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Steven Gerrard has suggested some of his Liverpool under-18s players of “quitting” halfway through their defeat to Tottenham Hotspur – and has demanded the youngsters respond to their unbeaten record being ended.

Gerrard's side suffered their first defeat of the season when they lost 4-0 at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League Cup quarter-finals.

Spurs, managed by former England international Scott Parker, were ahead at the interval before running away with the game during the second half.

And Gerrard and his coaching staff were unhappy at the attitude of some of the Reds youngsters.

“It was tough to take and obviously a difficult one to swallow,” he said.

“The scoreline looks heavy and it feels heavy at the moment but I think it probably flattered Tottenham a little bit, although I did feel we quit in the game at 2-0 down.

“Once Tottenham got the second goal, the disappointing thing for us as staff is we felt as though a lot of players in our team quit and that's the reason why the scoreline was heavy.

“Our first part of the season was strong but we told the lads they are there to be shot at it and today was a test against a southern team. We were found out because Tottenham absolutely deserved their victory.

“We need to learn from this and my message from the dressing room afterwards is if three or four players don’t turn up in big games then it’s very difficult to get the result that you want.

“I think I’m being kind when I said to them that only three or four never turned up today.”

Gerrard's team are next in action against Arsenal in the FA Cup, a tie which takes place at Anfield on Saturday week.

“Arsenal is an excellent fixture for a reaction and to bounce back,” he added, speaking to liverpoolfc.com.

“I’ll be looking to see what reaction I get from individuals and collectively as a group between now and the Arsenal game.”