FORMER LIVERPOOL ACE Ray Houghton says the club’s young guns need to produce performances to match their price tags, rather than relying on skipper Steven Gerrard to bail them out of trouble time and again.

Still without a win against a top-half side in the league this season, the Reds travel to sixth-place Arsenal tonight with manager Brendan Rodgers’ criticism still ringing in their ears following Sunday’s shock FA Cup defeat against Oldham.

Rodgers went on the warpath after the 3-2 defeat at Boundary Park, slamming the feeble response he got after handing fringe players like Sebastian Coates, Jack Robinson and Fabio Borini a chance to impress.

“Being young doesn’t exempt them from criticism,” Rodgers said, though he gave Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson “some credit” for their showing against the League One strugglers.

But it is Allen and Henderson — signed for a combined total in excess of £30m — that Houghton singled out as needing to step up to the mark.

As a player, Houghton tried to make a similar leap from small club to superpower when Kenny Dalglish brought him in from Oxford United for a hefty £825,000 in 1987. The ex-Ireland international forced his way into the manager’s plans and helped the Reds win two league titles in his first three seasons.

“The likes of Allen and Henderson [...] these lads have got to start standing up for themselves,” Houghton told TheScore.ie at an ESPN event in Dublin this week.

“Steven Gerrard isn’t going to be there to get them out time and time again. That’s going to be up to them in the future.

I made the transition from Oxford to Liverpool so I know what it can take. It’s a huge jump and it’s the same coming from Swansea, all due respect to them, or coming from Sunderland. They’re good clubs in their own right but they’re no Liverpool.

These lads have got to learn but they’ve got to learn on the job and they’ve got to learn quick.

Legends: Houghton, Frank Stapleton and Owen Coyle in Dublin this week (Sportsfile / David Maher)

Sunday’s meek showing reminded Houghton of December 1991 when, under manager Graeme Souness, Liverpool crashed out of the Rumbelows Cup against Peterborough United.

Souness pulled no punches afterwards and Houghton said that Rodgers’ public dressing-down sent out an important message ahead of tonight’s trip to the Emirates.

“[Souness] let us know in no uncertain terms that it was unacceptable. That’s only right. If you’re in a job and you’re not doing it well, you expect someone to come and tell you off. You don’t expect them to pander to you and say better luck next time.

“You’ve got to face the facts. You’re a Premier League side with Premier League players — you should be beating a team from League One.

They might turn you over on the odd occasion but not in the manner that they did — 3-1 up and you’re struggling to compete with them. Fans can suffer lots of things on the football field. They can suffer when the opposition are better than you but when the opposition is outrunning you or more enthusiastic or more committed than you, that’s hard to take as a fan.

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