Maxi Eyes Half Century

Maxi Rodriguez could be set for a landmark 50th league appearance for Liverpool if he is selected for the Boxing Day clash with Blackburn Rovers.

Here are more facts and stat ahead of the festive showdown courtesy of Ged Rea.

Head to head: (League only)

At Anfield: Liverpool 38 wins, Blackburn 9 wins, 16 Draws.

Overall: Liverpool 53 wins, Blackburn 35 wins, 38 Draws.

Last season Liverpool won this fixture 2-1 with all three goals coming early in the second half. Sotirios Kyrgiakos, with his last goal for the club, gave the Reds the lead.

Within two minutes Jamie Carragher scored an unfortunate own goal before Fernando Torres shot home the winner.

The last meeting, back in January, saw Rovers win 3-1 at Ewood Park. Martin Olsson and Benjani (2) netted for the hosts. Steven Gerrard pulled one back on 81 minutes but five minutes later he missed from the penalty spot. It was to be Roy Hodgson's last game in charge of Liverpool.

In the Barclays Premier League Liverpool have won 16 of the 34 meetings with Rovers winning seven.

At Anfield Liverpool have won 11 and drawn five of the 17 Premiership clashes.

Liverpool have won the last four in a row against Blackburn at Anfield - the first time since 1954-55 when they won for the sixth time in succession.

Steven Gerrard began his Liverpool career with a substitute appearance against Blackburn in November 1998.

Billy Liddell, in 1958, is the last player to score a hat-trick for Liverpool against Rovers - doing so at Ewood.

Dick Forshaw in 1923 is the only Liverpool player to perform the feat at Anfield in this fixture.

Liverpool have kept eight clean sheets in the last 14 league meetings with Rovers at home, though Blackburn have scored in four of the last five visits.

Liverpool's biggest home win over Rovers has been achieved on four occasions - in October 1896, October 1933, April 2004 and April 2009 - winning 4-0.

The Reds have lost only twice in the last 25 league meetings home and away - 1996 and last season.

Craig Bellamy joined Liverpool first time around in the summer of 2006 for £6.5 million. He scored 17 goals for Rovers in 32 appearances in all competitions in his one and only season with the Lancashire club (2005-06).

Jonjo Shelvey made his league debut for Liverpool as a substitute in last season's 2-1 win at Anfield.

Charlie Adam, Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing all scored against Rovers last season for Blackpool, Newcastle and Aston Villa respectively.

The Reds have lost just twice on Boxing Day in the last 24 years. The last time they were beaten at Anfield was in 1986 when Manchester United won 1-0. Their last defeat was at the hands of Blackburn in 2006 at Ewood.

Liverpool have conceded only three first half goals in a league game at Anfield in the calendar year 2011 - Kevin Davies (Bolton - New Years Day), Rafael van der Vaart (Tottenham) and Vincent Kompany (Manchester City).

The Reds have lost only one of their last 15 games in all competitions.

Tottenham were the last team to score more than once against the Reds three months ago. Since then they have conceded eight goals in 15 games with only three coming in the last nine games.

Liverpool have the meanest defence in the Premiership this season having conceded 13 goals in 17 games.

If they shut Blackburn out it will be the first time since February that Liverpool have kept four successive clean sheets.

They are eight points better off than at the same stage last season (17 games).

This is only the fourth season in the Premier League era that Liverpool have remained unbeaten at home in the league up to Christmas. The other seasons being 1994-95, 2006-07 and 2008-09.

After last year's Boxing Day fixtures Liverpool were 10th in the table, 15 points behind the leaders and nine points off fourth.

Blackburn's biggest league win at Anfield came in September 1905 when they won 3-1.

Rovers' last victory on this ground came in September 1993 when Liverpool fan Mike Newell scored in a 1-0 win. It is their only league success at Anfield since 1963. Rovers' manager that day was Kenny Dalglish.

They have lost 10 and drawn 5 of the last 15 meetings here since that victory.

Rovers have scored just four times in their last eight visits to Anfield.

Not since May 2002 have they scored more than once in front of the Kop - and on that day they lost 4-3.

The last Blackburn player to score a hat-trick against the Reds was Danny Shea in September 1913 when he netted four times in a 6-2 win at Ewood.

Only three players have been sent off in Premier League meetings between the teams - all Rovers players: Henning Berg (1995) and Zurab Khizanishvili (2005) at Anfield and Lucas Neill at Ewood in 2003.

Rovers' leading scorers in the Premier League against Liverpool are Jason Wilcox and Chris Sutton (both with four).

Blackburn have failed to win away this season - picking up four points out of a possible 24. Their draws have come at Fulham, QPR, Norwich and Wigan.

They have suffered defeats on the road at Aston Villa (1-3), Newcastle (1-3), Stoke (1-3) and Sunderland (1-2).

Their last away win came at Wolves on the final day of last season.

Blackburn Rovers were bottom of the Premier League on Christmas Day. The only basement side at this stage of the 19 previous PL seasons to stay up was West Bromwich Albion in 2004-2005.

In their defeat to West Brom nine days ago Scott Dann became the first Englishman since February to score for Rovers in the Premier League.

Blackburn is 11 points worse off than they were at this stage last season (after 17 games).

Steve Kean has won seven league games out of 38 since being appointed just over a year ago. They have lost 20.

Rovers have not kept a clean sheet in the last 20 league games -their worst run since a club record 27 games in 1931.

They have kept only four Premier League clean sheets since Kean took over.

Rovers have dropped 12 points from winning positions this season - the most in the Prem along with Norwich.

Scorers this season: (league in brackets)

Liverpool: Suarez 8 (5), Bellamy 3 (2), Carroll 3 (2), Maxi 3 (1), Adam 2 (2), Skrtel 2 (2), Gerrard 1 (1), Henderson 1 (1), Johnson 1 (1), Kelly 1 (0), Kuyt 1 (0), own goals 3 (3).

Blackburn: Yakubu 11 (10), Rochina 6 (2), Hoilett 3 (3), Formica 2 (2), Pedersen 2 (1), Samba 2 (2), Vukcevic 2 (1), Dann 1 (1), Givet 1 (0), Goodwillie 1 (0), Roberts 1 (0), own goals 2 (2).