With Federico Chiesa fit and available to make his home debut for Liverpool, someone had to drop out of the matchday squad to make room for the Italian. Unlike in the Champions League where you can now name 12 substitutes, the Premier League is still restricted to nine.
Despite having Chiesa available for selection, though, after he built up his fitness in training and proved himself to be ready, Liverpool opted against having either Wataru Endo or Tyler Morton on its bench, with the former the man sacrificed. The latter scored for the Reds' U21s as they won 3-1 against Derby County, a game in which Trey Nyoni also started and neither was with the senior side.
It was an interesting move. It meant that only Dominik Szoboszlai was substituted of the midfield three who started for Arne Slot, with Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister playing the full 90 minutes. Curtis Jones was the only midfield option in reserve who the Dutch coach could turn to.
That will change, of course, when Harvey Elliott returns from injury, but that is still set to be a few weeks off yet. And there was no real need to have four defenders in the matchday squad — Joe Gomez, Kostas Tsimikas, Jarell Quansah, and Conor Bradley.
That neither Endo nor Morton was named as an option from the sidelines is not a great sign for either unless there is an injury issue. Morton is still regaining his match sharpness and the minutes with the youth team will have done no harm, but it feels some way off a point where he would find himself getting Premier League action.
We don't know yet how seriously Slot will take the Carabao Cup, with West Ham United coming to Anfield midweek, but Endo and Morton are candidates to feature if he rotates and Jones should be a certainty to start.
There was transfer interest in both Endo and Morton during the summer but neither ended up leaving in the end. Instead, the pair now face an uphill battle for action; between them, they have played only two senior minutes under Slot so far.
On the evidence up to this point, the Reds boss has preferred to use only four midfielders, with Elliott naturally set to make it five when he comes back his injury.
"There is no point talking about [Martin] Zubimendi anymore because he stayed with Real Sociedad and we’ve moved on and we are really happy with Ryan [Gravenberch]," Slot said earlier this week. One more quality option in the center of the pitch, though, would go a long way.
The bench against Bournemouth highlighted that and by January, adding an extra option in the middle would be wise. For now, though, and as long as the Reds keep on winning, it simply won't matter.
