The question offered an easy get-out clause. The simplest approach would have been to take it. Instead, Brendan Rodgers eschewed that option.
No, he replied, Daniel Agger was not injured. The implication was clear: Liverpool’s classiest defender had simply been substituted because, although Martin Skrtel was culpable for two Swansea City goals, he was still less impressed with the Dane’s performance.
The follow-up question brought a similar brief and revealing answer. Was Kolo Toure brought on for Agger to offer more physicality at the back? Yes, he was. It was a vote of no confidence.
That was five days ago, after the 4-3 win against Swansea, an afternoon that was emblematic of Liverpool’s propensity to marry devastating attacking and woeful defending in the same game.
If it was rather typical of their season, it prompted more questions: if the forever eager but sadly error-prone Toure is the solution, how severe are the problems? And how often will Agger be seen in the starting XI again?
Probably not on Saturday against Southampton because, as Swansea’s Wilfried Bony was deemed too brawny an opponent for Agger, Southampton possess a similarly sizeable striker in the shape of Liverpool fan Rickie Lambert.
By the time Rodgers’ team play again, the club’s most expensive centre-back Mamadou Sakho should be fit again.
If the suspicion is that Agger will leave at the end of the season, it will owe much to the events of last summer. By spending £16 million (Dh97.6m) on Sakho, Rodgers gave himself two of that rare breed, the left-footed centre-back.
It is evident he believes they are incompatible. They have only started together twice, both with the cumbersome Sakho as an unconvincing left-back.
Six years his junior, the Frenchman looks Agger’s long-term replacement. Moreover, on the few occasions when Liverpool’s defence has not been depleted by injuries, the Dane has tended to be the odd man out.
Even when a systemic switch afforded starting spots for three centre-backs, Sakho, Skrtel and Toure were the trio preferred. Agger was on the bench.
After Rodgers reverted to two central defenders, he was dropped for December’s game at Hull City; the Ivorian was again favoured for his greater power, even if a 3-1 defeat proved another game to forget for Toure and Skrtel.
Liverpool struggled against giant strikers last season. Now the sight of them tends to deter Rodgers from picking Agger.
If it is less ignominious that when Roy Hodgson preferred the slow, clumsy Sotirios Kyrgiakos to a gifted technician, it still represents a swift fall from grace. Agger was installed as vice-captain upon Jamie Carragher’s retirement. He seemed to be the cornerstone of the defence; instead, he is being edged out.
The incongruous element is that, on paper, Rodgers and Agger seem a natural fit – a manager who emphasises the importance of retaining possession and a defender with the skill-set of a midfielder; indeed, many more attack-minded players possess neither his long-range passing or shooting ability.
The Northern Irishman arrived at Anfield at a time when Roberto Mancini wanted to take the Dane to Manchester City and set about explaining how he suited his ethos.
“I like a playmaker in behind,” he said in 2012 as an explanation of why Agger was so integral.
Yet problems soon arose. Agger was sent off in Rodgers’ first game in charge, the 3-0 defeat to West Bromwich Albion. He has never quite recaptured the form that made him Liverpool’s outstanding player in the 2011/12 season and prompted Mancini’s desire to partner him with Vincent Kompany.
It is no coincidence that both have apparently attracted Barcelona’s attention. Ball-playing centre-backs of Agger’s calibre are few and far between.
Most are found in the Uefa Champions League and it makes it all the odder that, as Liverpool look set for a belated return to the European elite, the defender most suited to the competition seems ever likelier to be plying his trade elsewhere.
Rodgers and Agger, seemingly a match made in footballing heaven, could be headed for divorce.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
