Liverpool, winners of the Carling Cup, went down 2-1 to Chelsea.
“We need to dust ourselves down and we need to respond to the challenge next year,” said Gerrard.
“We need to come back. Football is about highs and lows, it’s certainly been a low today.
“We’ve been fantastic in the cup competitions this year and the players deserve a lot of credit for that.
“We haven’t been good enough in the league this year and we deserve criticism and we need to take criticism like men.
“We need to do better. We’re Liverpool Football Club; we’re not seventh or eighth in the league. We’re better than that.”
