It's tough to properly categorise the Rangers performance last night. The quality of Liverpool is so tangible, so obvious, that every comment must also come with a caveat of acknowledgement to their superiority.

That said, it was painful and draining to watch a Rangers team so palpably inferior to their opponent. Jurgen Klopp's men are on another stratosphere, of that there is no doubt.

While the glamour of the Champions League is crystal clear, the reality is opaque. While Europe's elite competition allows you the opportunity to rub shoulders with the great and the good, there's something to be said for the competitive football on offer one rung down the ladder. Rangers looked comfortable with whatever the Europa League threw at them. The same can't be said when Zadoc the Priest finishes.

There is a school of thought that to live at this level, you must first learn the hard way about what it takes at the very top. After the game, it appeared one Klopp agrees with.

He said: "You can’t have it all in one. You have to have time to adapt in Europe. I am not sure if this is the wrong press conference to say the word Celtic. You might all stand up and go. But both of these clubs made a big step in the last few years."

While in general agreement, Rangers fans might ask if the process has to be quite so painful with three games lost, no goals scored and nine conceded. And therein lies the rub.

Nobody sensible expects Rangers to outperform an Ajax or a Liverpool on their own patch, but it would be nice to lay a glove and not be pushovers about it.

Emphatically, this was not the team of last season at Anfield last night. The effort was there from most - but the heart, the belief? 

Rangers Review:

I wasn't convinced. While Rangers recruitment hasn't been as bad this summer as it has looked up until now thanks to injuries, it's impossible to argue the club didn't miss a trick by targeting an energetic midfielder to bolster the options.

While money doesn't grow on trees you'd have to say the centre of the pitch looks a more pressing issue than left-back where good money was spent to secure Ridvan Yilmaz.

Tom Lawrence looked inspired business, but in joining the lengthy long-term injury list, he has left the club without the one player who looked certain to offer a serious goal threat in the middle of the pitch. Would he have made an impact last night? Perhaps not but at least he offers energy, mobility and legs.

On Merseyside, Rangers were content to sit in and limit damage. Were it not for an Allan McGregor performance from the very top drawer, it would have been another extremely painful night. Perhaps distress is necessary. Perhaps this team will get better as it grows into the task.

With Napoli in terrifying form and Liverpool needing points it seems clear Rangers' chance at redemption is most likely Ajax' visit to Ibrox in November. With nearly €3m up for grabs, it's potentially lucrative, but it will also stand as the one game in this section there's a realistic chance of winning on paper.

And it's there we will be able to test whether the pain has led to any tangible gain in this most difficult of Champions League groups.

This piece is an extract from today’s Rangers Insider newsletter, which is emailed out at 4pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Rangers Review team.

To receive our full, free newsletter including this analysis straight to your email inbox, click here and tick the box for Top Stories.