Liverpool was left frustrated in defeat to Fenerbahce, as questions about squad rotation for the match surfaced, following more changes from Andoni Iraola

Andoni Iraola believes that squad rotation was not to blame for his Liverpool side's defeat to Fenerbahce in the Champions League, after the Reds let a lead slip twice to suffer a first loss in the competition this season.

The manager made five changes from the team that had lost to Arsenal over the weekend, ringing the changes in the full-back ranks and the forward line in particular, which has been a theme of his task in managing the players' workload so far this campaign.

There was a positive start when Trey Nyoni found the back of the net in the first half, only to see his effort pegged back by a deflected free-kick from Mason Greenwood. The visitors pushed on and regained the lead through substitute Alexander Isak in the second half, but goals from Archie Brown and Vedat Muriqi swung the game in favor of the home team.

It has left Liverpool with plenty of pondering to do, following a performance that harked back to more of last season, rather than a progression under Iraola.

For former player Steve McManaman, some of the blame landed on rotating the defense in particular. He said on TNT Sports after the defeat: "What comes out of this game tonight is that when you play in the Champions League, you have to go with your strongest defense.

"Liverpool changed it around yet again and conceded awful goals. Three tonight, three against LASK, three against Villarreal, that isn’t going to get you anywhere. Liverpool got outworked and outran by a team that lost 6-0 to Aston Villa. Liverpool couldn’t sustain any authority on the game when it took the lead. When it went 2-1, you thought Liverpool would see the game out, but it became disheveled.

"Alisson was in no man’s land for the second; he could have come for the third, and he was caught playing out against Arsenal. The stats hide a multitude of sins. It was a really underwhelming performance. The squad is not strong enough. Fourteen or 15 of them are but the rest aren’t at the highest level. Whether it is strengthening in January or getting injured players back but Liverpool needs to bolster that squad with more quality."

However, when the question of rotation impacting the performance was put to Iraola after the game, he believed that the main problems lie elsewhere. "The schedule that we have, it's impossible to maintain with always starting the [same] starting 11," the Liverpool boss told the press.

"And I think we've been dealing well with these rotations. I trust the squad to sustain the level and I don't think it was the main reason why we lost.

"I think some of the players that didn't play at the weekend have played a good game and we'll have to look more at how we conceded the goals and the reason why we didn't win because after, I think we had good moments, especially on the ball where we could score our two goals."

It suggests that the manager will be looking at how he can coach the team to improve moving forward, rather than picking between starting the same team every match through a fear of burnout or waging war against the board by calling for even more signings after the summer investment.

Fortunately for the Liverpool boss, it's a defeat that won't have an immediate impact, as there is time to bounce back and earn a top-eight finish in the Champions League. That may be the sort of learning experience that his team needs to get back on track and start winning games again.

With an international break coming up, there will be some time for further reflection on a challenging few weeks across all competitions, and how that can be managed even better moving forward.