Brendan Rodgers Apologizes To Liverpool Fans For Stoke City Embarrassment

Brendan Rodgers is willing to bear the brunt of criticism, following Liverpool’s worst defensive show in over half a century of top-flight games in English soccer.

Stoke City routed Liverpool 6-1 on Sunday at the Britannia Stadium, forcing Liverpool to enter the offseason with new-found senses of pain and embarrassment. Liverpool manager Rodgers apologized to his team’s fans, saying they were right to boo the Reds when they were trailing 5-0 at halftime.

“To start with, it’s an apology,” Rodgers said after the game, according to LiverpoolFC.com. “I think everybody, all the supporters connected with Liverpool, will — like us all — be embarrassed by that and they deserve an apology.”

“They have every right to be (angry). These supporters have been brilliant for us, particularly away from home with the support we’ve had. We can have no complaints — any of us. The supporters were angry at half-time and rightly so because that was awful, first half. Absolutely awful.

Before Sunday, Liverpool hadn’t conceded more than five goals in a league game since 1963.

Liverpool’s form dipped dramatically in the last two months of the season. Liverpool won just three of its last 11 games in all competitions, slipping to sixth place in the final Premier League standings and exiting the FA Cup at the semifinal stage.

Rodgers accepts “full responsibility” for Liverpool’s late-season slide and vows to work hard to ensure Liverpool succeeds in 2015-16 where it failed this season.

“Our job is to now go away and reflect on this season,” Rodgers concluded. “There’s an awful lot of work to do and the job is to now go and fix that, and make sure we come back with a motivation greater than ever to push on next season. We’ve finished the season in sixth, which is where we deserve to finish. We have to now start, today, on the climb to get back up again.”