With the holiday fixture list shaking out a little differently this season in England and Liverpool getting a full week off over Christmas, with the Reds not set to play again until the 27th following their win on the 20th against Tottenham, manager Arne Slot has chosen to give the players the holiday off.
Standard practice in other leagues but not in the Premier League where typically there is a full slate of games leading up to Christmas followed by a full slate on Boxing Day, not getting Christmas off
is sometimes cast even as something of an English football tradition. But it won’t be, at least not this year.
“We actually have Christmas Day off which is very nice,” captain Van Dijk said of the unusual opportunity. “I’ll make the most of spending the day with my wife and kids. I think it will be a first for me here. It’s a nice change, and I’ll be at home Christmas Eve, too, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
“We are having [the team] dinner tonight. The staff always have a particular plan for a game. It works well for everyone. But it’s special to be off on Christmas Day. I don’t think it’s happened ever for me in my Premier League career so far, so I’ll make the most of being with my family and enjoy it all.”
Broadcast demands of a full slate of games on the weekends before and after while Christmas falls on Thursday and the normally match-filled Boxing Day falls on Friday mean it’s impossible to play a full slate of mid-week league ties this season, with only Manchester United vs. Newcastle on schedule.
When the Reds report back in they will prepare to take on a Wolves side on track to go down as the league’s worst ever side, with just two points to show for their first 17 league games played and a -28 goal differential—the next two worst are at -16 and -15—that further speaks to just how bad they’ve been.
