Steven Gerrard issued harrowing critisicm of a vast number of Rangers fringe players this week, as his side dropped valuable points in the title race.
In spite of holding a man advantage over opponents Dundee for nearly three quarters of their league clash on Sunday, Gerrard's side could only stutter to a 1-1 draw away from home.
Needing a four goal victory to snatch back top spot from arch-rivals Celtic, Gerrard made six changes to the side that fell to Aberdeen in midweek, but did not reap the rewards.
Rangers trailed to an early strike from former Ibrox icon Kenny Miller, but after equalising (in the same episode which saw Dundee's Ralph sent off), Gerrards side lacked the cutting edge to win the match.
Now, Rangers will be forced to play catch up, as they sit two points off top spot, but having also played a game more than leaders Celtic.
December 9, 2018
After the match, manager Gerrard did not pull any punches when giving his thoughts on his side's poor display.
He told the assembled media: "It won't happen again. People knock on your door, people shake their head when they're not in the team, people are disappointed. That's fine, that's football. But when you are given your chance, go and back it up, go and perform, give me a problem or a headache."
Gerrard continued: "I think it's pretty easy and straightforward for me now. I know the players I can trust and it's a reality check today that we're not good enough to make five or six changes.We didn't look like a Rangers team. Individually, we didn't look like Rangers players. We kept making stupid decisions. We never really carried out the game plan that we worked on for the last couple of games."
Although he was bluntin his assessment of his players, Gerrard was also keen to take personal responsibility for the mistakes. Across their two recent fixtures, they have dropped five points.
Gerrard noted: "The last two performances have been really poor and I take responsibility for that. Seven days ago we were top and it's looking like we have Rangers players who can handle the responsibility of being a Rangers player. The last two performances don't look like us and the team I'm trying to build."