Steve Finnan hopes he can hang on to his place in Liverpool's defence after a worrying spell out with injury.
Such is the competition for places at Anfield, the bench is not the place to be as the season hots up, something the Republic of Ireland international fully appreciates.
He returned on St Stephen's Day at Derby after a calf injury had forced him out for six matches, and is now desperate to keep his place in the side at Manchester City on Sunday.
With Sami Hyypia almost certainly out with a twisted ankle, Alvaro Arbeloa - Finnan's rival at right-back - could well be switched to the centre of defence alongside Jamie Carragher.
Boss Rafael Benitez is considering using Danish defender Daniel Agger, who is back in training after a broken metatarsal, but is concerned by the player's lack of match fitness after three months out.
That means Finnan can expect to retain his place.
He said: 'I have had a problem with my calf and then I had a bit of a setback a couple of weeks ago which delayed my recovery, so it was a while for me to be out of the team.
'So, obviously, it was good to be back and, fortunately, we managed to get a win although it was not a very good performance.
'I feel all right. Maybe it will be the second or third game back when I start feeling the lack of match practice. The first game is usually not too bad but things do catch up on you.
'There are a lot of good players here and it is up to me to impress the manager, although I accept it is up to him who he picks for each particular game.
'But he put me in against Derby and it was good to be able to get a bit of fitness back.'
On the prospect of facing a Manchester City side still unbeaten at home in the league this term, Finnan said: 'City have a great home record at the moment and we'll definitely have to up our game when we go there.
'If we play like we did at Derby against City then we will probably get beaten.'
