IT doesn’t matter whether it’s Graeme Murty or Graeme Souness in the manager’s office.

Equally it would make no huge difference if the soon-to-appointed Director of Football at Ibrox was a genius or gormless.

If the talent isn’t there in the playing squad, if the heart has gone from a team along with defiance, spirit and, dare I say effort from a few, then nobody is going to save Rangers.

Whoever comes in has a massive job on their hands. This is not a squad which needs tweaked. It needs terminated.

The scoreline was narrow in the end and Rangers did improve as the game wore on. But even if they had come away with something it would have fooled nobody.

The Rangers support has reached a stage where they know their team are not world beaters. They have long realised money has been wasted, when there isn’t a lot around, on players who, quite frankly, aren’t good enough to wear that shirt.

However, the least they can expect, and this goes for any side be in a pub league or the five-asides, is that they everyone puts in a shift and shows it means something to them.

Kenny Miller didn’t have a great game at Dens Park; however, he cares. You could tell by the way he made sure his team-mates knew this wasn’t close to being good enough.

Aberdeen are six points ahead and have a hugely better goal-difference. Rangers, unless they give themselves a right shake, will not finish second.

Murty’s time as Rangers manager could be over sometime this week but he is at least one at this football club who can look himself in the mirror.

This isn’t the fault of a youth coach who did not want or ask for such a poisoned chalice.

Murty seems a decent and honest guy who admitted Rangers needed a bigger name to become the new manager. It’s a miracle worker they require and there aren’t too many of them about.

Certainly not for the wages the Ibrox club can afford.

Dundee wanted this more. It was their first home win in this fixture since 1992. Nobody could have begrudged them this victory.

It didn’t start well and got worse. It was that type of afternoon for Rangers.

The half could be counted in seconds when Dundee’s Craig Wighton got the ball on the left, his cross was an inviting one and Marcus Haber may well have got his header on target had Clint Hill not made a nuisance of himself; the centre-half taking a sore one when putting off his opponent.

Rangers did respond. Marty Waghorn saw a shot deflected wide and there was a bit more about them in these early stages.

And then the old problems resurfaced after 13 minutes.

Dundee did move the ball really well as Henrik Ojamaa and Wighton combined on the left, but Rangers are hell of a team at watching what is going on rather than trying to do something about it.

Wighton's cross picked out Mark O’Hara in acres of space and his left foot shot went in off the bottom of the post.

It was as if Mark Warburton was still there.

Murty would have looked for a reaction from his players. It was shameful that he didn’t get one.

A Hill pass travelled 50 yards took once bounce and went out. Foderingham flapped at a corner and just about got away with it. Rangers were knocked off the ball and could not get any sort of midfield play going on.

Dundee were the better side.

Hill lasted to the half hour before that early knock did for him and he was replaced by Danny Wilson.

The travelling support at least had the chance of a half-hearted and a million miles from an excited ‘ooh’ when Joe Garner put a header wide. It was never going in.

A better opportunity arrived moments later when Miller took on a volley at the back post which was well saved by Scott Bain. That was to prove a highlight of a truly disgraceful 45 minutes by this, or indeed any, Rangers team.

Minutes before the break, Wilson was rash in his challenge on O’Hara and gave away an obvious free-kick on the edge of the box. Kevin Holt, the Dundee left-back, put down the ball, sized up the situation and then sent a curling effort through everyone and past Foderingham.

At half-time, the Rangers fans joined in with Bob Marley’s optimistic line of “every little thing is going to be alright.” A sense of humour is required in such trying times.

What has got to be said is that Rangers did improve.

James Tavernier’s free-kick shortly into the second-half tipped over by Bain. It was a shot on target at least.

And then Rangers got a goal from nothing. Garner had done little up until the 61 minutes when he got the ball on his right foot and curled a quite superb shot low into the opposite corner from 25 yards. It was some goal.

Jason Holt and Harry Forrester got on for Halliday and McKay on 78 minutes, and Forrester missed out on an equaliser when he put the ball well over from seven yards when a goal looked certain.

But the best chance at the end fell to Dundee’s Wighton who dribbled his way through on goal and was denied by Foderinghan’s thigh.

Rangers got nothing. It was all they deserved,