JAMES TAVERNIER knows the questions that will be asked of Rangers in terms of their tactics, their quality and their physicality in the aftermath of the Champions League humbling against Liverpool.
But the Ibrox captain insists it is wrong to query or doubt the mentality of Giovanni van Bronckhorst's players as he denied Rangers had thrown in the towel during their Group A hammering.
Rangers had reason to dream when Scott Arfield fired them into an early lead against the Reds. But it would turn into a nightmare occasion as Liverpool showed their class in emphatic fashion.
Roberto Firmino netted twice before Darwin Nunez made sure of the win. Once that was done, Mohamed Salah added a shine to the scoreline with a sublime hat-trick and Harvey Elliott ensured the record books were rewritten as Rangers crashed to a humiliating 7-1 defeat on home soil.
Tavernier was called for a UEFA doping test at the whistle and was denied the opportunity to front up in public post-match. On a difficult day after another difficult night, he took the chance to dismiss a theory and express his remorse.
"We obviously apologise," Tavernier said. "We never want to lose to that kind of scoreline to anybody, no matter what team it is.
"We have worked so hard to get to this point. You see the away game. It was 2-0 but we had a chance down there and limited them to two set-pieces.
"But to concede seven at home in front of your own fans is never good enough. You never want to see that.
"Obviously you can take the positives out of the first 45 and then it's 55 minutes before they score again.
"But it's the Champions League. We are proud to be competing with these teams but we need to work hard and look at the things we have done wrong going forward.
"Never once would I look at any team-mate in my team and know that they'd chuck in the towel.
"It's simple. Liverpool made three substitutions in Jota, Salah and Thiago, all world-class players, and they caught us trying to play football in the wrong areas.
"They capitalised on it and that's the difference. They are world-class players and if you give them a chance or a sniff, eight times out of ten they have a chance of taking it. That's what they did."
Boss Van Bronckhorst could provide few clues as to where it all went wrong in the immediate aftermath as he came to terms with a defeat that has raised huge questions over his future once again.
The Dutchman revealed the home dressing room was overcome with an air of silence once his players trudged back up the tunnel and left behind a chorus of boos from an irate support.
Rangers have been on the wrong end of heavy defeats before. This one was the most damaging and damning of them all.
Tavernier said: "You never want to lose a game, and you never want to lose a game to those margins. It's something that we are definitely looking at.
"We are always trying to do the positive things, the right things and we are trying to play our game the way we can. There are obviously risks to that and Liverpool capitalised on it.
"Ajax did as well and obviously Celtic, and it's something you never want. But we will learn from it and it will only make us stronger.
"We always do [a debrief] after games. Win, lose or draw, we have a chat.
"We will take the positives and negatives out of games. If we win, we will still take the negatives out of it and try to learn from it, correct it and make ourselves better.
"This was another one and it was a meeting to go over the game.
"As you can imagine, emotions are high after the game but we have looked over the game, analysed it and looked at what we can work on. We take it into account and we work on it."
The mood around Ibrox was very different when Arfield rounded off a lovely attacking move with a fine finish and put Rangers deservedly ahead of the night.
Van Bronckhorst had targeted a point to keep their campaign on track. As it transpired, the second Liverpool showdown spiralled out of control.
"We are disappointed with the scoreline," Tavernier said. "I felt we competed really well in the first half.
"We got ourselves in front and really limited their chances. But when it gets to the final whistle and you see the scoreline of 7-1, you just feel disappointed.
"When you give them the chances that we did with the quality they have... We tried to limit it but we didn't do good enough in that aspect.
"We went in 1-1 at half-time and we were really positive. We wanted to continue doing what we did in the first half.
"They sort of dropped back a bit and set the traps for us when we tried to push a bit more, as obviously the space was there.
"With the attackers they have and the pace they run at, it obviously made it difficult for ourselves."
The process of attempting to move on and put the performance and the result behind them started on Thursday as Van Bronckhorst's side regrouped at Auchenhowie.
The trip to face Motherwell on Sunday now carries even greater significance. Another stumble is unthinkable for a boss and squad that are under the spotlight.
"Yeah, any defeat or draw at this club is a hard one to take," Tavernier said. "The benefit is that we have a game around the corner at the weekend.
"We are coming off the back of two good league performances. It's about dusting ourselves down, getting it out of our system and we will definitely do that.
"We obviously wanted to get the big group in the Champions League, test ourselves and learn from it.
"But it's always disappointing no matter if you lose 1-0 or by the margin from the other night.
"We just have to brush ourselves off, look forward to the weekend and put in a really good performance."
