Steven Gerrard believes Rafael Benitez's rotation policy will be important in determining whether Liverpool are successful come the end of the season.
The Reds skipper was responding to the recent debate over the manager's team selection and insists it is a tall order to ask the side's star players to feature in every match.

"There are so many games," said Gerrard. "There are 60-65 games we hope.

"So it is impossible to ask the players to play in every game. We have got to trust Rafa."

Gerrard, who played in Saturday's 1-0 win at Wigan, admits the Reds have not been at their best since the international break, but believes it was always going to be difficult for them to maintain such a flying start to the season.

"We had a bit of a blip," he said.

"Because we started the season so well, we we were on fire and were blowing most teams away, expectations went even higher. People were expecting us to do it every week.

"But at Premier League level and Champions League level it is not going to happen. There are going to be times when we have to grind draws out and times when you don't play well."