Rangers defender Robin Propper admits he may have underestimated the Scottish Premiership “a little bit” but the centre-back believes his performances are improving with time.

The 31-year-old, speaking after an impressive 4-1 win in the Europa League over Nice, has looked comfortable and composed in European fixtures since joining from FC Twente this summer. However, Propper’s domestic form, much like his own team, has been up and down.

The Dutchman discussed why Philippe Clement’s side seems to manage games on the road in Europe so impressively last night in France and opened up on his own experience of life at Ibrox to date.

“Maybe I underestimated [the Scottish Premiership] a little bit,” he admitted when asked about the transition from Dutch football to Scottish.

“Of course, you know about Rangers, you know about how big the club is, but you don't know that much about the competition. So, yeah, it takes some time. I played some good games, I played some not-so-good games. So, I need to be on my level again and keep the highest level possible.

"I think you see it in European games. I'm more of myself, I'm more related to the European games maybe than the Scottish Premier League. But I think I can adjust to that, and I need some time on that. I gave myself that time, so I want to adjust to that.

(Image: Rob Casey - SNS Group) “It's a different kind of game, of course [in Europe]. We play a bit differently in the Premier League. You want to have the ball as much as possible, you want to press as much as possible to show what we can do with the ball. And here, sometimes you can drop a little bit, leave the ball at the opponent, and from there on, play with the counter-attacks. We can do both very well, only we need in the Premier League that bit of, I don't know how you say that, a bit of aggression more to score the goals, to keep a clean sheet. We've struggled a little bit, but you see in Europe, we can do that maybe much more. We are really good at it."

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Some have suggested that, as has been the case in years gone by, Rangers are more comfortable when playing as the underdogs in European competition as opposed to taking the initiative in domestic competition. Propper suggests that better results in Europe than the league owe to the style of match Clement’s men face, not any mentality issue.

"In Europe, we give the pressure to ourselves, the same as in [any] competition, because you want to win every game," he added.

"It doesn't matter which team you play in, only the games are different. Sometimes in games, what I said, it's more easy to play on a counter-attack than if you play at home at Ibrox. I think that's the difference. It's not a mindset because you play against a Scottish team and then Nice, it's the same. You want to win, you want to do the best you can."

Rangers return to league action this weekend, playing away at St Johnstone on Sunday. It is a remarkable statistic that they managed more goals in the first half against Nice, three, than in all of their league outings away from Ibrox this season to date, two. The goal is to build on last night's win with three Premiership fixtures over the course of the next week. A home match against Kilmarnock on Wednesday is followed by a trip to Ross County next Sunday.

“We scored four. I think we had a lot of chances to score maybe a lot more goals, and in the end, it was a good team performance. We defended really well, we attacked really well, so it was a good game," Propper said on the outing in Nice.

“I think every match you win in Europe is really good, of course. But this is an away game, a difficult opponent, and if you win with that amount of goals, then of course it's a really big game for us.

“That's the big thing. You have to follow up the games. We win now, and in three days we have another game, so we need to be focused on the next game again."