Liverpool defender Dan Agger is happy to see the back of 2012.

Liverpool won just 12 Premier League games - their worst total for a calendar year - and lost more games (17) than ever before.

Ahead of tonight's visit of Sunderland to Anfield, Danish defender Agger said: "We are in a place where we are not happy, where we are in the table now is not good enough and we want to get higher.

"The only way to get that is to try to get three points every week. I cannot explain the differences in our performances. Every time you play a good game and then a bad game, it is the same question.

"I honestly think it is impossible to explain.

"It would be too easy if you could say, 'That's the problem' because then we could go and work on it. When things like that happen, it is difficult to explain."