Two dominant threads filtered through an array of post-match media duties carried out by Philippe Clement late last night - Rangers were unlucky to succumb to a 2-1 defeat against Aberdeen while the pressure of another loss “was not about him”.

When pressed on a disjointed performance, Clement highlighted small margins and firmly stuck to his guns. To his eyes, this is a young squad coming up short in small moments. Things will get better, won’t they? The prospect of a hugely underwhelming start to the season resulting in Clement losing his job based on another defeat is dampened by the fact that, simply, Rangers are still trying to appoint those with jurisdiction over the manager. Once again, as was the case in 2023, the lack of safeguarding above the man in the dugout is insufficient. Long-term failings from the top of the club are paying in the currency of consequence.

“I think this was one of our better performances until now, this season, with the new squad,” Clement insisted boldly on Sky Sports.

“This could be a game which you have a draw or on a good day, when things fall to your side, that you win.”

Citing a marginal offside call that ruled out Ross McCausland’s first-half leveller, the Belgian manager continued: “If the toenail was not there, it was 2-2 today. Or we were leading that moment. So that also decides the perception after all the games. It's not that Aberdeen blew us away today. That's also not the reality. You've seen that also.”

The contrast in the North-East could hardly have been more jarring. Aberdeen remain unbeaten and sit nine points ahead of the Ibrox club in the Scottish Premiership table before Halloween despite losing their best player and appointing Jimmy Thelin months ago. Rangers are closer to eighth spot than second, perched three points ahead of Motherwell in fourth. The excuse of a summer rebuild as reasoning for performance deficiencies by Clement - who was such a sound, clear communicator a year ago - merely fuels angry tweets.

Based on chances this game was tight in hindsight, but even discounting Aberdeen’s penalty the home side fashioned better moments. The xG, not including Jamie McGrath’s spot-kick that Jack Butland stopped, came in at 1.91 to 1.52. That penalty miss was the only action that punctured a crowd and momentum threatening to run away with things. Graeme Shinnie smacked the post within a minute of Nicky Devlin opening the scoring, Leon Balogun was a hair’s breadth away from a red card tackle on Ester Sokler and an early open goal opportunity McGrath passed up. Can a performance that concedes 20 shots really be regarded as one of the best of the season? If so, the barometer is too low or judgment too generous.

The issues for Rangers on the road were familiar. Away from home with Cyriel Dessers up top, a lack of legs across the attacking unit and direct methods to get forward, every counterattack appeared doomed from the start. Nedim Bajrami would provide the sole moments of incision and quality despite the trappings of the left-wing. Ross McCausland constantly surrendered possession cheaply and the game passed Tom Lawrence by. Dessers had the game’s earliest chance but smacked a defender rather than the net, continuing to endure the longest stretch of football at Ibrox without a goal.

Clement, in deciphering this performance, failed to discuss the reality of a first-half Aberdeen should likely have ended two goals to the good. Although the away side did dominate territory and opportunities after the break, Thelin’s side knew their pace in reserve posed a route up the park.

Rangers’ goal chalked off by VAR, after a Dessers run beyond, very much summarised the difficulty that Clement’s football is facing away from home domestically - if there’s no space to turn a defence, there’s no method to inject pace into a game and generate chances.

Away from home, the Ibrox side have scored just two goals in five outings, a number only beaten by Ross County, and their goal difference is -4. Rangers’ xG/90 away from home of 1.19 is lower than Motherwell’s 1.27. Celtic’s xG difference, the quality of chances conceded and created, is 10 higher than their Old Firm rivals across 10 league fixtures, 17.17 to 7.7.

Here’s the issue - Aberdeen looked the better team of two last night. Yes, they’ve somewhat overperformed their underlying numbers and benefited from a cleaner schedule, but have taken a point at Parkhead, maximum at home and will enter November unbeaten.

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Clement has talked often about the factors working against him, visible in the annual accounts released the day prior. £17m in losses, a reduced wage bill, a young squad. All of these factors might explain a nine-point gap to Celtic to the most diplomatic of observers, but not an Aberdeen side who Rangers far outspent this summer.

The wider circumstances of life at Ibrox cannot excuse responsibilities that fall within the manager’s remit. The vulnerability to counterattacks, attritional football and lack of control. An insistence on sticking with the system, as was the case towards the end of last season, even when playing square pegs in round holes out wide.

That is why the perception argument failed Clement at Pittodrie, who now has 10 domestic wins in his last 21 games. The short-term pain of ‘going through a rebuild’ will only be bought into and believed in if enough evidence surfaces that said process will be worth it long term. Otherwise, the Ibrox club are merely treading water until some new vision-setter is appointed.

For the third Autumn in a row Rangers are now out of the title race and in crisis, each flux worse than before. Although Clement still harbours respect and has a track record of winning league titles, defeats against Kilmarnock and Aberdeen have changed the conversation with the silent majority. The doubling down during media duties last night compounded matters.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst was relieved of his duties two Novembers ago with the club nine adrift of Celtic. Michael Beale sacked 13 months ago after three defeats in the opening nine games.

The noises coming out of Ibrox suggest that for now, Clement will not follow. It was a symbolic act to announce a new contract for the former Club Brugge boss before a trip to Tynecastle to start the season. Rangers have been hellbent on stressing that changing managers regularly is unsustainable. That is true, but so is the reality of their current run of form and fan sentiment. How does Clement build momentum from here?

It is left to John Gilligan, the interim chairman, to steer a ship which had its course set long ago. Who would make the decision of the past two autumns to part with Clement, who would stress-test it? What merits confidence that the Rangers board would get the next managerial appointment correct? The men who brought Clement to the club and sought to usher in a new era at Ibrox, John Bennett and James Bisgrove, are no longer in the building. The football board they created held seven of seven members for just five months.

For Rangers supporters who plough so much energy and money into their team, the past three years have bore witness to gradual decline and perpetual disappointment. Calls for patience, without what they deem to be appropriate evidence, will fall on deaf ears.