Liverpool vs. Stoke City: Winners and Losers from Premier League Game

Liverpool finally put an end to their winless streak by recording a late 1-0 victory over Stoke City in the Premier League on Saturday, with Glen Johnson scoring the winner just a few minutes from time.

It had been four defeats and a draw since the Reds last won, over a month in all, so the victory ahead of a busy December schedule comes at a vital time for Brendan Rodgers. Stoke, meanwhile, have only won one of their last six in all competitions.

Here are our biggest winners and losers from the 90 minutes at Anfield.

Winner: Raheem Sterling

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The young Liverpool forward had struggled to find his best form for much of the past couple of months, mirroring his side's own dip in form, but he was excellent in the second half against Stoke and the catalyst for the Reds' relentless attack.

He beat Ryan Shawcross and Geoff Cameron any number of times, both defenders receiving yellow cards for their numerous fouls against him, and Sterling linked up extremely well with Philippe Coutinho a number of times too.

A shot just wide of the post almost brought the Reds the opening goal even earlier, while he made a vital goal line block from Mame Diouf at 0-0 at the other end.

Loser: Steven Gerrard

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On the 16th anniversary of his Liverpool first-team debut, Steven Gerrard found himself removed from the starting line-up as Brendan Rodgers continued to try to find a winning formula in his team.

Gerrard had to wait until the 75th minute for his entry to try to spur the team forward a little more to find the breakthrough, but some of the play in the second half—before he came on—was as fluid and creative as the team have been this season.

The 4-2-3-1 shape that Liverpool used doesn't suit Gerrard terribly well when used in a central midfield role, and it will be interesting to see who Rodgers opts to leave out next game.

Winner: Lucas Leiva

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While Gerrard sat on the bench, Lucas Leiva managed to earn his second successive start for Liverpool and played impressively throughout his 75 minutes on the pitch, making challenges and covering the channels well from a holding midfield role.

He showed good energy to get up the pitch at times and probably should have scored with one bursting run into the box. He used the ball well throughout the game.

That there were disgruntled noises from the stands when Lucas' number went up tells much about his performance.

Loser: Mark Hughes

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Mark Hughes cut an animated and frustrated figure on the touchline in the second half as his side struggled to get hold of the ball, before then showing similar traits when Liverpool took the lead—he seemed to think the home side was time-wasting.

In truth, his Stoke side never offered enough going forward to deserve anything out of the game, with only Bojan Krkic really showing any inventiveness or final-third threat.

Hughes also lost two players to injury and, of course, suffered the defeat in the closing stages to cap a bad day all-round.

Winner: Brendan Rodgers' Half-Time Team Talk

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Not much has gone right for Brendan Rodgers of late, and the first 45 minutes at Anfield didn't make things look as though they had changed much. It was turgid, uninspired fare with both sides failing to get a single shot on target.

Whatever the Liverpool boss said at half-time, though, certainly did the trick: Straight from the restart they were brighter, quicker to get players forward and really went all-out to score the first goal of the game.

There wasn't too much frustration when it didn't come immediately and the increased pressure was rewarded late on—and Rodgers did well to immediately bulk up the defence and secure the win with his substitutions.

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