AFTER dropping points for the fourth time this season, the alarm bells are well and truly ringing among the Rangers support.

Not for the first time this term, the Light Blues started a match sluggishly and a defensive calamity saw the opposition, Aberdeen, take the lead when Christian Ramirez headed home from close range. Scott Brown nodded in the second shortly after, again following poor defending from a corner kick.

Rangers had left themselves with a mountain to climb. To their credit, they fought back to earn a point courtesy of an Alfredo Morelos header and a James Tavernier penalty. But the performance will be of a real, genuine concern not only for the coaching staff but for the vast majority of the 49,760 inside an emotional Ibrox.

The Light Blues are also struggling in front of goal - but it’s at the back where the stats make for real grim reading.

Steven Gerrard’s men have conceded 10 goals in the league after their opening 11 games.

To put it into context, at this stage last season just three goals were shipped and a further 10 more during the entirety of the invincible league campaign.

The 2019-20 season saw Rangers concede seven times in their opening 11 matches while, in Gerrard’s first year as manager, 10 goals were given away in the first round of fixtures.

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It seems clear, therefore, that the Scottish Premiership champions have regressed defensively. Despite still sitting top of the pile, should the trend continue it will only lead one way and that’s down.

Gerrard acknowledged his side’s defensive fragility when speaking to Rangers TV following the stalemate.

“(I'm) disappointed with the result, disappointed with the performance, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb in the first 10 minutes,” he said.

“We actually started the game OK, we were on the front foot then we conceded two really poor goals from our point of view.

“One is a gift on the edge of the box and the second one we lose a man and we lose a duel from a set play.

“Against any team at this level, going 2-0 down is always going to be tough but we’ve managed to take something from the game.

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“But the performance is not good enough and that’s on me. We’ve put more pressure on ourselves in away games because we’ve drawn three at home and we’re not starting games well enough in terms of conceding first.

“We conceded first on Sunday (against St Mirren) - OK it was a good goal - but we had to work extremely hard to get the three points and that might have affected the energy levels tonight.”

Losing goals is part of football and Rangers cannot be expected to match the near-perfect defensive record achieved last season.

However, the manner of the goals being conceded wouldn't find much tolerance at amateur level never mind at Rangers. Aberdeen’s opener at Ibrox was the sort of goal you’d expect to see on a Rory McGrath’s Own Goals and Gaffs VHS back in the day. It was comically bad.

The question is how Rangers address the issue.

It’s become abundantly clear that Filip Helander is proving to be a huge loss. He’s arguably the best central defender at the club and the team misses his calmness, positional sense and defensive nous.

As much as Leon Balogun has performed reasonably well in his absence, he and Connor Goldson are prone to lapses in concentration and, as Aberdeen highlighted on Wednesday night, they are proving to be costly.

It’s not just the centre-back positions causing concern though. We all know Borna Barisic looks a shadow of the player fans were treated to last season and James Tavernier, penalty and assist against the Dons aside, is another who has been struggling for form.

In Tavernier’s case, there is a ready-made replacement - and arguably a better option, at this point in time - in Nathan Patterson waiting in the wings.

Going into Sunday’s tricky trip to Fir Park to take on Motherwell, Rangers will need to produce a vastly improved performance if they’re to emerge victorious - however, given the story of the season so far, maybe more turbulence should be expected in North Lanarkshire.