After coming desperately close to winning the Premier League title, Steven Gerrard suffered further disappointment with Liverpool at the end of the 2014-15 season.
The club captain was given a long goodbye by the Reds, with his end-of-season exit confirmed in January 2015. Brendan Rodgers' side never recovered from a slow start, and a return to the Champions League was already impossible by the time they rounded off the season with a home defeat against Crystal Palace and a final day humbling away to Stoke City.
Gerrard was given a guard of honour by fans of both clubs before the Anfield game, while the likes of Gerard Houllier and Kenny Dalglish paid tribute to the England international beforehand. Liverpool were unable to help their skipper sign off with a victory, though, with goals from Jason Puncheon, Wilfried Zaha and Glenn Murray giving Alan Pardew's visitors all three points.
The Liverpool team selected that day was a blend of youth and experience, with some who gave Liverpool years of memories and others who continued their careers elsewhere. Here's what the starting XI and three substitutes are up to today.
Simon Mignolet
The starting goalkeeper from Liverpool's 2013-14 campaign, Mignolet was still at Anfield at the end of the following season. Indeed, he was still there until 2019, sitting on the bench for the 2018 and 2019 Champions League finals.
He eventually returned to his native Belgium, joining Club Brugge, and revealed the quality shown by Alisson played a part in his decision. “If I could really fight for my place, I might have stayed," the former Sunderland keeper told Het Belang van Limburg (via Sport Witness ).
Now 34, Mignolet has clinched a third straight Belgian title. Club Brugge had work to do to catch Union SG after the regular season, but five unbeaten play-off games have left them uncatchable with a game to go.
How does the Gerrard-era Liverpool team compare to the 2021-22 version? Have your say in the comments section
Emre Can
Versatile German international Can was part of a back three against Palace. However, he also had plenty of involvement in central midfield during his four years at Anfield.
The former Bayern Munich youngster was one of a host of players brought to Liverpool using the money recouped from Luis Suarez's sale to Barcelona. He was far from the worst, but did eventually leave in 2018 when his contract expired.
After two seasons with Juventus, he returned to Germany with Borussia Dortmund. Both of his campaigns at the Westfalenstadion have brought top four finishes, with Marco Rose's side finishing a distant second behind Bayern this time around.
Martin Skrtel
The 2014-15 was the seventh of eight for Skrtel at Liverpool. He was still finding his feet in England when the Reds finished second under Rafa Benitez in 2009, but had a bigger role to play under Rodgers five years later when they reached the top two once more.
He was offered a new contract by the Reds at the end of the 2014-15 season. However, he reportedly deemed the offer "unacceptable," and ended up moving to Fenerbahce one year later.
After a couple of spells elsewhere, including a 24-day stint with Atalanta, the Slovakian returned home in 2021. He made the move to Spartak Trnava, and has helped the side qualify for next season's Europa Conference League.
Dejan Lovren
Like Can, Lovren joined Liverpool in the summer of 2014. He was one of a number of players to move to Anfield from Southampton, a trend which continued under Jurgen Klopp with Sadio Mane's 2016 arrival.
The Croatian international played 131 Premier League games for the Merseyside club, starting European finals in 2016 and 2018 and sitting on the bench for the 2019 Champions League win. He was by no means a regular in 2019-20, but 10 league appearances ensured he left Liverpool with a Premier League winner's medal.
Lovren moved to Zenit St Petersburg in 2020 and has won back-to-back titles with the Russian side. "We said goodbye to each other as friends," he said of his relationship with Liverpool boss Klopp. "We said that whatever we needed, we could phone each other. It was a very good, open talk."
Jordon Ibe (Rickie Lambert, 65')
The 2014-15 season was one of progress for Ibe. The winger (or wing-back in this instance) had joined Liverpool from Wycombe Wanderers as a teenager, and this was the first campaign in which he played more than 10 games.
He continued to progress the following season, earning minutes under both Rodgers and Klopp. However, when Bournemouth came in with a £15m bid, the Reds allowed him to leave.
Things have been tough for the 26-year-old in recent years, with a flat end to his stint on the south coast followed by a challenging time with depression during a stint with Derby County. He moved to Turkish side Adanaspor in January but has yet to make a competitive appearance for the club.
Jordan Henderson
With Liverpool lining up in a 3-4-3 formation, it was Henderson who partnered Gerrard in the middle. By the start of the season, he had inherited the captain's armband from his colleague.
Seven years on from the Palace defeat, Henderson is still an important player at Anfield. The former Sunderland youngster captained Liverpool to a Premier League win in 2020, and could still add further trophies to the two domestic cups he has won this season.
"Everything he earns in the game and every accolade he gets both on and off the pitch, he certainly deserves it," Gerrard said of Henderson in 2020. "He’s an absolute role model to a lot of young kids."
Alberto Moreno (Jerome Sinclair, 87')
Another 2014 arrival, Moreno established himself as a first-choice after joining from Sevilla. With injuries limiting the involvement of Jose Enrique and Jon Flanagan, the Spaniard played 60 league games across his first two seasons in England.
Eventually, though, he was moved to the fringes under Klopp. First by James Milner's move to left-back in 2016, and then the signing of Andy Robertson 12 months later.
Moreno joined Villarreal in 2019, and won the Europa League title in 2021 - five years after losing it in a Liverpool shirt. However, a cruciate ligament rupture prevented him from playing against his old employers in this season's Champions League.
Philippe Coutinho
Coutinho failed to match his 2013-14 highs in Gerrard's final Anfield season. However, he did score two FA Cup winners for the Reds as they reached the semi-finals before suffering a surprise defeat against Aston Villa.
Villa Park is now the home of both Coutinho and Gerrard, with the latter taking over as manager and adding the former Barcelona man to his ranks. Barca paid Liverpool a nine-figure sum for the Brazilian in 2018, but took a substantial hit as Coutinho made his loan move to Villa permanent.
"I am really happy and excited about the present and future," Coutinho said when the £17m move was made official. "I've been made to feel very welcome since day one. I've enjoyed it so much. I believe so much in the squad that we can achieve really good things next year and I am really excited for the next season already."
Raheem Sterling
Only Gerrard scored more goals for Liverpool than Sterling in the 2014-15 season. However, that would end up being his last for the club, with Manchester City clinching a big-money deal for the England international after a lengthy transfer saga that summer.
"I said at the time, I felt like my ambitions and Liverpool's ambitions at the time weren't really aligned," Sterling said in 2021, reflecting on the move in a Sky Sports interview. "The way it went about is the only disappointment I have from it."
Sterling has won three Premier League titles with City, and can add a fourth if his team beats Gerrard's Aston Villa on the final day of the season. However, despite scoring more than 100 goals for the Manchester club, he's yet to add a European trophy to that tally.
Adam Lallana (Lucas Leiva, 65)
Lallana was Liverpool's scorer against Palace, and it was his sixth of his maiden season with the club. One of the other five had also come against the Eagles, in an FA Cup victory back in February.
The England midfielder's time at Anfield was curtailed by injury, especially in his later years with the club. However, he did manage an important equaliser against Manchester United during the 2019-20 title-winning season.
He moved to Brighton as a newly-crowned title winner, and played against Liverpool both this season and last. "[Anfield] will always be a second home for me," the veteran said after helping Graham Potter's side earn a point there in October. "I’ll never take it for granted. Thank you to a very special football club."
