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Liverpool FC’s 6-1 defeat to Stoke – a sentence that becomes no more amenable no matter how many times it is written – will have wide-ranging ramifications.

They finish the Premier League season in sixth, meaning there could be at least two qualifying rounds to navigate – likely in the final days of July – before the Reds can even consider themselves part of the Europa League.

Their five-goal swing sees them end their season on a goal difference of just +4 – their lowest since Graeme Souness’ side of 1993-94 managed the same.

It also sees Liverpool concede more than five in a league game for the first time since 1962, with the Reds losing by a bigger margin in just 11 games throughout their 123-year history.

Galling statistics for Reds fans, but those are just largely superficial issues; unwanted footnotes to a historic hammering at the Britannia Stadium.

The real fallout will come in the coming days, weeks, months. Brendan Rodgers will hope he is there to sift through the wreckage and pocket whatever the shards of positivity he can find from the past year.

He will need them, no matter how hard they jab into his skin. Earlier in the week, the Northern Irishman was calm over his end-of-season review with Mike Gordon, president of Fenway Sports Group. He will talk with the ownership, as he did after his first two seasons, to assess the direction of the club; what went right, what went wrong.

More wrong than right, but still a formality, according to the Liverpool boss. “There is no great big review,” he added.

That may have been true then. But it became much greater and much bigger on the back of this embarrassing last-day defeat.

Of course, a man’s destiny – and even his job security – should not hinge on one 90-minute match, no matter how tragic.

But this had been coming. Maybe not as dramatic or severe as it played out, but Liverpool have been a team in decline over the past few months. It began with defeats to Manchester United and Arsenal, hit rock bottom when losing to Aston Villa, and there they have stayed, embedded, ever since. Not even the motivation of giving Steven Gerrard a proper goodbye, home or away, has helped.

The poetry in motion has now become dense, prosaic. Every game has been a struggle. Questions must be asked.

And they will be asked, too. They will be asked with the respect Rodgers deserves. For all the criticism that is to come his way over the next week, more is the pity if it becomes personal or driven by a desire to be proved right all along.

Here are some of the questions FSG are likely to be asking Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers:

Why did you move from 3-4-2-1 back to 4-2-3-1, despite it not working earlier in the season?

Brendan Rodgers created a reputation of learning from his mistakes over his first two seasons in charge. In that time, his side lost consecutive league games just once – and that came in the back-to-back trips to Manchester City and Chelsea over Christmas in 2013. Indication that, even in his troublesome opening few months at Anfield, he knew how to rectify problems pretty quickly.

This season, he’s lost two league games in a row on three occasions, and suffered a three-game losing spell in November, too. That is a worrying trend, and a sign of a side which is failing to bounce back from disappointment – both the players mentally, and the manager tactically.

Stranger still, Rodgers had seemed to have addressed issues with his new 3-4-2-1 formation. It allowed freedom for the front players, even with square peg Raheem Sterling in a round hole centrally. It also gave defensive stability and, in general, brought points. After defeat to Manchester United in December, they would go 13 league games unbeaten, winning 10. Two damaging defeats against United and Arsenal saw a switch back to the 4-2-3-1 of earlier in the season.

The system became slow and laborious once more, fleeting moments against Newcastle aside. In that static system, Liverpool were as low as 12th in November. Rodgers returning to that shape is bewildering. Even the 4-4-2 diamond adopted against Stoke raised similar issues of isolated full backs, defensive errors and a midfield overrun. Three at the back may not have been the long-term answer, but its removal has led to even more questions.

By any definition, this is an under-par season for Liverpool. Why?

Rodgers came out fighting after their FA Cup surrender to Aston Villa. “Where we sit now, fifth place and having reached two semi-finals is probably on a par with where we’re at,” he said.

His bristling was understandable after Jurgen Klopp, then coach of Borussia Dortmund, had been linked with Rodgers’ job. Understandable, too, was the point he was trying to make: Liverpool are fifth in terms of spending prowess, so fifth-place is where the Redsmay well end up.

What now, then, Liverpool have finished in sixth? An utterance in a press conference should not carry so much weight; to some, however, it does. By Rodgers’ own admission, even with problems out of his control, this has become a below-par season.

His season has been littered with this sort of thing. His jibe at the critics who said he needed a defensive coach, for example, was followed by conceding four at Arsenal, three to Palace and six at Stoke.

Rodgers, realistically, had to achieve one of three objectives: get out of the Champions League group stage, qualify for next season’s competition or win a trophy. He didn’t do any of those.

Even allowing for Daniel Sturridge’s injury, how have the club ultimately ended the season with no strikers you trust?

