7 May 2013

Anfield shock: Reds star admits he's 'considered quitting' LFC 'several' times.

For the first six years of his Liverpool career, Daniel Agger spent a whopping 24 months on the sidelines with injury. That's 43% of his time on the treatment table (!), and it should therefore come as no surprise that the Dane is one of the most injured players in Liverpool FC's history. Things have changed over the last year, however, and Agger is now playing regularly and avoiding injury. Despite this, the Dane concedes that the damage has already been done, and he's admitted that his career could end sooner rather than later.

In an interview over the weekend, Agger dropped a potential bombshell about his long-term future. He told Aftonbladet:

"I do not have much time left. It's something you can feel.

"Things are okay right now, but I've thought about quitting several times. I've had some serious injuries and in those periods, I've considered quitting."


Agger is only 28 years old, so if he's saying this now, it probably means he's mentally preparing himself for comparatively early retirement from the game.

Given his injury history, the next big injury Agger suffers could be his last, and it looks increasingly likely that he'll end his career at Anfield.

Speaking to Sporten DK recently, Agger described his lack of injuries this season as a 'great achievement', and when asked why things are different this year, he explained:

"There is a clear plan for the way I train, and the way I recuperate, and that is what has carried me through. I'm getting the right amount of exercise and the right number of games. I feel that it makes me feel better physically and more fit. I really feel comfortable, and that's obviously why I've played all the matches I've played."

Agger is definitely a fan favourite, and he has many great qualities (leadership, technique, passing accuracy, running with the ball, comfort in possession), but like Martin Skrtel, he's increasingly prone to mistakes, and it's no exaggeration to suggest that his errors - along with those of Skrtel and Pepe Reina - have contributed to Liverpool's failure to challenge for a Champions League place this season.

Well, with Jamie Carragher already retiring, it looks like Brendan Rodgers will now have to start planning ahead for Agger's retirement, which could come sooner rather than later.

Agger's injury history: 2006-2012

Daniel Agger Injury History at Liverpool FC



NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)


69 comments:

  1. As with Kelly, decent player, ticks all of the boxes but difficult to build your league winning team upon. There will be at least two central defenders arriving this summer. There will need to be. If not, prepare for the same shambles we had with a striker this year for the first five months of next season.

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  2. Just to add, I only hope that we won't have to deal with "well yeah we're eight in the league but that's because we have a brand new pair at the heart of defence and they still need to get used to each other" next season.

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  3. Agger is not "decent" player, he has been absolutely world class every time he has been injury-free for at least a couple of months.

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  4. We should have sold him last year when we were offered £20M+ for him.


    That is all. It's only a matter of time before he picks up a major injury. Probably playing internationally.

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  5. And have Skrtel pair up with Carra in defence? Back to long ball it is then...

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  6. jaimie everyone feels like calling it a day through the bad times its human nature so i will not read to much into his statement don,t tell me you have never felt like jacking this in ,i know i would what with some of your more unruly posters lol;-)

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  7. I agree that Agger has a lot of qualities, but if he's so world class, why does he make so many costly mistakes?

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  8. What, and let the naysayers and haters win? Never!

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  9. If he isn't so world class, why is Manchester city and Barcelona Fc always on his trail?

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  10. It is easy to make mistakes in a disastrous defensive line we have had for the recent seasons. Carra-Skrtel defensive pairing was one of the most reliable in Europe in 2008-2009, but they have been making costly mistakes during the last two years.

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  11. Man City bought Lescott, Milner and Barry - are they world class too? Just because top teams chase players doesn't make them world class.

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  12. As central defenders or goalkeepers, no matter how world class you are, your mistakes will always be costly! For us, it also happens with attackers. On maybe at least 3 occasions, our opponents have scored from Gerrard giving the ball away cheaply.

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  13. Kop that Jaimie... You got me there.. But i still believe he is world class.

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  14. Shock? No, not at all. He has said things like that in the past already. No surprise here. Why would he change his opinion looking back at his career?

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  15. i cannot understand why carragher as got as much game time as he has surely it would be better yo give players that are staying or at least may be staying more game time,but like you say it pays way for excuses next season,but there can be no excuses next season 10 games imo to shape the season or rodgers has to go

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  16. If we have a brand new pair at the heart of defence next season, they better resemble the Henchoz-Hyypiä partnership.

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  17. Wouldn't that be amazing. What a partnership. Even better than Hyypia-Carragher IMO. Telepathic understanding.

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  18. That's fair enough. Taking everything into consideration, Agger probably is world class: he's done the business at domestic, European and International level; he's a vital player for LFC and Denmark. Just a shame his career may come to a premature end.

