Be it the Milk Cup, the Coca-Cola Cup or the Carling Cup, it’s a tournament the Merseysiders have won a record eight times and the evidence of the early rounds of this newly rebranded EFL Cup is the Reds mean business this year once more.
Beaten on penalties by Manchester City in last season’s final, Jurgen Klopp’s team dismissed Derby County at the iPro Stadium last night in the same authoritative fashion they had overwhelmed Burton Albion 5-0 ten miles down the road in the previous round.
They got only three goals this time – from Ragnar Klavan, Philippe Coutinho and Divock Origi – but their performance underlined manager Jürgen Klopp’s wish for a team with no European distractions to take this competition seriously.