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This season, Jurgen Klopp has used a rotation approach to select his team, but not like the other leaders of Liverpool who have changed shape in recent years.
Go back a dozen years back and a historic event occurred at Anfield: Rafa Benitez appointed a team unchanged. The Liverpool coach had changed his team for 99 consecutive games, but on the verge of finishing his century, he was becoming traditionalist and was sticking with a winning team.
Considered since the modern era, many controversies on the management of Benitez – signature of Spain, zone marking, rotating teams – seem anachronisms, forged from the British reluctance to understand foreign ideas.
Those of a certain vintage might remember that Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan sent the same camp, match after match, against Liverpool 's conquest of Europe. After all, four pillars played in the 67 matches in 1983/84, three others at least 64 years old and Graeme Souness just 61 years old.
Let's go back two seasons and Jurgen Klopp seemed to have gone back a little bit further. The German Fagan, as he was rarely called, had a pre-ordained first 11.
However, Liverpool has played only 47 games in a year of European exile and his players continue to show signs of fatigue in a high intensity football. Gini Wijnaldum later noticed that "my body was broken" after an election campaign when he had appeared 42 times.
And last season, Klopp took over the rotation policy. He did it with such success that Liverpool lasted the distance in a season when they reached the final of the Champions League.
He did it in a way that Benitez and Gerard Houllier might not recognize.
The first two foreign managers of Liverpool were essentially conventional rotators: the back half of the club remained the same as far as possible, with the changes occurring in the front. In some ways, Klopp has reversed this way of thinking.
Last season, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah were the two most present players. But in case of injury, Sadio Mane would have almost join them to form a different trio.
This season, Salah and Firmino are again at the top of the rankings. Even when he is under his best, the Brazilian invariably starts: the rotation means for him the regular withdrawal of a relentless runner, often after about 75 minutes.
But it is interesting to note that in the types of home games in which managers often rest their favorite strikers, Firmino, Salah and Mane all started in front of Brighton, Cardiff and Fulham. They seem indispensable, while Daniel Sturridge is the permanent substitute. The games where he starts – the tie in the League Cup with Chelsea, the midweek game at Burnley in a crowded array of matches – are usually only those where Klopp brings more changes than usual.
It is far from Liverpool's past, where the hamstrings Michael Owen and Fernando Torres were regularly rested and where the untouchables were found in the defensive unit. In the 2000/01 marathon season, Markus Babbel started 60 of the 63 games, Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher appeared in 58 and Stéphane Henchoz barely 53; Only the Liverpudlian even had an appearance of substitution to his name.
Carragher was relieved of the team rotation under Benitez's rule to the point where he played 326 times in the six years of the exercise, and only four of them were replaced. as Steven Gerrard could testify, Benitez was more inclined to use an offensive-minded talisman in cameos.
Not Klopp. Although explosive has been a key to his Liverpool, the sprinters must also be runners. Their appearances are not rationed, on the contrary. When Klopp relays, he is in defense and midfield, with the notable exception of Alison constables Andrew Robertson and Virgil van Dijk.
And yet – and if the layman, in any case, it seems to risk burnout among the firelighters – there is some logic to that. The six men most likely to start are probably Liverpool's top six players. It should be easier for five players to register alongside the outstanding than the excellent. The half and half teams always present the strongest parts of the team of first choice. Yet this shows a division in thought.
Houllier and Benitez built on continuity in defense, Klopp in attack. Liverpool's defensive record remained exceptional as the numbers changed.
However, if his predecessors made their horse selections for the further rounds, Klopp may return to the rear, even if, for the moment, injuries have disturbed him.
With Joe Gomez becoming Van Dijk's fastest, most elegant and most superior partner, Dejan Lovren has a tendency to pose as more physical: against Troy Deeney and Cardiff, while Joel Matip was the surrogate chosen by Klopp to fight the Burnley phalanx. six feet.
With the development of Trent Alexander-Arnold outstanding offensive right back, Klopp ended last year's job-sharing with Gomez, but the former Charlton man is forced to put himself on the flank for some the most rigorous defensive tests: against Neymar and Raheem Sterling, for example.
If the implementation of a policy depends in part on the staff, this may explain why Klopp performed the biggest rotation in the midfield. The hierarchical order is less established. Injuries seem to have more impact each season.
The 2016/17 experience seems to have led Klopp to conclude that Jordan Henderson's appearances needed to be rationed. While the midfielder may be too crucial for Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Sarri's style of play to be excluded, Klopp changes it more often.
Perhaps he has also determined that while James Milner's racing stats are remarkable, it's easier to be a workaholic when he does not start every game.
Maybe if Naby Keita and Fabinho had settled more quickly, there would have been more continuity within the team. Instead, there is a game of musical chairs in the heart of the side.
The rotation extends to systems as Klopp alternates between 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, the latter having been chosen to include Fabinho and Xherdan Shaqiri and the former a form adapted to the former Henderson and Milner.
The probability is that had Adam Lallana stayed in shape and taken advantage of his opportunities, he would have been included in this rotation policy, while Sturridge would be limited to cameos and Nathaniel Clyne would rarely be seen.
But if Klopp's approach to using his team is different, it's only natural for him to take a theory and modify it idiosyncratically. Not for the first time, there are echoes of his past.
The two Borussia Dortmund players to have made the most starts in the Premier League and the Champions League between 2011 and 2013 were Mats Hummels and Robert Lewandowski.
So like now, he built around the best players. And like Salah these days, the top scorer has received one of the heaviest workloads. He stayed in the team while others were resting.
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