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  19. one more season to get us playing top notch footy and challenging for top 3/4 is the least he'll be given. the transfer committee shares responsibility for signings now, a sure sign that we are moving with the times. Less room for error and getting ripped off. by the way jason, i share this sentiment on eriksen.

    http://www.insidefutbol.com/2013/05/07/christian-eriksen-is-too-inconsistent-to-leave-for-bigger-league-ex-psv-eindhoven-coach-on-liverpool-target/85426/?

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  20. the defence has gone from rock solid(last season under s clarke) with the team hardly scoring to below average this season with plenty of goals. something has to give or else it would be too easy.
    we need more dynamic, all round players to play the total football that buck wants.

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  21. Yep, amazing. Definitely my favourite defensive partnership since we last won the league. They knew how to defend.

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  22. unless the committee are all clueless ,who knows who the committee is

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  23. buck, the city boys, the fitness guy and stats people. as many clued up opinions as poss i suppose. apparently buck i struggling to convince the board over williams so it must be doing something good.

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  24. but how many players could we end up missing out on whilst they all decide to agree on the same targets

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  25. top targets are toby a, douglas, a pearce and williams for the defence.

    the kenyan lad from celtic for cm and or mcarthy.

    the armenian and eriksen for am. ince.

    Gramiero and remy for forward.

    outgoings. pepe, glenda(wants a new challenge and is a valuable asset), carra, skrtel , coates, downing carroll, spearing,henderson(if the right bid comes in), assaidi. ngoo(be good for celtic part ex for the kenyan)



    these opinions are based on patterns ive noticed and info ive heard from the most reliable sources. there are always smoke and mirrors and unknown targets

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  26. It would make sense, with european football totally out of reach, to give Wisdom and Agger a few games together. But if Rodgers plans on getting in a new pairing for next year anyway, that wouldn't make much sense either. Plus Carragher deserves to play his last game at Anfield rather than having to watch it from the bench no?

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  27. Not fussed about him leaving, let alone retiring. Not a fan of his, let alone not even near world class. Hasn't fulfilled the initial hype and only his ability on the ball is what makes him look better than Skrtel, in this current system. Probably more chance of Skrtel being sacrificed in the summer or least demoted from the first XI. Disappointing situation at CB, to say the least.

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  28. What patterns? Who would play right back if all this would happen? Flanagan? That young Irish kid? And we'd lose Pep but not buy a goalkeeper? I don't think so somehow. I can't see Henderson leaving either. The kid has come on in leaps and bounds and we'd be foolish to let him go. I can't help but fear that we won't sign too many Household names this summer though.

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  29. Did you not hear JC? Carra was on his knees begging Rodgers to field him... lol

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  30. Get real Tornike. Agger consistently makes school errors with his naive defending.

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  31. Kelly is also injured more often than Agger. There was no keeper in your list. Henderson was offered to Fulham at the start of the season. I don't think he will be now. He's like Shelvey. He can play, has the arrogance and fight in him to have a go. He may see himself having to fight even more next season to have a chance at getting a game but that's the entire purpose of having a squad; players should push each other.

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  32. www.liverpool-rumours.co.uk check this site and go in to the macca rumours section some very handy info like for instance 6 months ago i knew from the site that carragher would join sky...

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  33. www.liverpool-rumours.co.uk...........macca rumours section a must see

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  34. I think it's a good thing you are not making decision at LFC! You will be blaming everybody for everything. The article has nothing to do with BR and you are already blaming him for next season mishap. Get your facts straight defense have done better this year than last and we had less injuries than years past! Ones again JC solutions not blaming.

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  35. rodgers and team are responsible for the amount of playing time agger and steve g have enjoyed. this is no fluke. kelly will be under the same guidance. (read comments made my steve g and agger before quoting again).

    henderson gives the ball away too much and would not get into any of the top 4 /5 teams first 11's.

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  36. LOL, he doesnt say quitting LFC to join another club, but to quit football altogether, which makes sense given his incredible injury record!

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  37. i never said that carragher deserves is final game to be one to remember but what about fulham surely someone else should be given the chance

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  38. not blaming carragher but thats rodgers call

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  39. how can the defense have done better if we have conceded more goals lol

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  40. Jaimie, you might want to correct your typo in the first sentence as 24 months in 6 years is 1/3 not 43% ;)

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  41. We are talking season time here :)
    1 year is not 12 months then...
    1 year season time approx. 8.5 months...

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  42. Can't add to that but I can give it the thumbs up!

