Liverpool hardly did departing captain Steven Gerrard justice in the long-serving midfielder’s final Anfield appearance before moving to Major League Soccer this summer and that hasn’t sat well with skipper in waiting Jordan Henderson.
Adam Lallana opened the scoring midway through the first half after he capitalized on ex-Red Martin Kelly’s blunder, but it all fell apart from there with the hosts conceding three unanswered goals on the hop to make sure that Gerrard’s last memories of the famous old stadium won’t be quite as fond as he might have hoped. While it’s debatable if Liverpool will ever be able to replace the 34-year old, Henderson doesn’t want just one player to do it — he wants everyone to raise their game to help fill the glaring hole the LA Galaxy bound midfielder is going to leave.
“It was very disappointing. We’re devastated that we couldn’t get the result for him in the last game. It was a disappointing day for all involved,” explained the former Sunderland man. “I think it will be a huge loss for us not only as a player but a person with his aura around the place. But it is up to us as a team to step up to the plate and take responsibility, and not one individual,” he continued. “There will never be another player or person like him in terms of everything he stood for and how good he was as a player. But I still feel we have a lot of great players here with a lot of potential and we need to start showing that potential next season. We have hungry players who want to improve and do well and we have to make sure we are doing that next week and pre-season.”
Seven points off the top four with one match left to play and a staggering 22-points off of Premier League champions Chelsea, who hold a match in hand, it’s safe to say that Liverpool have underachieved this year. While boss Brendan Rodgers is expected to burgeon their ranks this summer, there’s no question that he’ll also have to find solutions for some of the players that have failed to live up to their billing during their first season at Anfield. Gerrard’s powers may have waned over the past couple of years, but he’s going to be a big miss — and in a team lacking both aggression and leadership, it could be worse than we expect.
