Brendan Rodgers was left to defend his own Liverpool XI after making eight changes for Tuesday night's Champions League meeting with Real Madrid.
The Reds boss started with captain Steven Gerrard, star winger Raheem Sterling, top midfielder Jordan Henderson and summer signing Mario Balotelli all on the bench for the Group B clash at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Rodgers was slammed by certain sections of supporters and media alike for going into a big match without such key players but he feels those his selection process was vindicated as though he choice performed well in the 1-0 loss to the reigning European champions.
"We haven't been a team with a consistent run of form at the moment," he said.
"The changes were the team I thought would get us a performance and a result: we got a performance, unfortunately we didn't get a result.
"I go with my gut feeling and that was the performance we had on Saturday (a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United) was not as good as we wanted but it was also what we planned out over a series of games.
"Every game is a big game and for me I didn't see this as a big showcase game where I had to play the so-called names.
"It might have seemed a gamble but for me it wasn't."
Liverpool remained third on the group table with just three points from four matches which has the Anfield club three behind second-placed FC Basel and nine in arrears of Real with two fixtures left.
