Reading defender Ibrahima Sonko admits the Royals are desperate for a clean sheet.
Steve Coppell's side have shut out the opposition just once in the last 12 games - and that was at home to Derby, who have yet to score anywhere other than Pride Park this term.
Rafa Benitez's title-chasing Liverpool side are their next opponents and the Reds have already won handsomely at the Madejski Stadium this season - a 4-2 Carling Cup success in September.
The odds are therefore stacked against Sonko being granted his Christmas wish early but the big centre half insisted the Royals were more determined than ever to make it happen.
He said: "We have been conceding a lot of goals and we are dying to get a clean sheet. It has been a hard time for us.
"It's all about confidence. If you are a striker and you don't score you starting thinking you will never score again. And if you are a defender and you keep conceding goals you are always thinking 'what's going to happen next?'
"But we went away to Dublin for our Christmas party and on the way talked about what was going wrong. We decided we would stop worrying about people and do what we do best which is defending as a group. We need to do it as we used to do it.
"We went there to enjoy ourselves but the fact we were all together was good. We watched Tottenham against Birmingham on TV and even though it was really serious we were talking and having a drink and laughing.
"We know things aren't going right. We are not in a bad situation but we could be in a better position and we need to get things as close to perfect as we can."
Benitez's compulsive player rotation makes it difficult for Coppell to predict the Liverpool line-up for tomorrow's 5.15pm fixture.
But it would be no surprise if Fernando Torres started up front given that the £26.5million summer signing from Atletico Madrid notched a hat-trick in that September cup-tie.
Sonko said: "He is strong enough, quick and he can finish. He is a top-class player. I didn't realise Torres was going to be so quick to adapt to the English game. In the space of two or three weeks he had already started scoring goals. I was surprised.
"But we are just going to focus on our game. We have had enough of focusing on other people and what they do."
The 26-year-old, who was out for nearly 10 months after rupturing cruciate ligaments in a knee against Sheffield United in January, reckons former Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been his trickiest opponent so far.
He said: "I had to man-mark him and he was taking me to all sorts of places. I was saying "I'm not a right-back, I'm not a left-back" so after 30 minutes I asked the gaffer if I could mark someone who stays in the middle.
"He made me run the most because I had to try to get close to him. It wasn't nice."
