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Liverpool hosts Southampton in the League Cup on Tuesday. After expertly navigating three intense games in a week, Arne Slot has admitted that he will rest a number of usual starters.
While Slot will no doubt want to put right last season's League Cup final defeat to Newcastle, he will also have his sights set on bigger things. Already, after five games, he finds his side five points clear in its quest to retain the Premier League title.
But it's not as though a rotated side will indicate throwing in the towel against Southampton, with squad depth at Anfield as good as it has ever been. For instance, Giovanni Leoni and Giorgi Mamardashvili are still waiting for their debuts.
Away from new signings, there is another wave of elite talent desperate for opportunities. Rio Ngumoha has already shown his brilliance in flashes this season, while Trey Nyoni and Jayden Danns would love a chance to build on earlier promising appearances.
That's before mentioning someone like Federico Chiesa. Though he would get into most sides in Europe, he has been left out of Liverpool's Champions League squad altogether, and has every right to demand a start from Slot against Southampton.
But even with such a wealth of options, it may be that those travelling to Anfield on Tuesday come across some less familiar faces. Or at least, some faces that have long since been forgotten.
It will come as a surprise to some that Rhys Williams is still on the books at Liverpool. An unlikely hero of the 2020/21 campaign alongside Nat Phillips, he was thrust into action amid the depths of an injury crisis.
Somehow, Jurgen Klopp rallied his troops to a top-four finish. He made sure to name-check Williams and Phillips when Liverpool made it to the final of the following season's Champions League.
Phillips finally departed this summer, after a succession of loans and hastily-aborted plans for permanent moves. But Williams, his one-time partner in that emergency back line, remains at the club.
He, too, has had a handful of loans away from Anfield. Last season's switch to Morecambe was by far the most productive in terms of game time, although he could not save the Shrimps from dropping into non-league football.
Another move did not materialize this summer — a loan would have been somewhat pointless without a new deal, given that Williams' terms at Liverpool are up next year. So he finds himself within the U21 setup.
However, Williams (who is still just 24) was omitted from the youth side's most recent outing, along with Danns and a handful of others. Rob Page has confirmed that they have been training with the first team ahead of the Southampton match.
An appearance would represent a remarkable turn of events for Williams, whose last senior match of any kind (excluding the EFL Trophy) was a 2-0 defeat to Carlisle United. His last appearance for Liverpool was way back in May 2021, where a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace confirmed that Champions League football had been salvaged.
The last time Williams even made a matchday squad for Liverpool was way back in 2023. As it happens, that was also against Southampton, although he did not make it off the bench in a chaotic end-of-season 4-4 draw.
Just how likely is a first appearance in over four years? While not a given by any means, there is a very real chance.
Williams is unlikely to start, given that Leoni and Joe Gomez are both short on minutes and higher up the pecking order. The latter could theoretically go to right-back, but both Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong could probably benefit from some more minutes after injury-disrupted starts to the campaign.
But beyond that, assuming Slot gives both Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate a full rest as planned, Williams is the next man up in terms of dedicated center-backs. Wataru Endo has often filled in there, but he may be needed in his natural position, with Ryan Gravenberch another set to be given the night off.
Some kind of involvement off the bench looks fairly plausible. For Williams, it would be a valuable chance to show some flashes of his 2020/21 form — a long-term future at Liverpool now looks mightily unlikely, but he has plenty of time to build a reasonably high-level career for himself somewhere, and this could be a shop window.
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