Liverpool defender Daniel Agger has been the subject of some serious interest from Manchester City the past week or so, but how crucial is he to Brendan Rodgers vision at the club? Can you really put a price on such a key player?
The 27 year-old centre-back is now entering his eighth season at Anfield, during which he’s feature for the first-team just 167 times, which works out at an average of 24 games in the seven seasons to date so far. This little fact in itself partly explains why Rodgers is thought to be considering an approach for the Danish international – at no point in his career has he ever played more than 30 league games, so with that in mind, isn’t a figure around the £20m mark perfectly reasonable?
It certainly is, although you’d hope that Liverpool, even with their famed poor negotiating skills and ability to get a decent price for most of their players would be able to push that up a few notches, such is City’s need to add strength in depth to their defence, or generally just sign anybody, such are Roberto Mancini’s frustrations in the transfer market.
Nonetheless, this completely misses the point of how important Agger is to the future of this Liverpool side and how key his partnership at centre-back is alongside Martin Skrtel. In Agger’s absence last season straight after he picked up a rib injury in the Carling Cup final triumph against Cardiff City, the side managed to pick up just three points from a possible 18 in the league; they kept just one clean sheet and shipped 11 goals in the process, which sums up rather neatly just how integral he is to the back four.
That is no coincidence and Skrtel plays far better alongside an authoritative partner, willing to dictate the back four and as he’s matured, Agger has increasingly become that sort of player, taking over the mantle from Jamie Carragher, who has seen his role in the side reduced.
You also have to take into account that if Liverpool did actually sell Agger this summer, who on earth would they replace him with? It’s hardly like ball-playing centre-backs with proven international and European experience are growing on trees and any proposed switch could have the potential to disrupt the balance of the entire side.
Names such as Ashley Williams, Diego Godin and Simon Kjaer have all been mooted in the past, but you’d take Agger over any one of them at the moment, and talk of luring Mats Hummels from German champions Borussia Dortmund is fanciful at best, with the club not willing to offer the defender Champions League football at present, while the Bundesliga side obviously can.
Agger is an experienced member of this squad, which is a lot younger than you’d initially think. Rodgers clearly wants the side to play the ball out from the back, as was clear by their reluctance to hoof it forward on the few rare occasions when they were actually put under any pressure by FC Gomel at Anfield, and Agger fits this style down to the ground.
So far, Rodgers has adopted a very pragmatic approach to interest in the club’s players, rather reasonably stating that every player has their price – most manager would obviously never say such a thing as it provokes a media storm, but it’s definitely true and at least Rodgers is willing to admit it.
It appears as if there’s just not the funds and he may have to sell before he buys, stating earlier in the week: “The reality is we don’t the money that was here. I don’t have a bucket-load of money to go and get in a load of players. We have to be strategic.” Strategic can be used as a byword for ‘skint’ in this instance and alongside Suarez, Agger is one of the club’s only real saleable assets, but unless there’s a replacement of equal ability available, which there isn’t, then there’s simply no point in giving any move the green light.
Before the Europa League game, Rodgers had this to say: “Of course you might lose a top player but if it benefits you going forward and you can make two or three steps because of it – you may have to consider it” but after the win he offered this: “For me there’s no update because we don’t want to sell him. He’s a player who’s very important for me and will remain that way.”
Both are rather contradictory remarks and Rodgers is playing a canny game, emphasising his importance to the side, while he’s stated in the past that it would take a ‘ridiculous’ offer to tempt him to sell – we all know that given recent history, Manchester City are somewhat prone to ridiculous offers for players they desperately want.
Nevertheless, there is no real inclination that Agger actually wants to move and while it may seem like a bit of a silly point to make, he does have a ‘YNWA’ tattooed on the knuckles of his right hand, which would indicate a degree of loyalty, which someone like Skrtel would do well to follow suit on, given his previously cryptic remarks when confronted with similar speculation earlier on in the summer.
Agger is a hugely integral figure to this current Liverpool side, just as much as Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Lucas Leiva are and if the club have serious ambitions of having a real go at cracking the top six again in the coming campaign, then they need to keep hold of their best players and the cultured Dane certainly falls into that category and then some.
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