His chances of avoiding Rafael Benitez’s summer cull at Anfield could have disappeared down the tunnel with him after a red card which could damage Liverpool’s Champions League dreams.

The look on Benitez’s face as his wayward Czech striker trudged past him said it all and the Spaniard could not bring himself to defend his striker, saying: “He deserved a red card.”

Stubbs was far more damning of a player who will not perform in a league match now for Liverpool until the trip to Portsmouth on April 20, once he has served a three-match ban.

Stubbs said: “You don’t do those types of tackles, they can finish players’ careers.

“It was a shocking tackle and I don’t care what people say about typical strikers’ challenges – that is a load of nonsense.

“It was a tackle that could finish a career whether it was mine or anybody else and it is just not acceptable.”

He added: “I would have accepted it if he had looked the other way and left his leg there but when you look at a player and still push your leg into his leg then it is totally different.

“I would have been the first to shake his hand if he had turned away and left his foot dangling but it wasn’t the case.”

Baros’ tackle in the context of a game with three Liverpool players already off injured and Luis Garcia a passenger was irresponsible.

He had already missed two golden chances to clinch the match, having stretched Benitez’s patience to the limit in recent weeks with complaints over not starting the Carling Cup final.

The Spaniard will make major changes in the summer and nobody would be surprised to see Baros on his way with the potential of a decent fee following his exploits at Euro 2004 still fresh in the minds of Europe’s top clubs.

Benitez said: “Maybe Milan was thinking about the two chances he missed when he made that tackle, but for us it is a big problem because we now do not have any forwards left.”

The Anfield chief is still overjoyed with the derby victory and claims that Liverpool have at last produced their Champions League form in a domestic match.

He said: “It was so important for us to win because a lot of people didn’t have confidence in the team. We have always said it is possible to reduce the gap and now we will have more confidence for the future.

“If Milan had scored one or two of his clear opportunities we would have scored more because Everton would have had to come out and attack us and we would have had more space.

“We have talked about having the determination to win, from first tackle to last. We played with the same mentality we have shown in Champions League games.”

Benitez now has 13 players either banned or injured as he surveys the cost to his squad. The only saving grace is that there is a fortnight’s international break before the meeting with Bolton – although that is proving cold comfort for the manager.

Dietmar Hamann, Stephen Warnock, Fernando Morientes and Luis Garcia have added their names to the eight first team squad players already out. Of those, only Djimi Traore could be fit in a fortnight.

Benitez added: “It is difficult to get any sort of pattern and consistency when you keep losing players to injury week after week. You cannot just keep shuffling players into different positions, because you always lose something in such a situation.

“The problem is that we will have players back without a fortnight of training, they will not be fit and at this level that is a very serious problem to keep having to confront.”

Hamann is the biggest worry with a twisted knee, and Benitez will just be praying that Morientes can struggle back to fitness from a torn thigh muscle.

Benitez is facing a juggling act anyway with Baros and Morientes. The Czech, banned from domestic matches, will have to play in both Champions League quarter-final legs with Juventus because Morientes is cup-tied. The Spanish striker, if he can be patched up in time, must lead the line during Baros’ three-game suspension.

Otherwise, Benitez could find himself looking to Vladimir Smicer, Darren Potter, Anthony Le Tallec, Antonio Nunez and maybe Luis Garcia for a strike force.

But with skipper Steven Gerrard playing his heart out and pointedly kissing the badge in front of the Kop and the tremendous display from Jamie Carragher, Benitez still believes Everton can be caught.

He said: “I still think we can be fourth. We have the confidence to go on now and if we do not have strikers then we must make use of good wingers and central midfielders and plan a different way.”