DIRK KUYT has urged his Liverpool team-mates to start answering their critics with a morale-boosting victory at Newcastle tomorrow.

The Dutchman admits Kenny Dalglish’s side have under-achieved in the Premier League this season. Last Saturday’s home defeat to Wigan means the seventh-placed Reds have lost five of their last six league games. Despite winning the Carling Cup and progressing to the last four of the FA Cup, Dalglish and his squad have come underfire for their poor league run.

Kuyt insists that’s understandable because he believes fans had good reason to expect Liverpool to be competing for a Champions League spot.

“It doesn’t surprise me that we’ve had criticism,” he said.

“There’s always going to be criticism at a club like Liverpool when you don’t reach the position where people expect you to be.

“Liverpool should always be at least in the top four or five. I know Manchester City have been in there for the last couple of years and Spurs are doing really well but this team should be in the top five.

“That’s what we expect of ourselves and the pressure we put on ourselves.

“A club like Liverpool always should be there but unfortunately we aren’t in that position at the moment.

“As players we expect more from ourselves and we have to try to change things.

“There are a lot of things for us to improve but I still think we’re a very good side and we’ve got a great squad.

“It’s something we can still change and we have to look forward.

“We must try to put together a good run in the league which will help us going into the Cup semi-final. We need to show against Newcastle that we’re able to play good football and win, especially against a team who are above us at the moment.”

Kuyt insists there were no excuses for last Saturday’s dismal home defeat to Wigan which followed their late capitulation at QPR.

The 31-year-old admits a failure to make their extra quality count against inferior opposition has been a regular problem.

“Against Wigan it just wasn’t good enough,” Kuyt said. “Too many players just didn’t find the form they are capable of.

“At QPR we were cruising at 2-0 and should have scored loads more goals. I still don’t know how we got beaten and ended up with no points. No-one is happy with what’s happened in the last two games.

“In some games this season we’ve been really unfortunate. We’ve played really well against some good sides and we were very unlucky against Arsenal at home.

“But against the weaker teams we should be getting more points than we’ve got.”

In-form Newcastle are eight points better off than Liverpool and they have only lost twice at St James’ Park all season.

However, Kuyt believes if Dalglish’s side play to their potential tomorrow they will return home with a much-needed win.

“Newcastle have had a great season,” he said.

“They’ve done really well and have picked up a lot of points already.

“Credit to them but at the moment we have to look at ourselves.

“I still think we are a better team than them and we have to make sure we get three points against them on Sunday.”