Jurgen Klopp has revealed he gave the opportunity for players to sit out Monday's match at Sunderland given the tight turnaround from the Manchester City win.
The Reds drew 2-2 with David Moyes' side just less than 44 hours after their "intense" 1-0 victory over Premier League title rivals City on New Year's Eve.
The Liverpool manager made just one change for the encounter at the Stadium of Light -- replacing the injured Jordan Henderson for Daniel Sturridge -- after none of his players informed him they did not want to play.
"I told the players if nobody wanted to play I would never speak about it and not tell anyone, but nobody came. That was a good thing," Klopp told the BBC.
Daniel Sturridge and Sadio Mane twice put Liverpool in the lead, but they had to settle for a point following two Jermain Defoe penalties.
After the match, Klopp told a news conference that he had "no experience" of playing matches with such a lack of recovery time.
"For me, it's completely difficult to assume [anything about] the game, because I have no experience -- in situations like this, I have no idea what I could have expected from the performance side," Klopp said.
"I thought we started really well and then we lost concentration. That's not usual for us. But, of course, it happened before."
Meanwhile, Mane had no complaints about the referee's decision which led to Sunderland's second equaliser
The Senegal forward was penalised for handball in the penalty area off Sebastian Larsson's free kick and allowed for Jermain Defoe to score his second penalty of the afternoon.
Speaking after the game, Mane admitted to handling the ball and believes Anthony Taylor, ultimately, made the right call.
"Honestly, I thought the ball hit my hand," Mane said. "The guy pushed me, I lost my control and the ball hit my hand.
"Yes, I would say [it was a penalty]. We have to look forward to the next game. We can accept this one point."
The Sunderland match was the 24-year-old's last game for Liverpool before he heads off to the Africa Nations Cup with Senegal later this week.