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Liverpool certainly had more depth in quality available against Southampton last Sunday beyond the starting eleven; Rickie Lambert and Joe Allen came on to positive effect in the second half, and Emre Can, Mamadou Sakho, and Jordon Ibe were available on the bench as well. That's not an overwhelming amount of talent, but between the five mentioned above, that's a significant upgrade on the bench available to Brendan Rodgers at times last season. And, according to the manager, it's going to get even better in the coming weeks, with a number of summer signees available for inclusion.
Speaking at his pre-Manchester City presser on Friday, Rodgers noted that he expects Lazar Markovic and Alberto Moreno to be in the squad, while also providing good news about Adam Lallana's rehabilitation from a knee injury suffered at the start of the club's US tour:
"Markovic will come into the squad. He has been excellent in training and has worked very hard to come back. (Moreno) will be in the squad, he comes in fit. He's a young player that is very dynamic going forward. He gives us balance - he has got a great left foot, passes it well and sees the pass early. He gets forward on the outside and can penetrate on the inside.
"Adam Lallana is in the latter stages of his rehabilitation; he will join the group although obviously won't be in the squad for Monday. He has been with our conditioning coaches so he will train with the team on Sunday. He is looking in great condition and we've just got to get him up to match speed. We'll see how Jose Enrique goes, and Daniel Agger is still out. Jon Flanagan is still a bit of time off as well. Apart from that, the squad is healthy and looking very good."
It would be surprising to see either Markovic or Moreno start given the fixture, but there's a case to made that the latter should be in the running given the form of Glen Johnson. The England fullback had a poor preseason and wasn't exactly overwhelming against Southampton, and with Moreno clearly the left-back of the future, it's not unfathomable that we see Johnson pushed back to the right or, if Rodgers wants to get full pants-on-head silly, left out completely with Moreno and Javier Manquillo starting as the fullbacks.
Whatever ends up happening, Liverpool's squad is getting better, and that's only going to continue in the coming weeks.
