LIVERPOOL’S DEFLATING DEFEAT to bitter rivals Manchester United epitomised the Reds’ miserable season, according to Brendan Rodgers.

The 3-0 reversal at Old Trafford completed a miserable week for Rodgers and his side after being dumped out of the Champions League on Tuesday.

Despite creating several clear cut opportunities, the visitors found David de Gea in inspired form as they fired blanks while, at the other end, were breached far too easily as individual mistakes contributed to their downfall.

Rodgers, who dropped goalkeeper Simon Mingolet, maintained his side deserved to take the points but was left to rue costly lapses in concentration.

“I thought we had done enough to win the game, it epitomised our season really,” he told Sky Sports.

“We also made defensive mistakes and that cost us today. We’ve just got to keep working, we know what the solutions are and hopefully the confidence will return. We came here last season and it was the reverse scoreline, today we were the better side in the first half but you can’t concede the goals we did.

Somehow, Mario Balotelli and Liverpool failed to score at Old Trafford Richard Sellers Richard Sellers

“We nearly went in front and they went up the other end and scored because we lost our runner from the midfield area.”

First-half goals from Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata put United in the driving seat but Louis van Gaal’s side had de Gea to thank as he kept Liverpool at bay with a host of saves.

Mario Balotelli, who was introduced at the break for the ineffective Adam Lallana, was guilty of spurning four opportunities and Rodgers admits his side just haven’t scored enough goals this term.

“Today, we created opportunities which we haven’t been doing. I’ll keep searching for the solutions. It’s been difficult this year but that’s the way it works. It’s clear we haven’t scored or created enough goals.

“David De Gea was man of the match. He’s had four or five games like that this season. David’s a top class goalkeeper and his ability to make saves is outstanding but his distribution is also excellent, he knows when to go short and when to go long.”

Rodgers was, however, full of praise for Raheem Sterling, who was a thorn in the side of United all afternoon but couldn’t find a way past de Gea.

“The most important thing for me today was we looked like scoring. Raheem Sterling was outstanding, his movement was great, he was just unfortunate not to get a goal.”

Liverpool are now ten points adrift of their arch rivals and face a tricky trip to Championship leaders Bournemouth in the Capital One Cup during the week as they try and salvage something from a season that continues to go hit new lows.

De Gea stars as United deepen Liverpool gloom

United make it six wins in a row but benefited from this controversial decision