Once the dust has settled, there is no great harm to being knocked out of the Carabao Cup at such an early juncture. Less games means more focus can be applied to a league and European assault, and ultimately that can only be a good thing for Liverpool Football Club.
If Saturday’s match against Southampton had been a boxing match, Mark Hughes would have thrown the towel in at half time to prevent his fighters taking any more punishment. We romped into a 3-0 lead at the break courtesy of goals from Joel Matip, Mo Salah and an own goal from Wes Hoedt, and it could have perhaps been more.
It feels like a lifetime ago now, such is the nature of the international break, but the 2-1 win over Leicester last time out was a decent way to enter the prolonged abstinence from club football. We could have been at least 3-0 to the good at half time, with goals from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino following a complete horror-show of a miss from Mo Salah, who really should have done better with his early chance.