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  43. Would definitely prefer Carra to sit out the next two games and give it to Wisdom. Nothing to lose now as far as this season is concerned, but would be a lovely bit of experience for him in a position I think he will be awesome in.....

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  44. To be clear, last year the team gave up 40 goals.


    This year, the team gave up 42 goals with two games remaining.

    Is it more? Yes. But let's not act as though the defense has completely fallen apart this year.


    The real problem is that the defense & goalkeeping has let us down at crucial times, most notably against Man City.


    That's not to absolve anyone of wrongdoing. Just to put into context that our defense hasn't been as dire as it might seem.

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  45. The final two games should not make a difference in the long run for Wisdom and Agger together. While it can only help them, I place more value on sending out Carra to play the final two.



    Perhaps it's not smart strategy-wise; it's just the fan in me that wants to see a club legend go out on his terms. I don't think the downside is substantial to not playing Wisdom.

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  46. Don't think a season lasts an entire year. Have a look at the footnotes in the chart above.

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  47. Keep in mind though that our defense really struggled at the beginning of the season, which, in my opinion, skews the stats and doesn't accurately reflect the improvement as the season has progressed.

    That's not to absolve the defense; all I'm saying is that we may not want to revamp the whole defense because we have shown the ability to play much better of late.

    We did not have a clean sheet in our first 6 league games this season.

    And right now, we have 15 clean sheets overall, which have all come in the past 30 games then.



    Does our defense need to improve? Absolutely.


    But I also believe that we don't need to go with a total overhaul as we have some very good pieces here to begin with. We can certainly get better and we do need some new faces in order to get better. But we have a good crop to work with presently as well.

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  48. 2011/122012/13 *+ / _Points5255+ 3Clean Sheets1115+ 4Goals Scored4767+ 20Conceded4042+ 2Wins1414-Draws1013+ 3Defeats149- 5

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  49. thats baffled me as well wisdom should have started all the games at Cb as well as putting skirts and coates on the park for mins as soon as we couldn't get in Europe several weeks ago.... that coupled with Gerrard who should of had his op weeks ago ..thee is no logic to it ...id have given coady a run at cb....it was all about beating kennys position at the expense of the team ...

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  50. neither would allen though so lets start at the bottom and work up

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  51. this season was a right off months ago....the point is carra is retiring and skits and coates are out of favor and agger is always tieing his shoelaces of an injury ...there is an old saying if you aint got a back up you aint got a plan ...and we will be starting next season without a recognized cb pairing ...not ideal when you see how we started this season

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  52. coarse it makes a difference

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  53. allen looked AMAZING for the first couple of months. that is the real JA.

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  54. wisdom and kelly are rated and homegrown. they will be rotated with other central and wide defenders. they are in the mix for next season for sure.

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  55. as if we wouldnt buy some. we will have new cb's early in the transfer window.

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  56. Kelly is injured more than Aurelio.

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  57. Totally get what you're saying concerning Carra. It splits me in two as I would love for him to play in front of the Kop that one last time and I've no doubt he will. Maybe he'll start, then come off with ten mins left so he can have his own applause.
    He has been immense for us so who could deny him his final swan song.....
    I just feel we should be blooding the likes of AW in that position while we have the opportunity to allow him that bit of experience. No doubt he will get some starts next season again, (cups), but that would probably be at right back.
    Like I said, it just seems too good an opportunity to miss....

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  58. Nah - the reason we haven't challenged for top four is simple.



    Brendan Rodgers.


    This is spectacularly highlighted by his record in the domestic cups this season. All our problems are highlighted there for all to see. A mid table manager if ever there was one.

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  59. Admittedly, you're right.


    I think Rodgers mishandled this past month though. We should have used this past month, when we were no longer in the running for 4th or 5th as the opportunity to get Wisdom the experience.


    Whether that meant playing with Carra or Agger, or alternating between the three of them.

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  60. Most definitely.....
    Got a feeling that boy is going to be absolutely immense for us...........Fingers crossed and all that!

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  61. Lovren, Sakho and De Vrij.

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  62. Wisdom, Kelly, Robinson, and Flanagan.


    The future is bright for sure.


    Won't ever forget that draw at Arsenal a couple years ago when Robinson and Flanno held their own after Carra got knocked out.

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  63. According to the man himself on twitter just now "the quotes are all wrong and taken out of context".

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  64. He says quiting football not only Anfield!

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  65. Speaking purely from the heart I absolutely agree.
    I suppose if we were realistically challenging for something it would have been a no brainer to start him anyway. I will definitely be cheering him leading the team out for the last time....

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  66. I found this quite funny!

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