If you've bothered to take a gander at our remaining fixtures for the rest of this month and early January, at the very least you'll notice the congestion, but a closer look reveals a set of difficult, crucial matches uncomfortably crammed together. Between December 8th and January 2nd, a 26 day period, we play 8 matches, or one every 3.25 days. That's absurd.
We start off this Saturday with a trip to Madejski Stadium to take on Reading. Hopefully our previous triumph there, an entertaining League Cup tie that ended with a Torres hat-trick and a 4-2 result, won't make us overly-confident. Then three days later, we're in Marseilles for our (basically) must-win Champions League tie with l'OM.
If that wasn't bad enough, the following Sunday, Man U comes to Anfield for an early afternoon Premiership battle. I'm aware that it was probably scheduled then for television exclusivity reasons, but Saturday would have been more advantageous to our side since the following Wednesday we have to go to Stamford Bridge for the League Cup. Thankfully Chelsea has to go to Emirates later in the same day we face the Mancs though homefield should give them an edge.
Three days after that, we host Portsmouth at home. If you're keeping tabs, that's away to Marseilles (in a must-win CL tie), home against Man U (in a crucial Premiership fixture), at Chelsea (for a League Cup match which matters little in my book, but I doubt Rafa feels that way), and finally, home against Portsmouth, who currently sit sixth on the table. That's four important matches in a span of twelve days. Getting Agger back for the Reading match is essential to our chances of a successful run.
Though the rest of the way, the schedule does get considerably easier opponent-wise overall, we still have to play at Manchester City on December 30th, three days off our Boxing Day tie at Derby and two days prior to the Lactics paying a visit to Anfield. I'm sure Derby will have that 6-0 beating they suffered at our hands fresh in their memory and for the most part they are considerably better at Pride Park. Not to mention, Paul Jewell will have a better feel for his squad by then. Wigan, on the other hand, even if they do get Milan Baros, should be a much easier task at home.
If we can come out of this run of ties unscathed, I'll be wholly impressed. Certain matches, like the Chelsea League Cup tie, are definitely less important when considering which of our players should take the pitch. In fact, I hope Rafa rests certain key players for that one, especially Gerrard and Torres. Of all the goals for us this year, the League Cup is fourth on the list. We also have an FA Cup match, just four days after the Wigan match, but a side of youngsters mixed with key veterans should be able to win at either Nottingham Forest or Luton Town. Getting Agger back will be nice, but if Xabi can return, by say, the Portsmouth fixture, we'll be in much better shape.
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