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Jurgen Klopp has vowed to ignore his critics and carry on rotating in a bid to ensure Liverpool last the pace this season.

The Reds boss stood accused of under-estimating Everton when he left both Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino on the bench for last weekend’s Merseyside derby.

However, Klopp has no regrets about his team selection and says he will continue to utilise the depth of his squad as he looks to negotiate a gruelling festive schedule.

“We have to do it,” he said. “We had seven games in 21 games before Everton and now it’s six games in 18 days.

“It is exactly the same. Nothing has changed. We need the best quality we can have for each game. We cannot ignore the number of games.

“The future of football will be much more rotation because no-one will take away games. It always becomes quicker, more intense, with more sprints, more high speed runs, less breaks and so many things.

“It is going in one direction and you have to react on it. We can’t close our eyes and hope nothing happens. That is always how I saw it but you need the opportunity.”

Klopp has made 59 changes for Premier League matches this season - 20 more than any other top-flight manager.

The German coach is desperate to avoid a repeat of last term when fatigue took its toll and Liverpool endured an alarming mid-season slump.

The Reds won just one of their first 10 games in all competitions in 2017 and took just three points out of a possible 15 in the Premier League.

Liverpool’s current tally of 63 goals after 25 games this season is one more than they had at the same stage in 2016/17. However, back then they only managed a further 30 until May.

Klopp hopes that by rotating gifted attackers like Coutinho, Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah they can avoid injuries and the goals will keep on flowing.

“I knew that part of the season where we scored only 30 was not the same as the first part,” Klopp added.

“I think the second half of the season is always different. At the start you fight for the league, the Champions League , but in the second part it is more intense. That is normal.

“We have the opportunity to make changes now because of the quality in the squad. That’s why we do it. We brought players in to give us a wider squad.”

Klopp says he took advice from Liverpool’s medical and sports science staff before deciding to leave Brazilian duo Coutinho and Firmino on the bench against Everton.

Coutinho had played the full 90 minutes against Spartak Moscow four days earlier, while Firmino had been taken off with 20 minutes to go.

(Image: Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Asked if it would have been a risk to play them against the Blues, Klopp said: “It is one bit of information but that would sound like an excuse. I don’t need an excuse.

“I do not want to even deliver that. I make the decisions - you should know that after two years.

“I want to win the game 100%, but on the other side I work with human beings and I see them every day. I know if they have a sore throat, a knee problem or whatever. Then you have 11 others who for me are top quality and are ready to go.

“I am always advised. I have 500,000 pieces of information and in the end I have to make a decision. I can not write a book before each game.

“Roberto and Phil could have played. Nobody told me to leave them out. Emre (Can) and Gini (Wijnaldum) as well, but nobody missed them.....

“I really find it funny that we talk after this game about that. We did not speak after the 5-1 (win at Brighton) or the 3-0 (win at Stoke) when others didn’t play.

“You are not really interested because in the moment when it works well it is really good, but the moment it doesn’t work perfectly you ask questions. This is one game we should have won and they did not play. If we played it another 10 times we’d win.

“We have injuries in the centre half position so we have to more or less play the same there all the time.

"We have a lot of little informations after a game and sometimes that leads to a decision that sometimes you should not go with the risk of this player or that player. Sometimes you have to ignore it. Then the player has to go through because there is no other option. That’s how it is. We have to make these decisions.”

Coutinho, Firmino, Can and Wijnaldum are all expected to return to the starting line up for Wednesday night’s Premier League clash with West Brom at Anfield. Klopp will continue to juggle his resources.

He added: “I don’t throw names in the air and catch them and say ‘Ooh! This week, they are in!’

“We played on Sunday. And we play again on Wednesday and on Sunday. Before that we played last Wednesday.

“These games are so important that if you drop one point in five games then we talk about it like ‘How can you make that?’

“Last year we played without Roberto and Phil at Stoke. They came on and made a difference. It’s like Mo Salah did at Stoke last month. Then everything is fine.

“This time we didn’t turn it. It went the other way. They got a penalty and we conceded a goal. I didn’t like that but that’s the only difference. I can not change it.”