It’s very rare to hear a player saying that they have had a bad week at training, but translating that onto the field when it comes to matchday is an entirely different proposition.

That’s why Emerson Hyndman has challenged his Rangers teammates to start taking the intensity with which they train onto the playing field, admitting they can’t afford to be desperately clawing their way back from losing positions.

Indeed, by the time the players in red and white woke up at the weekend against Dundee it was already too little, too late, and Hyndman says that has got to change quickly.

“The way we start games has been a recurring issue,” Hyndman said. “We’ve gone a goal behind quite often recently. So, it is a problem, and we are trying to fix it.

“You can’t always start exactly how you want but it has been a recurring problem for us. Whether it’s the mentality, structure - whatever it is - we are trying to fix it.

“Training has been good overall, so it’s just about applying ourselves from the start.

“It’s a challenge for all the players, to step up. Because that’s what we have to do. If we perform consistently like we did at Dundee, then it’s not good. If you go 1-0 down every game, you have to change something.

“It’s not just me who has to step up. Everyone has to step up as a team, take the criticism, handle it and produce something.”

Hyndman may be forgiven for wondering just what it is he has wandered into after the farcical way that the manager who brought him to the club vacated the premises.

But the level-headed American has seen enough already in his short time as a professional to know that the managerial merry-go-round can affect any club at any time.

“There are no guarantees,” he said. “I signed for one manager here but at any time a manager can leave. So, I signed for the club and I just want to see the club succeed.

“There are always difficult situations along the way, whether you are 20 or 30. The timing is strange for me but I’m here to play football and to try and help the team win.

“I don’t concentrate too much on what’s happening on the outside, I try to focus on the team and how we can improve.”

Hyndman’s manager at parent club Bournemouth, Eddie Howe, is equally serene over the current tumultuous period at the Ibrox club.

“He’s still really calm about the situation,” he said. “He sent me here to play football. He knew Mark Warburton and sent me to him at first, but he’s happy with the way it’s gone. He’s very comfortable with it all”