Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said that changes could be made in January and that the onus is on the players to make "positive arguments" in their case to stay at Anfield.
Klopp, whose team face Manchester City on Saturday, has had to contend with several key first-team players missing through injury during his short reign at Anfield. Club captain Jordan Henderson is yet to play for him and none of strikers Daniel Sturridge, Christian Benteke and Danny Ings have featured regularly for their new boss due to various injury troubles.
But former Dortmund boss Klopp believes this is the time that players will show their worth to him before he has a chance to make changes to the squad he inherited from predecessor Brendan Rodgers.
"We will have the possibility to change some things in January and in the summer but at this moment we have made no decisions because we don't have to make them yet," Klopp said in the Daily Mirror.
"The players know this. It is always the same that at one point in the season you have to make a decision about them. We are at a time when they can collect positive arguments and say: 'OK, we want to work together.'
"I don't need to say this to them, they know it. In this moment we have made no decisions so I have time to judge."
The Liverpool boss admitted he needs more to time to make a final judgement on players and then he will have a better idea of who the team might go after in the winter window and which players might be surplus to requirements.
"To make a final judgement on them I need more time. I know about the business of course," Klopp said. "We have time and we will see what is possible and what is not possible.
"We will see what's necessary and what's not necessary, that's how we work."
Klopp also stood by embattled Dejan Lovren, who has struggled for form and made several costly errors since joining from Southampton in 2014. But the manager played down any problems with the Croatian.
"With Dejan, there will be absolutely no problem," Klopp said. "These two guys -- [Martin] Skrtel and Lovren-- are healthy and everything is good. Dejan has done a really good job since I've come in here.
"I saw his first game for Liverpool -- it was against Dortmund, when we lost by four. He was brilliant on this day. I'd heard not the best things about him since but during my time here he's looked strong and everything is OK.
"As long as these two guys are feeling good we don't have a big problem."
Regarding the possibility of Steven Gerrard returning to Liverpool's Melwood training facility, Klopp said the doors are wide open to the former club captain.
"He is a really, really good person. I enjoyed our time together and we spoke about many things," Klopp said after the two met. "He doesn't want to play next week or train next week, he wants to enjoy his holiday.
"If he wants to train, of course, he can, no question. He can use Melwood and then go back to LA and train and play. Then it is really far away."
Gerrard has this week ruled out a return to his boyhood club or any other side in Europe on loan during the MLS offseason.