Jurgen Klopp's rotation policy serving Liverpool well in the race for top four

For Jurgen Klopp, a team is far more than just eleven players on the field and seven on the substitutes bench.

“By the way we don’t ‘rest’, we use our players,” he said recently. “We thought against Chelsea maybe we needed fresh legs and I thought it worked quite well. It is a very important sign for the squad from my side that I show the faith in all the boys and it was very important for me that the boys showed me they were 100 per cent ready.”

The phrase ‘rotation policy’ conjures some polarising opinions. Klopp is by no means the first manager to implement such a strategy at Anfield. More recently Rafa Benitez sought to chop and change his starting XI in order to maintain freshness and momentum, a policy that drew ire and criticism at times.

“I like to change players because you need to do it when you play two games a week,” Benitez said in August last year. “You have to change players because they will have some problems, or they will be tired, or whatever. So I think it is important to send the message to our players that all of them will be important and all of them can take part in any game.”

Such an approach has not always been realistic for Klopp. In his first two season the club’s best players were obvious and easy to select in the starting XI —that had to change. Not only did he seek improvements to his squad, but he also sought genuine depth by adding to the already strong aspects of the team. While he was unable to add a centre-back in Virgil van Dijk, he did give another dynamic edge to Liverpool’s attack with the signing of Mo Salah from Roma.

A quick glance at Liverpool’s form guide from the previous two seasons highlighted exactly why this was a wise move.

The Reds managed just one Premier League win across January 2016 and 2017 under Klopp — the 5-4 success away to Norwich City in 2016. The margin for error was clearly fine, and Liverpool’s New Year slump has undeniably cost them. The absence of Sadio Mane last January played a significant role in the club’s downturn, and had they managed even once during that period last season they would have finished above Manchester City in third.

Last season the club also had a lighter workload and finished fourth, meaning it was highly unrealistic to think the squad could compete on multiple fronts with more commitments. “He’s getting it right now – changing players at the right time,” former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said. “He’s got a bench now which looks like a bench a top club should have – he didn’t have that last season.”

The fact the Reds are currently unbeaten in six Premier League games has shown what the benefits of a refined rotation policy can be. The team were subject to significant criticism after their 4-1 defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, but in the wake of that they have bounced back terrifically. Not only is Klopp keeping his opponents guessing about which players he will name to his starting XI, but also where he will play them.

Against Brighton —days after a comfortable 3-0 win at Stoke City— he chose to place Dutch midfielder Gini Wijnaldum on the left of a three man defence. Mane remained on the bench, just as Philippe Coutinho had sat out the victory at Stoke City. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replaced Salah late on at the Amex Stadium days after starting at the Britannia.

Of course, had Liverpool lost either game then it would be Klopp facing stern criticism, but the nature of the results denotes a squad being well managed by their coach.

That is in part because Klopp has been keen to stress that he will not make changes simply because he can. “Probably we will make one or two changes from the last game to the next game and then maybe not for the next game,” the German said. “We will see how we deal with it, it all depends on the impression I get during games and during the sessions.”

Such pragmatism will be important as the season progresses, just as it was for Antonio Conte during Chelsea’s title win last year. Pep Guardiola and Manchester City remain title favourites, and rightly so, but there is still so much to learn about the Premier League’s top side. At present, they seem unbeatable, but that is failing to factor in the war of attrition that is the Premier League’s festive calendar in which teams face a number of games in only a handful of days.

If, and it’s a big if, Man City falter during that period then it could be the perfect moment for a momentum building Liverpool side to advance.

In the short-term, it could give them an extra advantage over city rivals Everton at the weekend. The chance to exert local dominance is not one to be passed up, and whether they win or lose, it is abundantly clear that in the eyes of Klopp they will not do so as eleven players, but rather a 25 man squad, no more, no less.