Villa favourite Ian Taylor believes that Liverpool’s loss has been Manchester City’s gain since the former claret and blue captain moved onto pastures new.

Liverpool’s weekend win over Manchester United certainly took some of the heat off their manager Rafa Benitez, but I can’t help but think they’d have never been in such a situation had they signed Gareth Barry.

You can trace most of their recent struggles back to Gareth. First of all, their failed bid to sign him in summer 2008 unsettled a key player in Xabi Alonso. Now he plays for Real Madrid.

Why didn’t they get Gareth then? Mainly because they spent £20million on Tottenham’s Robbie Keane – and what a signing he turned out to be. Keane wasn’t Benitez’s signing and the Spaniard was too stubborn to give him a fair crack.

Because, after Fernando Torres, you would take any of John Carew, Gabby Agbonlahor or Emile Heskey over anything else Liverpool have up front. They are a two-man team with Torres and Steven Gerrard and, as we have seen in recent weeks, when they don’t play, Liverpool are average at best.

To me it seems they are in denial. No way are they ready to challenge for the title or Champions League.

Looking at their squad it’s pretty clear they are in transition at the moment. The club should just come out and say it. Either way, I think Benitez is safe in his job – even if they don’t reach the knockout phases of the Champions League.

I get the impression he is very much part of the long-term plans at Anfield again – and I’m not sure they could afford to pay him off anyway!

Another manager who has struggled of late is Roberto Di Matteo, whose honeymoon spell is over at Albion.

I don’t think anyone saw this poor run coming after the way they hammered five past Middlesbrough on their own patch a month ago. Now it’s pretty clear to me the Baggies are crying out for a goalscorer.

Last time they got promoted Kevin Phillips, Ishmael Miller, Roman Bednar, Zoltan Gera and Robert Koren all got into double figures. This time winger Chris Brunt leads the way with four league goals.

The goals are being spread around the team which is all well and good when things are going well, but it’s in the sorts of tight games like they’ve had recently that you need your strikers to nick you a goal.

Luke Moore is a player with the talent to thrive at Championship level – I have seen what he is capable of in training during our days together at Villa. But, just as was the case then, he has struggled to produce the goods. One goal in 10 starts simply isn’t enough.

I can’t quite understand why the Baggies shelled out £1.5million on Simon Cox in the summer either and are now picking a teenager, Chris Wood, ahead of him.

I’ve mentioned in my column before I’m a fan of Wood, but why bother spending the money on Cox if you’re not going to give him a fair crack of the whip?

Back to Villa, what a stunning performance from goalkeeper Brad Guzan on Tuesday night. To save four penalties is just incredible – and two more of the saves he made at Sunderland were world class too.

I’m not too sure there’s a better understudy in the Premier League right now. Every time he plays for Villa he really impresses me and, with Brad Friedel now 38, it’s only a matter of time before he becomes the No 1 at the club.

I’ve been impressed by his maturity. At 25, a lot of goalkeepers his age would expect to be playing every week and given how well he’s done every time he’s come in who could blame him?

But you never read or hear a word of complaint from him over his situation. He clearly has great respect for his compatriot Friedel. To me that is a smart move.

Friedel is not going to be around forever – he has one further year left on his contract after this season – and, when he does eventually move on, Villa have a ready-made replacement who will have benefited greatly from a few seasons learning from the veteran.

Even then, he will still have another 10-15 years at the top left in him. Guzan’s heroics have now given Villa their best chance of silverware since my days at the club.

The League Cup might not be in the same bracket as the Premier League title, the FA Cup or Champions League but when I was part of the Villa side which won it in 1996 it was easily one of the best days of my life.

Villa have a chance and, when you think about it, this competition offers a much better chance of success than the Europa League given the number of games you have to play.

We have won two and already find ourselves in the last eight. To get to that stage in the Europa League you would have to play 12 matches – play-off, six group games, last 32 and last 16.

Hopefully the draw will be kind to them on Saturday, because there are still a lot of strong sides in the competition. A home game against Portsmouth or Blackburn would give them a real chance of getting into the semis and from there who knows?

You can tell manager Martin O’Neill really senses an opportunity to win it by the strength of the side named at the Stadium of Light. It was pretty much full strength. I’d expect one or two of the fringe players were put out at not featuring, but those are the decisions you have to make as the gaffer.

Ultimately, it’s about winning – and you won’t hear anyone complaining if Villa reach the final come February.

I think a lot of fans would actually take winning the League Cup over finishing in the top four. By the time this season’s finals come around it will be 14 years since we last won some silverware – that is a long time.

Martin has a great record in the competition as a manager, having won it twice at Leicester, so I just hope he can work his magic again.