(sorry if posted elsewhere)
Agger flying high after smooth landing at Anfield
By Alan Smith
Last Updated: 12:07am GMT 03/03/2007
As a teenager, Daniel Agger wasn't too fussed about becoming a professional footballer. The young Dane was looking instead towards a career in a cockpit.
"I wanted to go in the military, to be a fighter pilot," he says. "Of course, when you are a little boy you dream of becoming a footballer but as the years passed I didn't think like that because I wasn't playing in my junior first teams. My mind was in a different place."
Not now it isn't. Not by a long stretch. In a rare interview since moving from Brondby in January last year, Liverpool's talented centre-half exudes confidence, determination and shimmering ambition on the eve of facing Manchester United for the first time today.
He knows where he's going, this elegant 6ft 3in stopper. On the evidence so far that appears to be somewhere pretty good at a club where the legacy of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson survives as a testing benchmark.
Agger's progress, in fact, has been unerringly steady since becoming the most expensive player to be sold by a Danish club. Armed with a sweet left foot, a deceptively strong physique and good positional sense, the £5.8 million recruit has gradually usurped Sami Hyypia as Jamie Carragher's regular partner for the crunch games, hence his participation in Barcelona last week, his probable inclusion in next Tuesday's return leg as well as a likely starting place at Anfield this lunch-time.
He has achieved this, what's more, in an understated way, bereft of the drama or mistakes that beset many defensive newcomers to the English game.
"My idea of a good defender is the one who doesn't make any mistakes," he says simply, as if the task is straightforward. "It doesn't matter whether you're scoring 10 or 20 goals as a defender. Not making mistakes is your job."
Judging by the widespread interest that followed, Agger couldn't have made too many errors either during his one and only season for Brondby, a promotion that happened by chance when Andreas Jakobsson's last-minute departure to Southampton left the club short.
Elevated to the seniors, the untried 19-year-old set out to give it his best shot while keeping half an eye on his previous ambition.
"I still wanted to be a pilot but I thought I'd give it a year to see what happened."
Good decision. Agger went on to help Michael Laudrup's team win the Danish Superliga as well as being named 'talent of the year'. Though injured for most of the following campaign, Liverpool stepped in to snap him up ahead of several other suitors.
"You don't expect so many clubs to look at you when you're injured," he says. "That was a good feeling for me. It gave me a lot of confidence."
Mind you, he nearly didn't make it that far. In Brondby's youth ranks, where he had gradually dropped back from striker, to midfielder, to left-back to centre-half, Agger had made a name as something of a hothead.
"I did have some problems with my temper," he admits. "I wanted to win, no matter what, so it was easy to get mad."
With red cards being flourished at an alarming rate, one of his coaches was forced to have a stern word. "He took me to one side and said if I wanted to carry on playing there I had to calm down. He said it was my last chance. I had to change."
Only two yellow cards this season illustrate his success.
"I learned my lesson and seem to have got all my red and yellow cards out of the way early. I have changed completely. Over the last couple of years I have stayed on my feet more."
Off the pitch, too, Agger doesn't like lying down. A couch potato he is not, having laid down a kitchen floor in his old flat and designed the new one in his Liverpool apartment.
"I like to go from one point to another point and see the result of what you are doing," he says. "I actually like to work. I can't sit still for more than five minutes. I still have a few things to sort out in my apartment and every day I am thinking about new projects."
One of them is a pub he recently bought with his uncle close to where he was brought up in a Copenhagen suburb.
"That takes up a lot of time. I've known the place since I was a little boy. I like the style it has but there are still some things I need to change. I am doing some drawings just now, trying to redesign the toilet area and that."
Like most Danes, he doesn't mind a beer. Billiards and golf are other pastimes. Ask him, however, about the incident in Spain during Liverpool's recent training break involving Craig Bellamy, a seven-iron and John Arne Riise and Agger clams up.
"That's history now so we don't speak about it," he says bluntly, refusing to go any further. Past experience, it seems, has made him a little guarded.
"In Denmark I said no to everything because a lot of journalists speak little about football and a lot about your life. I don't like that because I want to keep my life private.
"The journalists in Denmark didn't like that. They think they can get everything from players. They got a little angry when I said they couldn't have my telephone number. I just didn't want them ringing me up all the time."
So has that put him off doing interviews now?
"No, I'll do them but, I don't know, it's just not my style and character."
What is certain is that this particular 22-year-old knows his own mind. He has a fixed view on how to approach the challenge on Merseyside, and that doesn't solely involve following advice, even from fellow central defenders as experienced as Hyypia and Carragher.
"They have been playing for a lot longer so obviously know a lot more than me," he says. "I try to use everything I can and listen to everything but at the same time I have my own ideas on football. I try to use what I think I can from them and mix it with my own game."
The policy seems to be working. His seat in the cockpit can wait a while longer.
