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Arne Slot says he has had little choice but to continually adjust his title-winning side this season as he justified the extent of the changes that have been made at Liverpool.
The Reds have experienced a substantial transformation since securing a record-equaling 20th championship title last term, with around $600M worth of summer additions coming in and needing to settle down.
The circumstances have been worsened by a series of injuries throughout the early stages of the campaign and insufficient pre-season preparation for players including $169 million (£125 million) British record acquisition Alexander Isak, midfielder Alexis Mac Allister, and right-back Conor Bradley.
Liverpool's constantly changing team selection played a part in a recent spell of six losses in seven matches that intensified pressure on Slot before he chose to depend less heavily on new acquisitions in his starting XI, leading to consecutive home victories over Aston Villa in the Premier League and Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Ahead of Sunday's journey to title rivals Manchester City, Slot, who welcomed Isak back to training on Friday following a two-week absence with a groin injury, has clarified his extensive rotation this campaign.
"I'm known as being a manager who prefers not to change but I couldn't do anything different to what I did," the Liverpool head coach said, via the ECHO. "Then of course we brought new players in and they have to adapt.
"Ryan Gravenberch missed the first two games of the season, (Alexis) Mac Allister was out the whole pre-season, Conor Bradley wasn't able to play, and Jeremie Frimpong wasn't able to play many games.
"Alexander Isak came in and had to do pre-season inside the season. You could say 'Why do you play him?', but then he wouldn't be fit until the end of the season.
"We knew this before when we signed him that it was going to take three to six months until he's up to his usual level. But if I never play him, I can't bring him to that level.
"There have been obvious reasons why we've had to change more than I would like. Mac Allister, as an example, if you miss out on pre-season, then you're not ready to play three games in seven days.
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"If you do, you will get injuries, and I can show multiple examples to you — where Alex, by the way, is one — but also from other clubs, which I will not do because then journalists will go to the club and say 'Arne Slot said something about your players'.
"But it's so obvious for me, and I'm a bit more, you can maybe feel it, a bit like 'Jesus, why don't you see these things? Why are you talking about me changing?' when it's so obvious why.
"Ibou (Konate) and Virgil (van Dijk) I haven't changed because they play in a position where it's easier to play so many games.
"It's not like in the first game of the season I decided not to play Ryan. He became a dad, that's why I played Curtis (Jones).
"Then in the first Premier League game he was suspended as he made a dive for the first yellow (against Crystal Palace in the last game of last season when Gravenberch was later sent off).
"You know what I want to say now? I want to talk about the last game when I saw a dive (from Vinicius Jr), which 100 per cent should have been a second yellow.
"I never hear as well about how many referee decisions have gone against us in the last six or seven weeks, but... now I've said that."
Isak is expected to be restricted to substitute duties at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. Forward Cody Gakpo, left-back Milos Kerkez and midfielder Curtis Jones are all pushing to earn a starting berth, while Florian Wirtz could retain his spot.
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