Liverpool’s Premier League home fixture against Luton Town has now been rescheduled, having been forced to move from its original date due to the Reds’ participation in the Carabao Cup final.
The game at Anfield was originally pencilled in for 24 February but will now take place earlier that week, with a 7:30pm kick-off on Wednesday 21st, as confirmed on LFC’s official website and social media channels.
The new fixture date means that Jurgen Klopp’s side will soon face into a period of nine matches in just 30 days across four different competitions.
Brentford away in the Premier League begins that sequence on 17 February, followed by the rescheduled Luton game four days later and the Carabao Cup final on 25 February.
The FA Cup game at home to Watford or Southampton comes later that week, with top-flight duties resuming away to Nottingham Forest on 2 March.
Liverpool’s Europa League campaign resumes on 7 March, with the second leg of their round of 16 tie a week later, and the small matter of Manchester City coming to Anfield in between those two games.
The hectic fixture period ends the weekend of 16/17 March, with the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park currently fixed for then, although that’ll give way to the FA Cup quarter-finals if the Reds progress to that round of the competition.
That run from mid-February to mid-March is set to test Liverpool’s squad depth rigorously, although it’s not a wholly new phenomenon for Jurgen Klopp’s side. In a 33-day period towards the end of 2023, we played no fewer than 10 matches.
Such fixture pile-ups are the price which comes with progression to the latter stages of knockout competitions, as we saw during the quadruple bid two seasons ago; and while the upcoming schedule may look daunting, the new date for the Luton game is probably to the Reds’ benefit.
Should Liverpool go deep into the Europa League and make it to the FA Cup semi-finals, two more Premier League games would need to be rescheduled, with very few windows of opportunity to get those matches played.
At least by getting the Hatters’ visit to Anfield out of the way slightly earlier than originally intended, the fixture congestion in the post-Easter period may be eased a bit – depending, of course, on how many fronts on which the Reds will be battling by that stage of the campaign.