Agger flying high after smooth landing at Anfield
By Alan Smith
Last Updated: 12:07am GMT 03/03/2007
As a teenager, Daniel Agger wasn't too fussed about becoming a professional footballer. The young Dane was looking instead towards a career in a cockpit.
"I wanted to go in the military, to be a fighter pilot," he says. "Of course, when you are a little boy you dream of becoming a footballer but as the years passed I didn't think like that because I wasn't playing in my junior first teams. My mind was in a different place."
Not now it isn't. Not by a long stretch. In a rare interview since moving from Brondby in January last year, Liverpool's talented centre-half exudes confidence, determination and shimmering ambition on the eve of facing Manchester United for the first time today.
He knows where he's going, this elegant 6ft 3in stopper. On the evidence so far that appears to be somewhere pretty good at a club where the legacy of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson survives as a testing benchmark.
Agger's progress, in fact, has been unerringly steady since becoming the most expensive player to be sold by a Danish club. Armed with a sweet left foot, a deceptively strong physique and good positional sense, the £5.8 million recruit has gradually usurped Sami Hyypia as Jamie Carragher's regular partner for the crunch games, hence his participation in Barcelona last week, his probable inclusion in next Tuesday's return leg as well as a likely starting place at Anfield this lunch-time.
He has achieved this, what's more, in an understated way, bereft of the drama or mistakes that beset many defensive newcomers to the English game.
"My idea of a good defender is the one who doesn't make any mistakes," he says simply, as if the task is straightforward. "It doesn't matter whether you're scoring 10 or 20 goals as a defender. Not making mistakes is your job."
Judging by the widespread interest that followed, Agger couldn't have made too many errors either during his one and only season for Brondby, a promotion that happened by chance when Andreas Jakobsson's last-minute departure to Southampton left the club short.
Elevated to the seniors, the untried 19-year-old set out to give it his best shot while keeping half an eye on his previous ambition.
"I still wanted to be a pilot but I thought I'd give it a year to see what happened."
Good decision. Agger went on to help Michael Laudrup's team win the Danish Superliga as well as being named 'talent of the year'. Though injured for most of the following campaign, Liverpool stepped in to snap him up ahead of several other suitors.
"You don't expect so many clubs to look at you when you're injured," he says. "That was a good feeling for me. It gave me a lot of confidence."
Mind you, he nearly didn't make it that far. In Brondby's youth ranks, where he had gradually dropped back from striker, to midfielder, to left-back to centre-half, Agger had made a name as something of a hothead.
"I did have some problems with my temper," he admits. "I wanted to win, no matter what, so it was easy to get mad."
With red cards being flourished at an alarming rate, one of his coaches was forced to have a stern word. "He took me to one side and said if I wanted to carry on playing there I had to calm down. He said it was my last chance. I had to change."
Only two yellow cards this season illustrate his success.
"I learned my lesson and seem to have got all my red and yellow cards out of the way early. I have changed completely. Over the last couple of years I have stayed on my feet more."
Off the pitch, too, Agger doesn't like lying down. A couch potato he is not, having laid down a kitchen floor in his old flat and designed the new one in his Liverpool apartment.
"I like to go from one point to another point and see the result of what you are doing," he says. "I actually like to work. I can't sit still for more than five minutes. I still have a few things to sort out in my apartment and every day I am thinking about new projects."
One of them is a pub he recently bought with his uncle close to where he was brought up in a Copenhagen suburb.
"That takes up a lot of time. I've known the place since I was a little boy. I like the style it has but there are still some things I need to change. I am doing some drawings just now, trying to redesign the toilet area and that."
Like most Danes, he doesn't mind a beer. Billiards and golf are other pastimes. Ask him, however, about the incident in Spain during Liverpool's recent training break involving Craig Bellamy, a seven-iron and John Arne Riise and Agger clams up.
"That's history now so we don't speak about it," he says bluntly, refusing to go any further. Past experience, it seems, has made him a little guarded.
"In Denmark I said no to everything because a lot of journalists speak little about football and a lot about your life. I don't like that because I want to keep my life private.
"The journalists in Denmark didn't like that. They think they can get everything from players. They got a little angry when I said they couldn't have my telephone number. I just didn't want them ringing me up all the time."
So has that put him off doing interviews now?
"No, I'll do them but, I don't know, it's just not my style and character."
What is certain is that this particular 22-year-old knows his own mind. He has a fixed view on how to approach the challenge on Merseyside, and that doesn't solely involve following advice, even from fellow central defenders as experienced as Hyypia and Carragher.
"They have been playing for a lot longer so obviously know a lot more than me," he says. "I try to use everything I can and listen to everything but at the same time I have my own ideas on football. I try to use what I think I can from them and mix it with my own game."
The policy seems to be working. His seat in the cockpit can wait a while longer.
I've watched Manure quite a bit and to call Vidic phenomenal is a bit of a joke, just because he is good in the air doesn't make him phenomenal. In every other aspect of his game Agger far exceeds Vidic.
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