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The 2014/15 season will go down in history as one of abject under-achievement for Liverpool.

Brendan Rodgers set three targets last summer – a top four Premier League finish, reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League and winning some silverware. None of them were met.

Having worked so hard to end their five-year absence from Europe’s elite, Liverpool gave up their top four status with barely a whimper as they trailed home sixth.

Their tally of 62 points was 22 fewer than 12 months earlier and their meagre haul of 52 goals was 49 down on the previous campaign.

Not since the 1993/94 season, which saw the club part company with Graeme Souness, has Liverpool’s goal difference been as low as plus four.

The Reds’ eagerly anticipated return to the Champions League proved shortlived. They looked out of their depth and failed to advance from an average group.

The domestic cups provided some crumbs of comfort but two morale-boosting runs both ended in semi-final heartache.

There was pride in a narrow defeat to Chelsea over two legs in the Capital One Cup but their pitiful exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Aston Villa at Wembley was embarrassing.

It was a season which started badly, picked up in the middle and then went completely off the rails.

After the 3-0 rout at Old Trafford in mid-December, Liverpool sat 10th with just 21 points from 16 league games.

The sale of Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge’s injury woes and the failure of so many new signings to deliver had left Rodgers under mounting pressure.

When his back was against the wall, the Northern Irishman came out fighting.

The tactical switch to playing three at the back helped the Reds transform the mood as they went on to collect 33 out of the next 39 points on offer.

If Liverpool had beaten Manchester United at Anfield on March 22 they would have leapfrogged their rivals into the top four. Momentum was on their side.

Yet the Reds fluffed their lines that afternoon and were deservedly beaten. Their form quickly nose dived with the last nine league matches yielding just eight points.

Rather than find the solutions, the problems merely just kept stacking up for Rodgers.

The murmurings of discontent after the 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in Steven Gerrard’s Anfield send-off was nothing compared to the furious reaction from the away end when Stoke inflicted a humiliating 6-1 mauling on the final day.

A season to forget reached a sorry conclusion with Rodgers fighting for his job and a squad – lacking in both character and leadership – in desperate need of an overhaul.

Steven Gerrard’s late winner in front of the Kop in his penultimate match at Anfield against Queens Park Rangers.

It was a moment which epitomised the never-say-die attitude of Liverpool’s departing captain.

Just minutes after seeing his penalty pushed away by Robert Green, Gerrard got away from Bobby Zamora and soared above Joey Barton to emphatically head home Coutinho’s corner.

Anfield erupted.

Player of the Season

There wasn’t much competition for this accolade with the little Brazilian just getting the nod ahead of Simon Mignolet.

Coutinho wasn’t helped in the early months of the season by the lack of movement in front of him but he came to life when Rodgers changed the formation. In a squad lacking potency, he provided the moments of true class with his box of tricks and eye for a pass.

Often criticised for the lack of an end product, his haul of eight goals was a step in the right direction and he demonstrated his commitment to the Reds by penning a new five-year contract.

Mignolet was in the frame after the remarkable transfor-mation in his Reds career. In mid-December, he looked doomed to be shown the door but the Belgian grabbed his shot at redemption in the second half of the campaign.

Game of the Season

Liverpool’s excuses for falling short against City were ready-made.

Tired limbs after a gruelling 120 minutes against Besiktas, the psychological damage of being dumped out of the Europa League on penalties and the crazy schedule which saw them thrust back into action just 55 hours later after returning from Turkey.

There was no Steven Gerrard, no Lucas Leiva, no Mamadou Sakho.

The odds were stacked against Rodgers’ men.

But they produced a performance brimming with desire, hunger and commitment.

The goals from Henderson and Coutinho were of the highest quality.

Liverpool were marching towards the Champions League spots and there was talk of Anfield becoming a fortress once again.

It didn’t last.