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After quiet encouragement at White Hart Lane, it is time for Jurgen Klopp to get his first taste of an Anfield home match this week.

Rubin Kazan are the visitors as Liverpool start a sequence of six games in 17 days, the first three of which will be on home soil.

It's a hectic period, one which will tell us plenty about Klopp's ability to impose his methods on a group of players. The signs were promising at Tottenham on Saturday, but with limited time to fully prepare between games, the German's motivational and communication skills will be put to the test.

Thursday's game, meanwhile, will give us a clear indication as to the new manager's approach to the Europa League – a competition that has often been treated as something of an inconvenience by clubs such as Liverpool.

That was certainly impression given by Brendan Rodgers, Klopp's predecessor at Anfield. The Europa League may now carry the added carrot of a Champions League spot for the winners, but managers can still tend to see it as a hindrance.

To rotate or not?

Rodgers' approach to the competition was clear. In his first season at Liverpool he used it to give fringe players game time and to blood youngsters - the likes of Adam Morgan, Suso, Andre Wisdom and Conor Coady all making their senior debuts for the club in Europa League fixtures.

That, of course, was partly down to necessity. Liverpool's squad, at the time, was far from deep, and protecting the likes of Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard was vital.

This year, though, Rodgers' outlook was similar. For Liverpool's first group match, in Bordeaux, he made eight changes to the side which had started the previous league game. Against Sion at Anfield, for what turned out to be his penultimate game in charge, he made seven. There were senior debuts for Cameron Brannagan and Pedro Chirivella, first squad call-ups for Dan Cleary and Connor Randall. Both games, of course, finished 1-1.

Whether Klopp will be quite so eager to rotate remains to be seen. He is still very much in a “getting to know you” phase with his players, as he seeks to imprint his methods and ideas on the squad. To that end, continuity of selection could be as important as anything.

At Tottenham, Klopp's options were limited by an injury list that contained as many as nine first-teamers. Still, Liverpool were able to emerge with a creditable result and performance.

Some of the injured – Daniel Sturridge, Christian Benteke, Roberto Firmino – could be fit to return against Kazan, which would enable Klopp to rotate without necessarily weakening the team. Plenty of his squad, that trio included, look in need of game time, especially given the speed and intensity the manager wants his side to play with.

Big tests to come

Victory over Rubin would put Liverpool in a strong position to qualify for the knockout stages. Europa League Group B is not a particularly strong one, but it is on the domestic front that the big tests lie in wait for Klopp's Reds.

Sunday's home game with Southampton offers a chance to both climb the table and, against a strong outfit with good players and a clearly-defined way of playing, make a statement in terms of performance level.

Liverpool's following Premier League game, after a midweek League Cup tie against Bournemouth, sees them travel to champions Chelsea, and they then face Crystal Palace, Manchester City and Swansea.

We will, you feel, know more about how high the Reds should be aiming after those games. We will also, surely, have a clearer idea about which players have adapted best following Klopp's arrival.

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how he treats the Europa League campaign.

It was clear that, for all the improvement in terms of pressing and defending against Tottenham, Liverpool are still searching for form and cohesion as an attacking unit. Momentum, then, could be key, and the Europa League offers a chance to build it.

Klopp's last experience of the competition, with Dortmund in 2010/11, ended at the group stage – albeit in an absurdly-tough group containing both Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla – and he will be keen to avoid a repeat.

This could, after all, be the tournament which gets Liverpool's season going. Underestimate it at your peril.