Liverpool winger Stewart Downing has shrugged off his critics this season.

To pin the blame for their travails on the new boys would, says Downing, be wrong and another cup success would help silence the critics.

"Others might take (criticism) hard, but it doesn't bother me," he told the Daily Mail. "It's easy to look and think just because it's not gone well in the league it's (down to) the new players. There are more than four or five players in a squad and we have all not done it, not just the new ones.

"You're expected to come in and set the world alight but sometimes it doesn't happen. You have seen players at other big clubs take time to settle but then become big players. That's how it is for us at the minute."