniel Agger is absent with a groin injury that required the Danish defender to undergo an MRI scan today and Hodgson said Gerrard was left behind because “I have plenty of options in central midfield”.

Utrecht (4-4-2, probable): Vorm; Cornelisse, Schut, Wuytens, Nesu; Duplan, Lensky, Silberbauer, Mertens; Mulenga, Van Wolfswinkel.

Liverpool (4-4-2, probable): Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Kelly; Kuyt, Lucas, Meireles, Cole; Ngog, Torres.

Referee D Gomes (Portugal).

LiverpoolUtrechtEuropa LeagueAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk