13 games in 6 weeks – Liverpool’s hectic pre-World Cup calendar

With Sunday’s clash with Chelsea postponed, Liverpool are in the midst of a 17-day gap between matches, ahead of a period that will see them play 13 games in six weeks before the World Cup.

With the date for Liverpool’s League Cup clash with Derby now confirmed, we now know the full details of Liverpool’s schedule before the World Cup.

The Reds’ clash with Brighton on October 1 will mark the start of a brutal 42 days, with eight Premier League matches, the remaining four Champions League group games, as well as that League Cup tie against Derby.

After a bizarre September, disrupted by two postponements prior the latest international fixtures, the Reds will be thrown straight back in at the deep end, with two games per week up until the break for the World Cup.

Following the league encounter with Brighton, Liverpool will face Rangers home and away in a Champions League double-header either side of a trip to Arsenal.

Four days after they visit Ibrox, it’s Man City at home on Sunday October 16, before West Ham make the trip to Anfield the following Wednesday, and the third league match in the space of seven days against Nottingham Forest.

After that, the Reds will wrap up their Champions League group stage campaign with their final two group matches against Ajax on October 26 and Napoli on November 1.

Sandwiched between those games is a home tie against Leeds, with the kickoff time yet to be confirmed, before Liverpool conclude their pre-World Cup schedule with a League Cup clash against Derby and a league encounter with Southampton.

It promises to be a truly brutal six weeks, with Jurgen Klopp in desperate need of some good news on the injury front after the September international break.

The impact of the returning Thiago and Diogo Jota was clear for all to see in the win against Ajax, and it’s now imperative that more key players are back in action in the coming weeks.

In total, nine players missed the win over the Dutch champions, with Caoimhin Kelleher, Ibrahima Konate, Calvin Ramsay, Andy Robertson, Jordan Henderson, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Curtis Jones and Kaide Gordon all absent.

Judging by Klopp’s most recent updates, Kelleher, Konate, Robertson and Henderson are the likeliest candidates to return soon after the international break.

Try and enjoy the break, Reds, because it really is non-stop in October and November!