Daniel you are right to feel frustrated

Liverpool centre-back Daniel Agger expressed his dissatisfaction today about being left out of the side to face Birmingham City at the weekend:

“Obviously I wasn’t happy because I want to play every game. It’s not my decision but I have to accept it. I can be as angry as I want but it will never be my decision. Everybody says the same thing (in these situations) that you have to work hard and improve. What I need to do is make sure I use the games that I do get at centre-back to show the boss that I want to play there and that I am good enough to play there. There is no point sulking. You just have to go and prove yourself. I think it is fair enough to be disappointed. It’s also fair enough to be angry. You just don’t show it.”

In my view Agger has every right to feel frustrated about starting on the bench on Sunday. In comparison to Martin Skrtel, the Danish defender is superior in a few vital areas. He is rarely pulled out of position and keeps a disciplined defensive line alongside Jamie Carragher. He also rarely gives stupid free kicks away in dangerous area or for that matter lunge wildly in the penalty box. Unlike Skrtel also, the most significant part of his game is his ability on the ball; he is a footballing defender. He can pass the ball out of defence with ease and he can fire bullets from his left foot at long range to trouble opposition keepers.

Agger has however been the victim of the fact that Liverpool started the season without a decent left back. With Fabio Aurelio out injured once more, Hodgson utilised Agger’s versatility to play him in a role he played under Rafa Benitez last campaign when there was an injury crisis in the position. The left-footed centre back was forced to play out of position and he managed to play reasonably well. Against Arsenal on the first day of the season, he battled to the last with his side down to ten men despite suffering a nasty concussion. He said later he had no memory of the game and it took him the best part of two weeks to recover from the blow he sustained to his head.

The signing of Paul Konchesky however means Agger is no longer needed to play in the emergency full back role. He hasn’t though recovered his favoured centre back role straight away with Skrtel instead taking his place in the team. Probably the primary reason that Skrtel has been given the nod ahead of Agger is his height. Hodgson likes a tall commanding centre back in the mould of Brede Hangeland which he had at Fulham, and although the Slovakian international is very decent in the air and a good defender, he is yet to recover his form of a couple of years ago.

Against Manchester City, he gave away a silly penalty to put the Blues out of sight in the 3-0 defeat, against West Brom in Liverpool’s second home league match of the season he struggled to contain some of the Baggies’ attacking players, and nearly gave away a penalty for dragging down a player in the box. His display against Birmingham City at the weekend was also less than assured; struggling under pressure as the Blues pumped in a number of difficult high crosses. For these reasons I hope Daniel Agger recovers his position as first choice centre back very quickly, and he can start to convince Roy by giving a consummate display against Steaua Bucharest at Anfield tonight.

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