Down by a goal, Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers called on long-serving skipper Steven Gerrard to replace the injured Adam Lallana at the break and handed the out-going Reds talisman a chance to make an impact in what will likely be his last meeting with Manchester United. Less than a minute later, he was shown a straight red card for an ugly reaction to a challenge from Ander Herrera.
“I need to accept it, I think the decision was right. I’ve let my teammates and the manager down today, and even more importantly let all of the supporters down. I take full responsibility for my action. I’ve tried to jump his tackle when I’ve seen his studs and I’ve reacted wrong” said the 34-year old following the match. I’ve been in the game long enough to know when you do something like that…especially with the timing of the game – 45 to play with a great opportunity to get back into the game. I take full responsibility for it. I’ve come to speak to apologise to everyone in the dressing room and all of the supporters all over the place because I take full responsibility for today’s result.”
With the chance to leap-frog United into fourth place looking that much more difficult with the gap now increased to five points, Liverpool will have it all to do as the season winds down. While this result in no way rules them out of the running for a spot in next season’s Champions League, it certainly doesn’t help any — though their poor start to the season, rather than this particular loss, will have far more to do with their point tally come the end of May.
“Sometimes these things happen. If you look at our team as a whole and how we play the game, it doesn’t happen very much to our team. Unfortunately it did today. We’ll move on” said Reds boss Brendan Rodgers when asked about the incident. “It’s big of someone when they do get sent off to come out and apologise. Steven was probably a little frustrated watching us in the first half – we didn’t make a tackle – and at least he was man enough to come out and make that apology.”
