The faces might have been different but the result was distinctly recognisable. Liverpool beat Norwich 3-0 here on the campaign’s opening weekend, offering the Canaries a rude awakening they are yet to shake off; five and-a-half weeks on they repeated the trick, reaching the fourth round in comfort and suggesting the depth is there for a tilt at their first League Cup win since 2012 if they want it. Takumi Minamino scored either side of a Divock Origi header to ensure Norwich earned no relief from what they had hoped would be a morale-building diversion; they passed up on their chance to take some heart when Christos Tzolis missed a penalty that, had he converted, would have brought them in level at half-time.
Caution over any conclusions to be drawn from the outcome was justified by a predictable level of rotation. In fairness to Daniel Farke and Jürgen Klopp, neither side was saturated with untried youngsters. While Norwich retained just three of those who flopped against Watford, eight of their starters had begun at least one Premier League game this season. Their plight is such that places all over the pitch were fair game.
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