Former Liverpool defender Daniel Agger has spoken about his departure from the club after eight seasons, having returned to Brondby last month.
Agger started 18 games in his final season at the club, with new signing Mamadou Sakho often the preferred choice as Martin Skrtel’s centre-back partner.
Speaking in an interview on Danish TV, Agger claims that his relationship with Brendan Rodgers broke down last season: “The manager and I probably weren’t on the same page last season, for the majority of the season.
“I felt very distanced to him, and to me that was just enough. I feel he didn’t appreciate my qualities and my contributions.”
Agger claims there “weren’t many conversations” between him and the manager.
The Dane claims that he was unhappy even at training, knowing that he would be dropped even if he thought he had performed well:
“When you been a part of the starting eleven for several games in a row and the team have performed well, and you feel that you have played well yourself, then when you’re left out of the team and don’t feel appreciated, it starts to get into your mind, you wonder.
“When you at the same time see the statistics from your game, which are so important all around the world of football, then you don’t understand why you weren’t used more often.”
However, Agger had words of praise for Rodgers too:
“I think he is a great manager, you can’t take that away from him. He’s good in the way he trains the team and he is great at setting up the team. The things that went wrong between us is that I say things the way they are and I expect others to treat me the same way. Maybe it is wrong to always expect this.”
Agger also took what could be perceived as a shot at Luis Suarez, questioning the loyalty of a lot of players in football:
“At least I have learned a lot from last year. I have learned that a lot of players in the world of football only think of what is best for themselves. I haven’t done that for the biggest part in my career. But with all that has been said and done and understand why players think think this way, even though it has been something I couldn’t relate to in the past. It has been an eye opener.”
Watch the interview (in Danish):
Agger made 232 appearances for Liverpool, having arrived from Brondby in 2006.
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