Rafa Benitez: Return of Daniel Agger is a huge boost

Feb 27 2008
by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo


RAFA BENITEZ today welcomed the added competition for places at Anfield as a quartet of players came through last night’s reserve team clash with Manchester United unscathed.
Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel both played a half each, while Xabi Alonso and Harry Kewell both got their names on the scoresheet and completed the full 90 minutes as they press for first team recalls.
Having been without Agger for more than five months as the Dane struggled to recover from a broken metatarsal sustained in September, Benitez was delighted to see the stylish defender finally make his return to competitive action.
He said: "It was good for Agger to get some minutes on the pitch and we decided before the game that he would play the first half and Skrtel would play the second.
"Agger did well and now we will have to see how he is today.
"When you have been out for a long time you have to be careful and you cannot rush back because if you come back too early you can have some problems.
"But Agger did well and it was good to see him back playing football again."
With Skrtel also enjoying a 45 minute run out as he bids to get back to full fitness, the Reds boss could soon find himself with a healthy selection problem at centre half.
He said: "It will be good for us to have Skrtel and Agger available again because at the moment we have only Sami and Carra.
"It is important to have two players for every position.
"It was also good for us to see Kewell and Alonso because we know that they have quality.
“It was important for them and it was important for us."
Meanwhile, Crewe have denied suggestions that starlet Max Clayton is on his way to Liverpool.
Clayton is just 14-years-old, but he is already considered a prize asset in Crewe's highly acclaimed youth set-up and reports at the weekend suggested the Reds were set to snap him up in a £1.5m deal but Crewe say they have had no approach for the youngster and would not welcome one.
Meanwhile, Reds co-owner Tom Hicks has issued the following statement in reaction to speculation about his future ownership at Anfield:
"Reports in the UK media that I am about to sell my stake in the Liverpool Football Club, or to invite DIC to examine the Club's books in preparation for such a sale - like other such reports planted in the UK press in recent weeks by parties with their own self-interested agenda - are absolutely and categorically false.
“The reality is that I am personally, professionally and financially committed to the club and its supporters and that I will continue to honor that commitment to the best of my ability now and in the future.”