Steven Gerrard apologises for stamp: 'I've let the fans down'

The 34-year-old's stamp on Ander Herrera earned him a straight red and Gerrard admitted after the game that referee Martin Atkinson made the correct call.

"I need to accept it," he said on Sky Sports. "I think the decision was right. I've let my team-mates and the manager down and even more importantly let all the supporters down. I take full responsibility for my actions.

"I've tried to jump his tackle and I've seen his studs and reacted wrong.

"I've been in the game long enough to know that when you do something like that, especially with the timing of the game with 45 [minutes] to play and a great opportunity to get back into the game, I take full responsibility for it.

"It was probably just a reaction to the initial tackle. I don't really think I should say too much more on it.

"I've come here to apologise to everyone in the dressing room and all the supporters and players because I take full responsibility for today's result."

Jamie Carragher, speaking on Sky, felt Gerrard's stamp was borne of frustration at his lack of playing time under Brendan Rodgers.

"There's never been a case where he's been out of the team - as soon as he's fit he comes straight back in the team," said Carragher on Sky Sports. "This is the first time, I think, last week at Swansea and today, that it hasn't happened. There's a big frustration there.

"Watching the first half from the bench, he will have been disappointed. Liverpool weren't playing well and were losing 1-0. I think he would have been watching players in his position performing not great and thinking, 'Why am I not playing? Why am I not on that pitch?'."

Whatever the motivation, it was a rather fitting moment in some ways. Gerrard has always had the propensity to blow up in such derbies and throughout his Anfield career has constantly suffered frustration at the hands of United, who have greedily accumulated the league titles he was never able to win.

It's a stupid way to truncate what remains of his Liverpool career, but, a year after the slip, another defining moment to remember him by.