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So a miserable season ended in a fashion completely befitting what had gone before.

Last Sunday’s dreadful 6-1 defeat at Stoke City really summed it all up.

Look, I know Stoke have secured their highest points tally in Premier League history and great respect to them for that.

But to lose 6-1 at the Britannia Stadium, you have to be absolutely awful.

And Liverpool were.

We started with seven players who are preferred central midfielders, and even if most of them are out of position, you’d think they’d be able to sort themselves out and not concede six goals.

The squad flew out to Dubai the following day for Steven Gerrard’s farewell trip but it appeared they had already gone on their holidays.

What was very curious was the fact after the game the club sent out Jordon Ibe to speak about the match.

That was a really strange decision, and seemed to be taken without much thought.

Having a teenager – who was a substitute – front up for the rest of the team after such a shocking display didn’t seem right.

Some people might regard the heavy loss as a blessing in disguise. Imagine if we’d won our last two games of the season. I doubt people would be questioning the manager as much, questioning the players as much.

In that respect, perhaps it underlined where we have gone wrong and reminds Liverpool how much work there is that needs to still be done.

We just limped out of the season.

And the great worry for me remains the character of the team.

We had three matches against awkward opponents in Hull City, Crystal Palace and Stoke.

They aren’t the best teams in terms of quality.

But they are strong. And we wimped out.

All three knew that if you get stuck into this Liverpool team, you’re going to have a lot of joy.

We can play our football against every team in the country. But we clearly can’t fight against any of them.

We lost Jamie Carragher. We lost Luis Suarez. Now we have lost Steven Gerrard.

Liverpool need players who are going to stand up and scrap it out when they aren’t playing well.

Chelsea have loads of talent and they don’t mind fighting for the right to play.

No wow... but Reds fans will be happy with striker changes

Liverpool’s summer transfer plans could hardly be said to have the ‘wow’ factor.

But that is where the club are at the moment.

With no Champions League, we aren’t going to bring in Champions League standard players.

That’s the chicken and egg situation.

And it’s going to be like that for a while.

On the face of it, the intended overhaul up front would see Mario Balotelli, Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert moved on.

In their place would come Christian Benteke, Danny Ings and Divock Origi.

I think that’s an acceptable change that most fans would be happy with, particularly when they reconcile themselves with the fact the top, top players will almost certainly be avoiding Anfield over the coming months.

What’s more, Benteke, Ings and Origi will all have points to prove. As will Daniel Sturridge, whenever he is fit and available.

You want that from your players. You want them to have motivation, to have the bit between the teeth, to have that air of silencing the doubters.

You’d expect Benteke to play when fit. So too Sturridge. So that leaves Ings and Origi to scrap for their places.

I wouldn’t regard Ings as a gamble. He’s more of a punt, that’s the right word. If it comes off, then great. If it doesn’t then at least large money hasn’t been wasted.

The reason we didn’t qualify for the Champions League this season is primarily because we played without a recognised striker for the majority of the season.

At least Liverpool acknowledge revitalising their frontline is a priority.

Rodgers MUST make his point over experience

I mentioned last week that it was perhaps time supporters started to cut Brendan Rodgers a bit of slack.

Finishing fifth would have been amazing achievement given the problems Liverpool have had this season.

It would have meant finishing top of our ‘league’ as such as we cannot compete with the top four, at least not this season.

Of course, the defeat at Stoke City meant we couldn’t even seal that particular accolade.

And the fallout from that astonishingly bad performance meant serious questions are being asked regarding Rodgers’ long-term future.

Personally, I don’t think he should be sacked.

But Fenway Sports Group are going to have plenty to say when they meet with the boss for the usual end-of-season review.

They’ll want to know where the manager sees himself taking Liverpool over the next 18 months and progress from there.

If Rodgers does one thing, it HAS to be to persuade FSG to ease their transfer policy and look to bring a bit more experience into the squad. We’re crying out for that.

Yes, there may not be much resale value at the end of their contract. But the end justifies the means.

Rodgers will point to the striker issue as being the main problem this season. And while he got it wrong with Balotelli, that was a last throw of the dice.

Liverpool will look to do their business early this summer, but that’s the same with any club.

Having no major international tournament will be a help.

Toure duty right to be extended

A surprise to some, yes, but it makes sense that Kolo Toure has been given a contract extension.

Toure knows at this stage in his career he can only hope to be a fourth-choice centre-back and his first-team opportunities will be limited.

But he is popular in the dressing room and has been around the block a few times.

Ggiven the relative lack of experience throughout the squad, such knowhow will prove useful in being passed on next season.