Rodgers talks Agger, Carroll futures

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has stressed both he and defender Daniel Agger see the player remaining at the club. However, the future of Andy Carroll remains less favourable after the Northern Irishman admitted he would prefer to tinker with his preferred way of playing before using the England striker's obvious strengths in the air as a Plan B. Agger has two years remaining on his contract, but has been the subject of two serious enquiries from Premier League champions Manchester City. Despite Rodgers admitting a week ago that "every player has his price and we will see where it goes", he insists Agger is one he intends to keep. The Liverpool boss said: "For me there has been no big change. The first point is we don't want to sell him. Secondly, I believe he will be a player who will thrive in this way of working, and thirdly, he doesn't want to leave, which is a great help as well. He is a top player and I want to keep him here. "Over the last couple of months we have been able to sell the project and vision to a number of senior players. They are very happy to move forward with it and I would expect Daniel to be the same. He made that clear in the very first conversation we had that he wanted to be part of our revolution here in terms of moving forward, and he hasn't wavered from that in any single way whatsoever. "Other reported clubs have made bids for him, which is natural, because he is a top player. But for us nothing has changed: he doesn't want to go and we don't want to sell him." Rodgers unsure of Carroll future The situation is different for Carroll, who has attracted interest from former club Newcastle United and Premier League rivals West Ham United. It is clear he will not be first choice as he does not fit into Rodgers' passing and pressing gameplan, which he developed so well at former club Swansea City and has now introduced at Anfield. And while he still believes the England international can be effective for them, he suggested it would be a while before he changed his principles and went for the alternative option. "He knows where he stands," said Rodgers. "He is an important part of our group and that is how I see it at the moment. If you are a team that puts crosses in and are firing them in from all angles, he is a great player in the box. Naturally his height and his power gives him that strength, but if you play a different style it is that much more difficult. "Most managers have a way of playing and a Plan A in terms of the way they want to play. I will always try to make Plan A better before I go to Plan B. If trying to make Plan A better doesn't work then we go to Plan B and then probably Plan C. "Andy's strengths are someone else's weakness, but we have that flexibility in the group and that will serve us well going forward. There is no doubt he is happy to be here, which is important, and of course every player wants to play but there are not many players here you can promise will play. "All he wants to do is work hard every day in training and hopefully get an opportunity at some stage to show his form. If that doesn't happen then he'll be like every other player, because they want to play games. He is concentrating on being here and we will see what develops." Tello, Sahin linked to Anfield Rodgers said there was nothing imminent in terms of players leaving, either on loan or permanently, but he hopes to learn in the next 48 hours whether his next two transfer targets will be arriving. He has been strongly linked with loan deals for Barcelona winger Cristian Tello, 21, and Real Madrid midfielder Nuri Sahin, 23, but would not confirm those were the players in his immediate thoughts. "We hope in the next couple of days we'll have one or two coming in," he said. "Hopefully in the next 48 hours we will find out." FIFA