What we are talking about defensively is basically a whole new rearguard with the exception of Lee Wallace.

You look at Neil Alexander and he was not the first pick keeper last season and then you look at the rest of the defence on Wednesday night and two of them in Ross Perry and Chris Hegarty were playing below first-team level while Emilson Cribari was not at the club.

To exacerbate the problems going on in front of Neil, I believe that Cribari's English is not the best and communication, for me, defensively speaking, is one of the most under-rated components of a good backline.

The amount of one-on-one saves that Alexander had to make on Wednesday, never mind the fact Rangers conceded three goals, underlines the problems at the back are significant and the only answer to solving them will be hard work.

Lee Wallace has looked increasingly impressive on the left flank and Alexander has made some superb saves in the last couple of games but the point is he should not be having to make the amount of saves he is.

As a unit the backline have a lot of hard work ahead of them because they must improve and there is nothing Ally McCoist can do to strengthen them with new additions.

Improvement is the only option.