Arne Slot made 10 changes for the trip to Plymouth, confident enough to leave the likes of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk behind.
He would have wished he could have called upon his Egyptian king in the second half at Home Park, as Liverpool’s fringe players laboured to break down the Championship’s bottom club.
Salah has scored 60 per cent of Liverpool’s Premier League goals this season – is this where they’d be without him?
Slot stood by his selection afterwards, highlighting both the need for his first team to get a breather during a relentless schedule and for their back-ups to get some much-needed game time.
But he also pointed out that many of these reserve players also had an opportunity in Liverpool’s final Champions League game, when progress to the last 16 was assured – and that they had lost that one too.