Jürgen Klopp has reiterated the importance of his players 'sharing the intensity' of the busy fixture schedule they face going into the new year.

Liverpool contested their fourth game in 12 days yesterday evening, claiming a 3-0 win over Stoke City, but still have nine more fixtures to come before an intense run comes to a close at Burnley on January 1.

Klopp made six changes to his starting XI for last night's game, with top scorer Mohamed Salah one of the most notable omissions from the line-up.

The Reds boss admitted after full-time that such decisions will only be accepted if his team continues to pick up wins, though he insists he must make tough calls in order to protect the welfare of his players.

He told Liverpoolfc.com: "We made six changes between this game and the last game. In football, you can do [what you want], the only thing then is you have to win.

"If you don’t win they'll say it’s wrong, if you win then they say it's a good idea. So we need to do that.

"I can’t wait until [injuries] happen - it still will happen we can’t avoid that it’s football, it’s a contact sport and all that - but we need to use the whole squad.

"It was very important tonight for all the boys who were playing to play and it was very important for all the boys in the last game.

"Now we will have to make the choice for Brighton and then for Moscow and then for the derby, so it’s coming, coming, coming.

"We cannot rest but if we can in the game share the intensity a little bit then we have to do it.

"I’m really pleased that today people will say it was a good idea to leave Mo Salah out and bring him in for only 15 minutes and he scored twice."