I think Liverpool is "dark horse" in PL this season,in my opinion it'll be in CL next season. About squad ,if compared eщ Gerrard,Owen,McMan then I agree ,but compared to latest "gerrard team" todays team looks more solid.But still its just my opinion 
I would seriously like to think that Liverpool deliberately wanted to be kicked out of the League Cup competition but from the way i look at it, that's not the case entirely, They were outplayed and i am beginning to wonder why they bought Oxlade Chamberlain in the first place and with the amount they spent on him its just laughable.