Jürgen Klopp has created major Liverpool advantage that even Pep Guardiola cannot get close to

Liverpool has already made a good start in the Premier League and last midweek moved top of its Europa League group with a 3-1 win in Austria against LASK despite making 11 changes to Jürgen Klopp’s starting side.

As it stands, only Trent Alexander-Arnold and Thiago Alcântara are sidelined with injuries and while that is in part down to injury-prone players like Naby Keïta having been moved on, it is also because Liverpool has enough options now to properly rotate.

Injury crises tend to emerge when things begin to spiral out of control; by keeping players fresh and being able to rotate and make substitutions in games, everyone benefits and no one is overplayed to the point of joining their teammates on the treatment table.

Against West Ham on Sunday, Klopp was able to send on Ryan Gravenberch, Diogo Jota, Cody Gakpo and Wataru Endō from the sidelines. Harvey Elliott and Ibrahima Konaté were among the unused substitutes.

Against Wolves a week earlier, it was Luis Díaz and Darwin Núñez who were among those turned to, while Núñez and Elliott were the pair that changed the game the most against Newcastle United.

The players that are not starting for Liverpool are no longer a substantial drop-off in quality from those in the starting team. There is not that much difference, for instance, between the forward options — the question there is more about picking the attackers best suited to the game in question — and in midfield, the players brought on can add energy late in matches.

As Liverpool will likely show again in the Carabao Cup clash with Leicester, and indeed already did against LASK in the Europa League, Klopp’s second-choice team is now far stronger than in previous years.

Even in the season before last, in which Liverpool came within a whisker of winning a quadruple, when the Reds took on Leicester — then a Premier League side and in the quarter-finals rather than the third round — Billy Koumetio started, a then-18-year-old Conor Bradley was at full-back, and Tyler Morton was in midfield.

This time, the Liverpool full-back could be Stefan Bajčetić in the hybrid role, and its midfield could contain Gravenberch, Endō and Elliott. The attack is likely to feature Jota and Gakpo rather than Takumi Minamino and an out-of-position Neco Williams. Off the bench back then came Owen Beck and Max Woltman was among the players left in reserve.