Jamie Carragher is desperate for the traditional mind games to start in the new year - because it will mean Liverpool are finally involved in a title race.
With the Reds leading the pack at the half way stage of the season, Carragher knows this is his best chance yet of landing a Premiership winner's medal.
And he believes that the more people talk about Liverpool over the remainder of the campaign, the more it will show they are being taken seriously as a title threat.
"In my career, we've never been in contention around March or April," he said. "The best teams pace themselves and get into the right position by then.
"When the mind games start, I want us to be in everyone's thoughts. It will tell us that we've been doing something right, and that we're in with a good shout of winning the Premier League.
"I love all that — and it's always been disappointing that it's other teams that have been involved rather than us. We've always been outside the race watching and reading about it — but now we've a great chance to be in the thick of it.
"I've always felt the time to really get into the mix is when there are 10 games to go."
Carragher accepts the jury is still out on whether or not Liverpool can last the distance, but leading the league table after the first half of the season - and playing much of it without Fernando Torres - has given him huge cause for optimism.
"Over the course of the season we've been a little too self-critical. I'm as guilty of it as the fans, sometimes," he said.
"There have been moments we’ve felt disappointed with a performance and a result, but then three or four days later we've found ourselves looking at the league table and still top.
"It puts everything into perspective. You're always more aware of your own strengths and weaknesses and maybe because we want to do so well this season, it's made us too critical of ourselves.
"You can see Chelsea, Arsenal and United have had their own problems and the fact is, up until Christmas, we collected more points than them, which given our circumstances was outstanding. Our results have been better than theirs.
"What you always want is good performances and good results, but results always come first. If you look at the records from 20 years ago and see who won the title, no one will remember how well they played in every game. It will be the same 20 years from now.
"To have done as well as we have without Fernando Torres has also been a fantastic achievement. If you'd have said at the start of the season we'd be top on Christmas Day and Fernando would have missed so many games, no one would have believed that possible.
"It's a tribute to the players and to the manager for coping so well without him.
"When you take a player like Torres out of our side, or Cristiano Ronaldo out of United's, it inevitably has an impact. He's our most outstanding attacking player and if he'd been fit he'd have been worth possibly 10 more goals to us.
"I hope it turns out to be blessing because he probably needed a rest after Euro 2008.
"If he's fit and fresh for the rest of the season he'll add an extra dimension to our team.
"We can still improve and we've quality players to come back in. You never want to think too far ahead, but the next 10 or so games are massive. If we're still up there after the next run of games, we'll know what's possible."
With the Reds leading the pack at the half way stage of the season, Carragher knows this is his best chance yet of landing a Premiership winner's medal.
And he believes that the more people talk about Liverpool over the remainder of the campaign, the more it will show they are being taken seriously as a title threat.
"In my career, we've never been in contention around March or April," he said. "The best teams pace themselves and get into the right position by then.
"When the mind games start, I want us to be in everyone's thoughts. It will tell us that we've been doing something right, and that we're in with a good shout of winning the Premier League.
"I love all that — and it's always been disappointing that it's other teams that have been involved rather than us. We've always been outside the race watching and reading about it — but now we've a great chance to be in the thick of it.
"I've always felt the time to really get into the mix is when there are 10 games to go."
Carragher accepts the jury is still out on whether or not Liverpool can last the distance, but leading the league table after the first half of the season - and playing much of it without Fernando Torres - has given him huge cause for optimism.
"Over the course of the season we've been a little too self-critical. I'm as guilty of it as the fans, sometimes," he said.
"There have been moments we’ve felt disappointed with a performance and a result, but then three or four days later we've found ourselves looking at the league table and still top.
"It puts everything into perspective. You're always more aware of your own strengths and weaknesses and maybe because we want to do so well this season, it's made us too critical of ourselves.
"You can see Chelsea, Arsenal and United have had their own problems and the fact is, up until Christmas, we collected more points than them, which given our circumstances was outstanding. Our results have been better than theirs.
"What you always want is good performances and good results, but results always come first. If you look at the records from 20 years ago and see who won the title, no one will remember how well they played in every game. It will be the same 20 years from now.
"To have done as well as we have without Fernando Torres has also been a fantastic achievement. If you'd have said at the start of the season we'd be top on Christmas Day and Fernando would have missed so many games, no one would have believed that possible.
"It's a tribute to the players and to the manager for coping so well without him.
"When you take a player like Torres out of our side, or Cristiano Ronaldo out of United's, it inevitably has an impact. He's our most outstanding attacking player and if he'd been fit he'd have been worth possibly 10 more goals to us.
"I hope it turns out to be blessing because he probably needed a rest after Euro 2008.
"If he's fit and fresh for the rest of the season he'll add an extra dimension to our team.
"We can still improve and we've quality players to come back in. You never want to think too far ahead, but the next 10 or so games are massive. If we're still up there after the next run of games, we'll know what's possible."
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