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Defeat at Tannadice ends Rangers’ unbeaten run. If the old adage that seven days is a long time in football needed further evidence of its validity, then Rangers’ defeat at Tannadice provided a timely reminder that just when you think you’re on solid ground is usually the moment the floor disappears from underneath your feet. It was only last weekend after Rangers had secured a routine victory over Livingstone, whist Celtic dropped points in dramatic fashion at Tynecastle against Hearts, that the talk was that Celtic were a club in crisis and that Rangers’ road to two successive titles was going to be fairly routine affair. Now Gerrard and Rangers are facing questions about their title credentials after a European defeat to Malmo and defeat here to an average Dundee Utd side. Make no mistake, this was a bad and potentially costly defeat for Rangers. Gerrard arrived in the City of Discovery with added numbers in the squad from the one which was at his disposal in Sweden on Tuesday night. Back came Glen Kamara and Kemar Roofe – who were both suspended against Malmo – and striker Alfredo Morelos, who re-joined the squad after a period of isolation on returning from his summer break. However Gerrard was dealt a major blow when Kemar Roofe had to leave the squad at short notice after one of his children was admitted to hospital. With Zambian striker Fashion Sakala omitted from the squad entirely, it forced a far earlier introduction to the starting eleven for Alfredo Morelos than was initially intended. With the return to the team of such players as Glen Kamara, Joe Aribo and Morelos, you would have been forgiven for expecting a higher standard of performance to that which Rangers produced on Tuesday night, but in truth this was a continuation of Tuesday's below par performance. Dundee Utd were without Lawrence Shankland, whom it would appear is the subject of a potential move to Belgium, although the official reason given for his absence was a hip injury picked up in training on Friday. United would not miss the striker. This was a bad day for the new players at the club. Sakala, as mentioned earlier, was omitted from the squad completely and John Lundstram had another poor day at the office. The former Sheffield Utd man has looked slow and off the pace for large chunks of his game time so far, and he was culpable for United’s winner, not following the run of Jamie Robson as he ran onto a deflected pass which put him through to shoot low and hard past Jon McLaughlin in the 64th minute. Lundstram was replaced by Scott Wright five minutes later. With the omission of Sakala, who has struggled to get into the games has featured in, the poor performances Lundstram and the unavailability of Nnamdi Ofoborh through a heart issue, Gerrard is still waiting on a meaningful contribution from any of his summer signings. Good recruitment has been the cornerstone of Gerrard’s success at Rangers, he will be hoping the early struggles of his newest recruits will soon pass. Gerrard also remains without Ryan Jack whom has suffered a setback in his rehabilitation. “He'll probably be another couple of weeks, all being well”, said Gerrard at his press conference on Friday morning. Reassurance that Jack is close to returning a reoccurring narrative in recent months, the player and his manager must be praying that the surgery in the summer will finally put an end to such updates. As was the case against Malmo, there was a disjointed and off the pace look to Rangers performance at Tannadice and given the importance of the return leg against the Swede’s at Ibrox on Tuesday night, Gerrard will need to find a way to put the intensity back into Rangers’ game. Even after going a goal down Rangers struggled to find the desired reaction to get themselves back into the game, although Tavernier did pull a good save from Siegrist in the Utd goal with a shot from distance, and Connor Goldson came tantalisingly close to an equaliser when he headed a corner just past the post. But with almost 70% possession and 14 shots on goal (only two of which were on target), it is obvious that Rangers are lacking a cutting edge at the moment. Morelos looked off the pace, although perhaps understandably so, Ryan Kent had one of those days that make you question the hype around him and both Barisic and Tavernier failed to put decent enough deliveries from the flanks to trouble the likes of Charlie Mulgrew and Ryan Edwards. Outside of Joe Aribo and the evergreen Steven Davis, it is hard to think of anyone who reached the required performance level for Rangers. Jermain Defoe was introduced with eight minutes to go in a last ditch attempt to get the equaliser, but it was to no avail and Rangers had to accept their first defeat on league business since 4 March 2020 when Hamilton took all three points at Ibrox. "From our point of view, it was not good enough”, said the Rangers manager after the game. “I think over the course of the 90 minutes we didn't deserve to lose the game but you always put yourself in that position if you don't score goals. "We didn't create enough today and whilst the game is at 0-0 there's always a risk if you get one or two things wrong. The result and the performance is on me and my team. We'll have to accept that and move on pretty quickly.” DUNDEE UTD: Siegrist, Edwards, Mulgrew, Fuchs, Smith, Harkes, Butcher, Clark, Robson, Pawlett, Chalmers. SUBS: Sporle, Carson, Reynolds, Neilson, Freeman, Mochrie, Watson RANGERS: McLaughlin, Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Barisic, Kamara, Davis, Lundstram, Aribo, Morelos, Kent. SUBS: Wright, Itten, McGregor, Patterson, Simpson, Arfield. REFEREE: Don Robertson

I think you’re right. But I think the SFA will help them out. I hope Rangers’ lawyers have looked up the books this time.

Intended target or not he should still have been tracked IMO.

One last small point , at no time in the game did Dun Utd cut us open or put our goalie under long spells of pressure , they scored from a deflected pass that fell luckily into their players path , and he finished well . I keep reading about how our players never tracked runners etc , the guy was never the intended target , the goal was in many ways a fluke and we got beaten , very similar to Malmo , the second was a comedy of errors , we cut those out we will be fine , we don’t it will be a long season , but that’s the same for every team .

