AS someone who hasn’t even started planning on how to spend their summer break, Daniel Agger isn’t prone to making predictions for the future.

But one thing the Liverpool centre-back will happily envisage is a lengthy career at Anfield after establishing himself as a key component in Rafael Benitez’s trophy-chasing team.

Having been rested to the bench for the weekend Premiership victory at Reading, the Denmark international is expected to return for tonight’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against PSV Eindhoven.

It’s a sign of the baton being passed at the heart of Liverpool’s defence, with 22-year-old Agger having usurped 33-year-old Sami Hyypia as the first-choice partner to Jamie Carragher.

And with his feet now firmly under the table at Anfield, the defender wants to emulate his Finnish team-mate in enjoying a long stay on Merseyside.

“I’m not thinking about being part of the future, I’m just looking ahead to the next game,” says Agger in typically pragmatic fashion. “I don’t even know what I’m doing in the summer.

“But I hope to be at Liverpool. I love to be here, and I can’t see myself anywhere else right now. I think I suit it here, both on and off the pitch.

“I haven’t seen anyone wearing a shirt with my name on it yet! But that’s obviously a good feeling if fans are doing it. It means somebody is appreciating your job and what you are doing.”

To think Agger was still playing for Brondby’s youth team less than three years ago. A swift elevation through the ranks saw him appear in the Danish side’s first team in July 2004, making his international debut in June 2005 before earning a £5.8million move to Liverpool six months later.

While his first few months at Anfield were hampered by injury and acclimatisation, this season Agger has become a regular under Benitez with the defender adding goals – the most recent of which coming against Arsenal last month – to his impressive portfolio.

Such a rapid rise hasn’t affected the laid back Dane. “Things haven’t happened faster than I had expected here,” he says. “Way back to the beginning of my career, everything went so fast.

“When I played in Denmark, I played only for one year from nothing through the second and third teams up to the first team, and then once I got into the team I was there ever since.

“As long as it isn’t going too quick for my head, and I can cope with things, then I can feel comfortable with it.”

Always his most fierce critic, Agger believes that attitude is what is helping him become a success at Liverpool.

“Personally, I’m happy with the way my form has gone and the way the team’s form has gone,” he adds. “We’ve had a lot of good games this season, and we are still in Europe and in third place in the Premiership.

“Every time I play, I analyse my own performance. I’m quite self-critical and I always think there is something I can change and I want to change in my game. I expect a lot from myself, maybe more than everyone else.

“That’s something that I maybe have to think about because sometimes I am too hard on myself. Sometimes if you play a good game you have to say ‘well, that was good’. But I’m always trying to see what I can do better, and that’s how I can become a better player.

“The manager is the same, because he wants to get the best from everyone.”