It was the selection Jurgen Klopp would sooner have done without.
But now the Liverpool boss is facing his first real headache of the season - and one that could shape the remainder of the transfer window.
Klopp had been keen for the Premier League to continue the post-lockdown rule change last season which saw benches bumped up to nine players with five substitutions allowed.
Instead, while other major European leagues are poised to vote to extend the directive, England is reverting to seven substitutes of which three can be used in any one match.
Klopp regularly made use of the extra options, allowing youngsters Neco Williams, Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott game time whether from the start or the bench.
With two fewer spaces in the dugout, that trio will find it more difficult to find a berth in the matchday squad.
And they won't be the only ones, with a number of fringe players also challenging for inclusion.
Of course, over a full season, injuries and suspensions mean opportunities will arise, particular given the hectic schedule of this unusually condensed campaign.
Some, though, won't be content to hang around for that to happen.
So who makes the bench against Leeds United for the Premier League opener on Saturday evening - and, more pertinently, who doesn't - will be hugely instructive as to who could move on in the coming weeks.
With as many as five further games before the transfer window - at least one of which will be in the Carabao Cup - there will be rotation and first-team openings.
But the Leeds game will demonstrate Klopp's long-term thinking, with the Reds boss having an almost full-strength squad from which to choose, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain the only long-term absentee from his core group of players.
Xherdan Shaqiri's lack of match sharpness could count against him, so too Harry Wilson.
However, Marko Grujic, Nat Phillips, Rhian Brewster and even Divock Origi will all be waiting to discover if they are one of the six outfield players to make the bench, likewise youngsters Jones, Elliott and Williams.
Liverpool will allow Phillips to leave regardless, while Brewster's future remains a source of intrigue.
For some, such as Loris Karius, the situation is far more straightforward, with a future at Liverpool hugely unlikely.
Last season, Wilson featured regularly during the warm-up programme but failed to make the bench in the Community Shield and joined Bournemouth on loan days later, while Ryan Kent, another to miss out, moved to Rangers permanently the following month.
This season's unprecedented calendar meant the same fixture didn't have quite the same resonance when it took place a fortnight ago.
Saturday's Premier League opener, though, does. And Klopp could drop a hint at what business could be about to come.
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