Premier League preview: Liverpool v Reading

Injury-hit Liverpool welcome lowly Reading to Anfield on Saturday in a must-win fixture for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Most troubling for Rodgers will be the injury to striker Fabio Borini while away on international duty with Italy, leaving Luis Suarez as the Reds’ only recognised striker in the squad.

The injury could lead to a compensation stoush with the Italian FA after it was revealed Borini already had a crack in the scaphoid bone in his right foot before he was sent for scans.

Suarez, already the club’s most important player, becomes all the more so having escaped from Uruguay’s 4-1 defeat in Bolivia unscathed despite being subjected to 12,000-feet altitude in La Paz.

Goalkeeper Pepe Reina was the other casualty after picking up a muscle injury for Spain while warming up.

Meanwhile, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson and Jonjo Shelvey will arrive back in Liverpool just two days before the fixture after England’s World Cup qualifier was pushed back to Wednesday due to rain in Warsaw.

Rodgers has been given assurances from the club’s owners that he can bolster his threadbare squad in January, but only time will tell what impact injuries will have on Liverpool’s fortunes.

There’s little room for error with Rodgers already, having presided over just one win in seven games since he took charge.

An Anfield date with 18th-placed Reading must yield a win for Rodgers or the naysayers will become irrepressible.

The Reds are down in 14th while Reading have only three draws and are yet to win on their return to the Premier League.

Reading have far from disgraced themselves with back-to-back 2-2 draws with Swansea and Newcastle their most recent Premier League outings, and continue to find the net as they did so prolifically in the Championship last season.

Pavel Pogrebnyak has scored four goals in all competitions since his big move from Fulham at the start of the season and will hold much of Reading’s hopes going forward on the counterattack.