Brendan Rodgers handed debuts to two full-backs and his £32.5m striker Christian Benteke but the focus was inevitably on the midfield, in Liverpool’s first game of the post-Steven Gerrard era.

There was a newcomer there, too, in the shape of James Milner – an excellent free transfer from Manchester City. Tired of being a jack-of-all-trades usually used out wide, Milner decided to join Liverpool partly because he was promised a run in his favoured central position, where he excelled in his Aston Villa days.

Rodgers used Milner in a right-of-centre role, with the new captain, Jordan Henderson, sitting deeper as the primary holding midfielder, in the role Gerrard became accustomed to in his last 18 months at Liverpool. Coutinho played a little higher up, with Adam Lallana drifting inside from the left. Jordon Ibe, meanwhile, offered width out on the right.

It was difficult to find many positive signs from Liverpool’s midfield, however, especially as Simon Mignolet regularly bypassed this zone and tried to hit Benteke directly. Milner shuttled up and down the pitch manfully and is very composed in possession but his box-to-box role is surely Henderson’s favourite position too. Liverpool’s central midfield seemed an uneasy compromise as Henderson is not a natural holding midfielder, and during his best spell of form for Liverpool in 2013-14, he made a succession of well-timed runs into the opposition penalty area, linking up with the forwards and getting himself into goalscoring positions.

In a deeper role it is more difficult to see Henderson’s qualities, although he did play an excellent diagonal pass out to the terrifyingly quick Ibe. Henderson as the deepest midfielder might have been viable against a team such as Stoke – who, for all their technical development under Mark Hughes, did not have anything like a natural playmaker – but may be less so in Liverpool’s next away game, at Arsenal. His most promising moment came from his sole foray into the opposition box, on 71 minutes, to receive a clever chip from Milner – although his volleyed pass was wayward.

There was too much overlap between the roles of two pairs: while Henderson was restricted by Milner, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana drifted around in the same zone, neither contributing much during the 63 minutes they were on the pitch together. The Brazilian came into the game more once Lallana was replaced by Emre Can, and his brilliant late curled winner was the only memorable moment of a thoroughly underwhelming contest.

Rodgers still requires a holding midfielder, considering Lucas Leiva – not in the 18-man squad – is apparently not in his thoughts. That would allow both Milner and Henderson to bomb forward in a 4-3-3, with the protection of a positionally disciplined player behind.

There is, one senses, more to come from Liverpool and the relationship between Milner and Henderson is clearly at an early stage. Still, it will take performances significantly better than this if Liverpool are to improve on last season’s sixth-placed finish.