Agger: Liverpool defence must improve

Daniel Agger admits Liverpool have not met their usual high standards in pre-season and believes they need to tighten up in defence.

The Danish international played in Monday night’s 3-3 draw with Valerenga in Oslo, scoring twice on his return from injury.

However, he took little satisfaction from the game in Norway after Liverpool conceded three goals for the fifth successive friendly.

“The amount of goals we have conceded is definitely not good enough,” Agger said.

“We need to show we can keep a clean sheet and we have got to defend better. It just wasn’t good enough, especially in the first half.”

“The second half was okay but it wasn’t what it needs to be.”

Liverpool have had a busy pre-season schedule which has taken them to Malaysia, Singapore, China, Turkey and Norway.

Valencia await at Anfield in the final friendly on Saturday and Agger believes there is still plenty of work to do before the start of the season.

“If you are a footballer, you have to be a perfectionist,” he said.

“We are all the same as defenders and so far we just have to admit that the way we have played has not been good enough.”

“There is definitely something to work on.”

The Valerenga game also saw Pepe Reina make his first appearance during pre-season following his double hernia operation, and he has criticised the way the team played.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us as we cannot afford to concede so many goals,” Reina said. “To let in three goals is not Liverpool’s identity. We must work harder.”

“We have some new signings and we are still working them into our system.”

Liverpool begin their Premier League campaign at home to Sunderland on August 13.