Steven Gerrard surveyed the scene in the Rangers dressing room on Tuesday night and the men in front of him were almost unrecognisable.
The group of players who swept all before them in the Premiership last season and took serious scalps on the way to the last 16 of the Europa League were the same ones who melted against Malmo.
The damage done on Tuesday has yet to be calculated. It’s likely some of the squad will need to be sold to offset the £40m Champions League swag bag going up in smoke.
But Gerrard knows he’ll also have to rely on his hard core to get Rangers out of the early season hole they have dug for themselves.
All the optimism, the title winning joy, the swaggering self-assurance going in to this term has gone up in smoke.
And Gerrard is relying on the key men in that dressing room – like skipper James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Steven Davis and Allan McGregor – to be the driving force in steering the club back on track.
He said: “100 per cent. We have got strong leaders in the dressing room. I trust them a lot. I will speak to them in the coming days and, yes, they have got a big responsibility to reset and go again.
“Every manager is the same. But that is also the case when you are on winning runs, you want your senior players to maintain the standards and keep going and try and maintain the level of consistency.
“It is not a case of just waiting for a defeat or a bad week and then you turn to your senior players, you have got to have that relationship with them all the time.
“Now our supporters need them a lot to try to flip the form and the mood of the place.”
The mood will need to be lifted as it’s ground zero this week.
The fact a winnable tie against Ludogorets awaited them in the play-off round was another gut punch for Gers fans, who came home for a party only to find a bunch of sweaty Swedes claiming squatters’ rights.
Supporters, who coughed up their money to watch last season’s glory on the telly and on their laptops were left short changed when it came to pay back time.
Gerrard knows there will be criticism. The club already thinks the media somehow have it in for them but the analysis in print, on television and radio will be nowhere near as scathing as the anger from the punters.
The manager’s job will be to ride the early storm.
He said: “Look, the last week hasn’t gone to plan. We have underachieved in this competition over both legs, there is no getting away from that. It is still very early days in terms of domestic competition, two competitions haven’t started and we are two games into the other.
“I think there will be a bit of panic on the outside, and a bit of noise and a bit of criticism. That is the reality, that is the way it is.
“We have to accept that. In terms of me and my staff, we certainly won’t be because we have got a lot of belief in this group.
“We will try to get our better players and our players who are capable of performing very high at this level back into the pitch, into the team, in a better place and I am sure our form will turn.”
Time is on Gerrard’s side. The league campaign has barely started, there’s still the Europa League group stages, if they can cope with gruelling trips to either Armenia or the far end of Kazakhstan – which will come just three days before the first Old Firm clash of the season – and the Premier Sports Cup kicking off against Dunfermline on Friday.
There’s no room to wallow.
Gerrard said: “We wanted to try and qualify in this competition. It was a priority and we have underachieved over both legs. To concede four goals and perform in the second half last week, the second half on Tuesday night, we haven’t been good enough.
“First and foremost we need to get over that, we need to pick ourselves up and react from that domestically in the cup on Friday night.
“And then, going into the Europa League play-off, we have to be better. The reality is, to qualify and be part of Europe, which is important for the club, over two legs you need to perform for two 90 minutes, not just two 45 minutes.
“We need to change things in the coming weeks.”
Gerrard will look to his leaders but he knows his own role in dragging the squad off the floor. There are questions needing answered. Contract issues hang over Goldson and Glenn Kamara. Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent are assets who might be looking elsewhere. Davis and McGregor are not getting any younger.
All of a sudden Rangers’ strengths are now looking more fragile.
He said: “That is my job, that is what I need to do. Pick the players up, reset and really think about what the right team is to play on Friday with the game being close to this game.
“That is what we will do. We haven’t had a good week, we have to accept that. We are responsible for it and it is my job to pick the players up and react on Friday night to try and get a positive win so we feel a bit better about ourselves.
“There won’t be drastic changes. I will pick an XI to get the job done to try and move into the next round of that competition.”
