David Healy says he will have to carefully manage his squad to avoid player burnout this season.
The Blues are still adjusting to life as a full-time club, a transition Healy says "won't happen overnight".
He made a number of changes for Tuesday's County Antrim Shield win over Dundela, with one eye on next Monday's crunch Premiership clash with Larne.
Healy said the Shield offered some players the chance to get vital game time under their belts, while it also handed the manager a chance to rest a number of his senior stars.
And the former international striker believes man management will be key this season.
"It has to be done," he told Linfield's website.
"People might say we are only eight, nine, 10 games into the season. But people have to understand, especially our own fans and people associated with Linfield, that we made the transition from where we were last year and it won't just happen overnight.
"We have to be careful with the amount of hard work we have to do with the players, because we haven't done this as a group before.
"So we have to make sure we manage the players."
Healy used Northern Ireland Under 21 internationals Trai Hume and Cammy Palmer as examples of young players who could start feeling the effects of a busy club and country schedule.
The Linfield boss added: "Trai Hume is only 19 and has played a huge amount of games so far including four tough international games for Northern Ireland.
"We just can't take the chance, and if we keep playing Trai week in week, out he will end up breaking down and we won't see the same quality we know Trai has.
"Cammy Palmer was named in the 11 on Saturday, and even though he didn't play any minutes on international duty, it showed how much it had taken out of him with the travel and intensity of training.
"He came back and had to miss the game on Saturday and was taken out tonight. We need to be careful and we have to manage the squad of players.
"It is about me trusting them and when they get the opportunities they play well."
