Gerrard leaving Liverpool: an appreciation

When Liverpool FC's last home match of the season ended in a 3-1 defeat by Crystal Palace FC, the rebuilding began in earnest.

Reconstruction work at Anfield will finish in 2016, but the club's latest squad restructuring will take longer. The club has had to replace Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres and Luis Suárez in recent years, but there is no filling the void left by Steven Gerrard, who made his final Liverpool appearance today with a goal in a 6-1 loss at Stoke City FC before a summer move to LA Galaxy.

Gerrard's final game encapsulated an anti-climactic season following on from 2014's second-placed finish. That title tilt was backboned by a rejuvenated Gerrard's quarterback-style displays deep in midfield, but a slip at home to Chelsea FC cost the captain and the club dear.

Local lad Gerrard made his debut in 1998 and leaves as arguably Liverpool's finest player after 710 appearances and 186 goals, though without that Premier League title. But as his only serious rival for the accolade of greatest ever Red, Kenny Dalglish, told the club's website this week: "The most important thing is the trophies you have won. You are defined by them – not by the trophies you didn't win.

And what an array of silverware: the UEFA Champions League, a UEFA Cup, two FA Cups, three League Cups and two UEFA Super Cups. But as much as those honours, Gerrard was defined by his longevity and loyalty to the club. Zinedine Zidane said in tribute this week: "He has always remained loyal to his own club, Liverpool, the club of his heart."

Gerrard's Roy of the Rovers meets Rudolf Nureyev style made the impossible attainable. He matched burning competiveness with sublime skill to produce match-winning moments. European football fans were fortunate that he reserved some of the best for UEFA competition: the stunning strike in the 2001 UEFA Cup final; the 86th-minute 'hit' in the 3-1 UEFA Champions League victory against Olympiacos FC in 2004; and, of course, Istanbul – exactly ten years ago on Monday.

The greatest ever UEFA Champions League final comeback in 2005 was Gerrard's career in microcosm and his finest achievement: the leader refusing to give up, the scorer and creator so committed and resourceful that he finished the game as an emergency right-back.

A decade on, Liverpool face a fight to return to such heights and they will have to try without their greatest ever warrior.

Now watch Gerrard's greatest moments in Europe...