Stoke 6 - 1 Liverpool Steven Gerrard's final Liverpool game

Stoke City humble Liverpool and Steven Gerrard gets scant consolation

Stoke 6 - 1 Liverpool

Mame Diouf 22
Mame Diouf 26
Jonathan Walters 30
Charlie Adam 41
Steven Nzonzi 45
Peter Crouch 86

Steven Gerrard 70


Stoke City celebrate one of their five first-half goals as Steven Gerrard, in his last Liverpool game, and Philippe Coutinho look dejected. 

This was no way for Steven Gerrard to say goodbye, even though he marked his 710th and final appearance in a Liverpool shirt with his 186th goal for the club and, long before the end, the question of whether it might be time for another farewell had elbowed its way to the top of the agenda.

Brendan Rodgers faces a review of Liverpool’s season of frustration with the club’s owners and, although he has said that he remains wholly confident of continuing as the manager into next season, it felt as though there could be few certainties after such a wretched afternoon.

Liverpool were 5-0 down at half-time, utterly humiliated at the hands of a rampaging Stoke City and, to put it bluntly, these are the sort of performances that see clubs and managers part company. It set the seal on a miserable end to the season for Rodgers and Liverpool, in which the team lost six of 11 matches and finished with 52 Premier League goals. They got 101 last time out.

Rodgers dropped Raheem Sterling in the wake of all of the argument and negative headlines over the winger’s future intentions yet the focus here fell upon the manager, and whether he could recover. It was Liverpool’s heaviest defeat since the 7-2 at Tottenham Hotspur in 1963.

The lone positive for the visitors came when Gerrard ran through in the 70th minute to slot a low shot past Asmir Begovic and there was the heart-warming moment when the Stoke fans rose as one to applaud him. But it was otherwise an afternoon of angst and soul-searching.

Stoke had entered the game, ostensibly, with nothing to play for, having already made sure of a ninth-placed finish for the second season in succession and yet they played as if their lives depended on it. Their performance was a testament to the mentality that Mark Hughes has fostered at the club. Liverpool, by contrast, ran up the white flag in the first half after being outfought and taken to pieces.

Sterling’s omission from the starting XI had created the pre-match buzz and the substitute was jeered by plenty of travelling supporters as he made his way back into the dressing-room after the warm-up before kick-off.

The layout of the Britannia Stadium was against him; the visiting fans are stationed by the tunnel in one corner. When Sterling emerged to warm-up midway through the first-half, he ran towards the other corner, away from the Liverpool support. “One greedy bastard,” bellowed the home crowd. Some of those in the visiting enclosure applauded the sentiment.

Liverpool’s woes ran far deeper. This was a bitter and unforgiving occasion for them – a little like the microclimate at this wind-swept arena; Gerrard will miss all this in Los Angeles – and it was shocking to see how Rodgers’s team wilted, after the mess that was the opening goal. Simon Mignolet could only parry Charlie Adam’s shot at the feet of Mame Diouf, after good work from Marko Arnautovic, and the striker banged home from close range.

Glenn Whelan had clattered into Gerrard in the first minute – reputations mean nothing to this Stoke team – and, having battled for the platform to play, they duly did so. With Sterling on the bench, Rodgers had started with Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho up front – in other words, without a recognised striker. It looked as though he did not have a defence, either. The manager replaced the full-backs, Emre Can and Alberto Moreno, at the interval. He could have taken off anybody.

Stoke sensed Liverpool’s vulnerability after the first goal and how they exploited it. Challenges from the visitors were powder-puff and Stoke simply ran all over them. Diouf got his second with a viciously swerving shot from the edge of the area, which Mignolet could not lay a glove on while third followed a comical back header from Can, which found only Jon Walters. His first effort was well saved by Mignolet but Walters reacted the quickest to the rebound, nodding a looping header home.

Liverpool fans could be seen heading for the exit with 31 minutes on the clock and it did not feel as though they were merely trying to beat the half-time pie queue. The Stoke fans were shouting the olés after 32 minutes and it would get even better for them before the interval. After more slapdash Liverpool defending and with Martin Skrtel backing off, Adam rampaged through to drive low into the corner before Steven Nzonzi bent a magnificent curler past Mignolet from outside the area. Rodgers was barracked as he walked into the tunnel at half-time.

Liverpool managed to stick their fingers in the damn during the second half. Skrtel was a little fortunate to escape a second yellow card for a foul on Nzonzi and Lallana was thwarted by Begovic before Gerrard got his goal. But Arnautovic should have scored for Stoke on 67 minutes and the substitute and former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch enjoyed the last word when he headed home unmarked from Diouf’s cross.