As often, you put your words into a different order without putting any answer or more meaning to it. We toiled in those 11 1-0 wins, had another 6 draws and in those games that we beat teams by 2 goals (another 6, which makes it 23 of 38) we usually scored when they opened up. When we are on song and put a few goals past teams early doors, we were able to hand out a hammering, well 3 or 4 goals every now and then even. Did I make out DU as world-beaters? Nope, I`m rather surprised how you come to that conclusion. I saw them on the same level as Livingston and Co. a solid team that packs defense and midfield and counter and press whenever possible. A style that we have not been comfortable with for ages. Maybe you are one of those people who can put these dozens of dire games out of memory, "since we won". And while I usually ban them from memory for the wasted hours of watching them, I don`t forget it. I`ve spoken out against that "4-3-3" against any Scottish team anywhere we play them time and again, even we two had enough "debates" on them. Yet we persist, toil on more often than not, and every now and then get an unkind reminder what happens when our defenders fail or those threesome up front fail to come up with the goods, usually because 2 of them are more often than not no strikers. No knee-jerking et al, just the observation. And one uttered dozen times before.

The weasel that spent a dozen years at ra Piggery rejoicing in the nickname, 'Provo' has had a column in the News of the World/Sunday Sun these last fifteen years. Davy Provan remains relevant because he is a regular golfing partner of Dermot Desmond. His Sky gig has seen him consigned to the English Premiership these last several years, Andy Walker took over his Sky Scottish football beat. He says very little on Sky, keeps his informed gossip for his Sunday column. Yesterday, he penned on the SPFL-Rangers dispute over Cinch sponsorship. He is in doubt the war of words is a continuation of last year's SPFL calling the Leagues early and, relegating both Hearts and Thistle. Rangers led the charge then against Doncaster, MacLennan and, McKenzie; claiming they were unfit for purpose. Doncaster's role in particular angered more than just Rangers. The Dundee lost e-mail vote, Doncaster's constant lobbying/bullying Club Chairs and, MacLennan's briefing of the likes of Motherwell's Andrew Wilson to ensure belittling of Rangers claims post vote. Informed Provo is sure Rangers have got their man ie Doncaster over the Cinch deal. The deal will collapse because of Doncaster's cavalier approach and SPFL Chairs will be unforgiving because the expected revenue will not materialise. Of course, if Doncaster is toast, then both MacLennan and McKenzie will be anxiously reassessing their pension plans. For once, I hope Provan's information is spot on?

Why should Rangers or any firm/person give sight of a legally binding contract to anyone other than in a court of law???

More likely

That's a little concerning. I hope that the Board know what they're doing. Or Central Car Auctions?

There were plenty of defensive lapses last season but usually the opposition weren't good enough to take advantage. Things need tightened up.

Tracking Robson would have been Tavernier`s job. He put in a bit of a challenge, than watched on what developed instead of spotting/following Robson running past him and then was out of sight.

BTW, Jamie Robson looked quite good, both defensively, putting pressure on Tav and roving forward.

@Govan Rear Bear @Frankie

Obviously only in football for the money now not as an escape from the humdrum poor peasants who will pay through the nose to see him where ever he goes. Okay football is a short career for most but how many millions do these superstars need to see them through their life???.

Only a wee bit? It was cringeworthy. Don't remember Ronaldo blubbing when leaving Real Madrid, then again he truly was the worlds best player over recent years............ discuss not again!!!!

I really don’t understand why all the wailing , gnashing of teeth and self abuse is coming from ,apart from last year , traditionally we never start like a rocket , and as has been posted elsewhere unlike previous years we haven’t had a set of Euro qualifiers to bed us in , every team will go through a rocky patch , calm down troops .

Just watched the Press conference. A wee bit OTT. No one has died ffs. Wouldn't it be great if he turned round and said don't worry. I've got all the money I need so I'll play for free over the next 2/3 years? Why go to PSG if it's not for money? Disappointed if this happens

If only we could play Real Madrid every week. It was inevitable we'd hit a patch of poor form after last season where we rarely put a foot wrong, every club goes through them eventually. There's a mindset change required in our team, we're no longer chasing, we're now being chased and that requires an adjustment mentally. I suspect there are other issues in the squad that we're not fully aware of too. There have been a few hints at Covid cases with players and it might be these have been more disruptive than we realise. I'm less concerned about 3 points being dropped in the league than I am about Tuesday's match. Our late goal in Malmo helped disguise an uninspired performance against a well organised but ordinary side, indeed the type of European side we've excelled in playing in recent seasons. An unfavourable result on Tuesday will see some pressure being applied to the players and management, as ridiculous as that sounds. Those of us who have been watching Rangers for a long time know our support, magnificent at times, will quickly forget about last season's heroics should this season start poorly. As Richard Gough once said at Rangers you're only as good as your last pass. I feel Kent is working hard but things don't seem to be coming off for him just now and our full backs aren't yet hitting their stride. That's such an important part of our style of play when it's not fully firing others need to step up. Hopefully we'll respond like Champions to this and start showing the side we know is there on Tuesday.

Intense loyalty and unreserved willingness to follow and fund breed a sense of entitlement among many. I’ve got a wee streak of it myself which I try to suppress. Keep us out.