Liverpool defender Daniel Agger criticised Roy Hodgson’s style of play after the defeat to Manchester United. The Denmark international said to Sporten.dk:
“The manager’s philosophy is that we play football in attack, but not at the back. That’s not my style. I’m not that type of player. I like to keep the ball on the ground, and that’s what I’ll keep doing. Time will show if he [Hodgson] doesn’t want to play me because of that. I’ll try to change myself, but I will never be a player who offloads the ball at every opportunity. I’ll fight for my chance. I know what I stand for, and I think he [Hodgson] does too.”
To be honest with you, I don’t think there will be many who will not agree with Agger on this point. Liverpool have a tradition of “pass and move” football as Roy himself proclaimed after taking over the Reds hot seat. An attacking philosophy typified by the ability toplay the ball out of defence from defenders who are capable on the ball. The Reds have a history of “footballing” defenders such as Alan Hansen, and Agger is continuing this tradition with his style of play.
Of course Roy is entitled to his views that the primary duty of a centre back is to defend and hoof the ball clear, but when you have the ability of someone like Agger I think it is best to utilise his attributes to the full. Against Manchester United, one of the fundamental problems we had in the first 10 minutes, and in the in the final 10 minutes when the score was at 2-2, was the fact we could not keep hold of possession. Again and again Man U heaped pressure on the Reds defence as Martin Skrtel and Jamie Carragher cleared the ball to safety only to find the feet of a Man U player.
Skrtel, especially yesterday, could be accused of not dealing with situations as well as he could have done. On one occasion he found himself under the ball and missed a chance to clear with a header before eventually scrambling the ball to safety. With Agger, playing centrally, his composure on the ball is second to none, and I firmly believe that Roy should give him a chance ahead of Skrtel to show what he can do. Especially on the ball, Agger has one up on his centre back colleagues. Not only can he bring the ball into the opposition half to set up an attack and put in some troubling through balls, he also has a rocket of a left boot to fire at goal from long range.
If we go by Agger’s comments though that Hodgson is discouraging defenders from being too ambitious in their play, than I think the manager has missed a trick. Modern football is played at a such a pace and with such a quality that all eleven members of the first team need to be handy on the ball. Certainly, a defenders first duty is to ensure the backline is secure, but if you have someone like Agger, use him. Most other teams such as Thomas Vermaelen at Arsenal, Rio Ferdinand at Manchester United and formerly Ricardo Carvalho at Chelsea, have a player that can do this job. I really hope that Roy Hodgson sees this part of Agger’s game positively, and opts to start the Dane in the near future with a license to roam forward when he can.
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I fear Agger’s days are numbered. A manager will want his players to adapt to the style he wants to play. It is always unfortunate that some talented players are victims of this. A mid-table manager will what his defenders to hoof it up to clear their lines in desperation- not really the Liverpool way but Hodgson was never a Liverpool quality manager. I expect it would be in the interests of both parties that Agger move on in January- unless of course the board do the sensible thing and bring back King Kenny as manager. Real shame about Agger.
To be honest I’ve not been greatly impressed by Hodgson to date. Insua was a better left back than Konchesky and was younger with potential to grow in the role. To bring Konch in he got rid of some of the best young talent at the club. All of this took attention away from the search for a striker. But more depressing than that are his public pronouncements. The suspicion that he was a mid-table manager was confirmed when he said he hadn’t expected to beat Birmingham. That is an unbelievable thing to say unless you’re Blackpool. Then after the United game he spoke about still getting to know Mereiles’s strengths- Roy you recruited the player, surely you should have some sense of what his attributes are!
@ Derafanated. I apprieciate what you’re saying there and I do realise that we have already played Arsenal, City & Utd but are they not the teams we want to compete against? My point is that Roy Hodgson WILL turn LFC into a mid table club unless something changes very soon.
Hodgson should GO!
Daglish, please take over from Hodgson.
I’m not sure Daglish would be the right man for the job either to be honest. Granted he is probably liverpool’s greatest ever player but he has not managed a club for 10 years and would probably take a fair bit of time to make an impact which in my opinion would be too late. If Hodgson does go the only man I would want brought in to replace him would be Martin O’Neill.
Agger is our best defender no question. Carra is past it but only plays cos no one has the balls to drop him.
Roy is clearly out of his depth. I never wanted him and she just leave.
agger is right but unfortunately more wrong than right, you dont undermine the manager in public, its not the liverpool way.
stan howard,
unfortunately roy is undermining himself by not standing up for his players.
roy has to win the players over and then he has to win the fans over. can you honestly say he has done that?
i was prepared to give him a chance, but i’m sorry he lost me by not sticking up for torres, and to allow fergascum to deliver some cheap shots without reply is unforgivable.
the difference in the two men is nothing, nothing gets in the way of man u winning for fergascum not even friendship. roy should of instantly pointed to nani and said maybe alex was’nt aware that nani was rolling around like a little girl. that would have won the fans over and helped take the pressure off, but roy values his relationship with that scumbag more.
sorry he’s lost my support.
agger is our best defender for sure. defensively, he’s probably not the strongest but i want to see him pair up with skrtel. agger and skrtel would form a good partnership, i just think that hodgson hasn’t got the guts to drop carra. carra’s way past his peak, he’s solid at the back but he’s just too slow. sometime this season carra has to make way, skrtel and agger is my first choice for sure. but, when i read this, i don’t think agger should be moaning about not playing a couple of games cause he only missed the birmingham one and that’s all, as a lfc player, you don’t moan about being left out after missing just one game although i do think that hodgson should play him
Danny Agger Always. Can easily turn defence into attack any day. By just kicking the ball away from defence, the ball will definately come back and our defenders will always be under pressure. We can’t always expect Stevie & FT9 to come up with the magic. Agger is a very intelligent player and should not be left on the bench.
how do you play pass and move football in attack if the ball is just hoofed aimlessly out of defense???
The theory doesn’t even make any sense seeing as the midfield would be completely overlooked, and the opposition defenders are always going to be favorites to win a ball lauched towards them from 50 yards
Danny agger is world class defender he actually deserved better last sunday anyway the manager got the last word always, “glimpse of benitez in the air”, anyway goodluck danny dnt loose faith keep fighting and hope u stay at LFC!!!