The problems with Daniel Sturridge, the club’s first-choice striker, cannot be dismissed. Having lost 31 goals with the sale of Luis Suarez, another 21 were taken off the pitch and placed on the treatment table. It is a mitigating circumstance, and one Rodgers should raise.

But in came both Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli for a combined £20m. In the attacking wide positions, Adam Lallana and Lazar Markovic added a further £43m to their goalscoring options. Between all four, 10 league goals were scored. Even with Sturridge fit, a better return was needed from that quartet – not to mention one-goal Fabio Borini, returning from his Sunderland loan spell.

The main issue comes from the strikers. In one half of football, Stoke scored more league goals than Balotelli, Borini and Lambert had mustered all season.

It is telling that while the Potters were finding the net, there was not one recognisable striker on the pitch for Liverpool.

Lambert would later be introduced, but it was the season in a microcosm – reluctant use when nothing else is available.

Is everyone pulling in the same direction?

Of course, Rodgers cannot be solely blamed for the striker situation. The debate over who signed which player last summer will continue, if only because of a lack of transparency regarding the manager and the transfer committee.

The problems on the pitch extend to those off it. There is a clear philosophy at the club which no longer seems right for it, with Rodgers having to extract potential out of young players rather than coach ready-made stars. No wonder, perhaps, the side has lost its lustre in recent months.

In the defeat at Stoke, Balotelli (injured) and Javier Manquillo were not in the squad. On the bench sat, and remained, two £20m men in Dejan Lovren and Lazar Markovic. Lambert came on for the final stages, Lallana was up-front and Emre Can continued uncomfortably in the right back role.

Of the summer signings, only Alberto Moreno played in his natural position – and he was taken off at half time.

It’s a damning indictment of the transfer business last summer and hints at disconnect between players brought in and what Rodgers wants to do. No matter who is responsible for identifying and signing players, their arrivals must make the squad better – and fit into what the manager is trying to achieve.

With formation changes and shifting styles, the past year points to two opposite ideologies competing for superiority.

Why did the team’s season end after the cup semi-final at Wembley?

Liverpool’s season unravelled with the space of a month. Their charge for Champions League qualification was sent off-course before the capitulation to Tim Sherwood at Wembley.

So much had been made of that semi-final, with Gerrard’s fairytale hinging on reaching the final, that defeat destroyed the team. As Villa celebrated, Liverpool were frozen on the pitch. Some laid on their backs, others gave a meek thank you to the fans who had yet to exit the stadium, crestfallen. The fear was this would be an irrevocable setback.

But few would have predicted just how bad it would become. Since that defeat, the Reds have won just one game – and that was against bottom side QPR with a late Gerrard header. They lost to now-relegated Hull, as well as Crystal Palace. The demolition at Stoke is just further salt into gaping wounds.

The character of this side has been questioned for large parts of this season but the manner in which the towel has been tossed is troubling. This has not become a loss of form or even a rut, but an identifiable flaw in the side. Rodgers was unable to pick up his players, and mediocrity set in.

Indeed, there can be genuine qualms over whether players believe in Rodgers any more. Players like Philippe Coutinho have come out in defence of him, while others – Sturridge, Jordon Ibe, Jordan Henderson – have signed new deals with the club under his guidance.

But the team is so disjointed, their heads so low, that it is difficult to see how much faith is there.

How do you ensure next season doesn’t follow the same pattern as this one - or even worse?

This is the most important question of all. It is important to state, no matter how disagreeable it is after a 6-1 defeat, that Rodgers is a good manager. Losing Suarez and then Sturridge dealt him a crucial blow in his pursuit of goals, while the lack of clarity over transfer policy results in difficulty in judging player recruitment.

Do not forget 2013-14. Suarez and Sturridge were superb, but so were a number of other players; Joe Allen, Lucas Leiva, Martin Skrtel, Raheem Sterling, Coutinho and Henderson all contributed at various stages in the season. All of those also contributed to the Reds’ resurgence at the start of 2015.

Rodgers has also had to deal with the departure of Gerrard, as well as the recent furore over Sterling.

But he simply must find a formula to make Liverpool what they were in 2013-14 – if not in style, then at least in that relentless habit of picking up points and beating teams, comfortably, both home and away.

The scars of how that season ended remain for many. In the past year, the club – along with the manager – have had to deal with three huge blows.

They lost the title last May in dramatic fashion. Then, they quickly realised this season that a repeat of 2013-14 was not possible. Finally, after figuring out a way of playing that made the club vibrant once more, it has gone wrong once again.

Rodgers has to find a way to pick up the club once again - if he's given the opportunity.