The time for reflection, for assessment and analysis will come in due course. The days between a Champions League defeat and a must-win Old Firm fixture is not that moment.
When the situation is right, when the emotions have calmed and heads have cooled, Michael Beale will sit down to consider where Rangers are and where they are heading. The last 90 minutes shaped one aspiration and the next fixture will go some way to defining the main one this term.
It wasn’t the overall outcome against PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night that did the damage for Rangers, it was the manner of it. Losing to a better side can be grudgingly acknowledged, but capitulating in the manner that Beale’s side did in a 5-1 defeat will never be accepted.
Beale knows that himself. The reaction to the Champions League humbling, like the one in the aftermath of the loss to Kilmarnock last month, should not have come as a surprise to the Englishman.
He will be well aware, though, of just what a win over Celtic would do in terms of the mood and the momentum. The international break will be a long, difficult fortnight if things go against Beale’s side on Sunday but the Old Firm occasion offers an opportunity to start righting the wrongs.
"We're bitterly disappointed, not only for ourselves but our fans and the football club in general,” Beale said. “You want to play and challenge yourself at the biggest level and I think in the home leg we did well in certain aspects of the game, we could have had a better result going over to Eindhoven.
“Big moments over the two legs we didn't execute well, we didn't defend well enough. I think they are a very, very good team but the scoreline is regrettable.
“In both legs we conceded, certainly at 2-1 at home we conceded within three minutes and away within in a minute. We know that's not good enough.
“We really wanted to go and compete at that level, but it's not to be. Domestically we wanted to be in the League Cup going up to international break and we are, we have a home draw, and we want to be top of the league, so we have a real aim this weekend that we can still reach by going into the break top of the league.
“That gives us a chance to have a reflection. A lot has changed since June until now and if we can go into the international break in a good place, then we set up the season.”
The emotion after events in Eindhoven was inescapable for Rangers. Yet victory over Celtic would turn the tables and could kick-start a campaign that has never really got going so far.
Beale pointed to the positives from their last two Premiership outings – a 4-0 win at home to Livingston and the 2-0 triumph at Ross County – as a positive as six goals have been scored by as many different players and two clean sheets have been kept. The statistic of Rangers having the most shots in the league was also used as a reason for optimism.
Much has been said about Rangers as an attacking force so far this season and four of those that Beale recruited this summer – Danilo, Cyriel Dessers, Sam Lammers and Abdallah Sima – have yet to convince supporters that they are significant upgrades on the forwards that departed.
Rangers have still to find their rhythm from middle to front. In that regard, Beale believes patience will be a virtue.
“I think naturally things will settle down,” Beale said of his ever-changing forward line that has seen him mix and match his options in the final third in recent weeks. “With the League Cup being so early in the season, it was a natural moment to give people a chance to play so we made a lot of changes in that one.
“Kemar (Roofe) being fit, probably a little bit ahead of schedule and his form in training and his leadership qualities, I wanted him to play last week. There have been changes for different reasons.
“Over time you will see a much more settled team, for sure, and it is important that people make the shirt their own.#
“You are right in that the positive point is that all the players have scored and contributed. They can all do more and I think over the season they will show more. I think defensively, as a team, certainly there are areas we can improve on.”
There would be no better time for Rangers to find those gains than the first Old Firm clash of the campaign. For a variety of reasons, this one carries even more significance than normal.
Celtic’s unexpected slip-up against St Johnstone last weekend has opened the door for Rangers and Beale’s side now have the chance to head into the break in pole position in the title race. If that can be achieved, it would be quite the quickfire turnaround since Rugby Park.
Rangers will have the challenge of striking the balance between the Europa League and the Premiership to contend with sooner rather than later but there is only one competition that really matters for a manager that simply must lift the title this term.
Celtic are going through their own period of change and consternation under Brendan Rodgers and Rangers have to capitalise while they can.
The winner on Sunday will not take it all, but they would strike a psychological blow across the Old Firm divide.
Beale said: “Listen our home form and our away form is going to be paramount. I think both teams have made quite a few changes.
"Us more, it is fair to say. More key players turning over.
“It’s important that this new group make their own history and their own legacy. The Old Firm games are going to be vitally important over the season if you look at the points total both teams have.
“Since I came back into the club in November we have gone neck and neck and all the way through. We have fallen second best.
“This time the aim is to not fall second place and these games are vitally important. It is only the fourth league game of the season.
“There are 34 to go afterwards and I think there will be lots of twists and turns, certainly when we have been in European competitions and then coming into league games at the weekend.
“But the importance of these games to this squad, and to the fans, going into the September international break, it will set a narrative for sure.”
