AGGER: PLAYERS HAPPIER NOW
Liverpool defender Daniel Agger believes the training ground is a happy place again under new manager Roy Hodgson after previous boss Rafael Benitez's reign came to a disappointing end.
The Reds finished seventh last season, their worst Barclays Premier League placing for more than a decade, and the club and Benitez soon parted.
At the time there were suggestions the Spaniard had managed to alienate a number of his players - having had public fall-outs with Ryan Babel and Albert Riera - but Agger today said they were all together again under the Englishman's stewardship.
"It is a new team, new players, young players, new staff and I think the mentality you can see on people's faces - they are a lot more happy in training sessions," said the Denmark international.
"When you get a new training session, new staff around you, new methods, it gives you more energy somehow."Obviously the sessions have to be good in the right way but I think it is really important for a team to be happy to play football.
"For me it is really important I am happy when I play football because I think I can perform better then and I think it is the same for everyone."
When asked if he felt the squad had grown stale under Benitez, the 25-year-old added: "I think we have to look at the future not the past so I don't think it's relevant.
"In every training session we focus on the future, we don't look at the past."
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