IN the blue sea of Ibrox, you either sink or swim. Right now, Rangers are struggling to keep their heads above water.

After the highs of wins over Hearts and Partick Thistle, the Gers have plunged to new depths in recent days as they have suffered humiliating defeats to Hamilton and Dundee.

For many fans, Friday night at Dens Park was the tipping point, the match where their patience snapped and their build-up anger and frustration came pouring out.

Graeme Murty’s side were booed off at the end of a 2-1 defeat. The performance was even more embarrassing than the result.

For some members of the Ibrox squad, it was the first time they had felt the wrath of supporters in such a fashion. Life in Light Blue is nothing new for Kenny Miller, however.

“This is a tough place to play when things are not going well, there’s no doubt about that,” Miller said.

“But you need to have that strength of character and that mentality that you need.

“Ultimately we have to find a way of dealing with it. And the team has to find a way to win football matches.

“It can be tough because of the level of expectation. And the level of success the club has had over the last however many years.

“At the moment we’re having a real drought in terms of that kind of success.

“Listen, that’s where we are. This is a place where you can either sink or swim. You find out a lot about yourself and your team-mates when you’re faced with that kind of adversity and scrutiny.

“What we’ve been very fortunate with over the course of the years is that we have had more players than not who are able to deal with it.

“You need to remember, we’re four or five months into a season with a new group which has lots of different nationalities and cultures. It’s still early yet – albeit it feels like a lifestyle, trust me!

“But there is no honeymoon period here. You need to hit the ground running.

“We said that last season when we said he needed to improve. We said we needed to find consistency and all that other nonsense.

“But ultimately this season has taken the same pattern again. It’s something we need to correct.”

A season that started badly has become steadily worse for Rangers as they have followed up the Europa League exit to Progres Niederkorn with a dismal run of Premiership form.

The squad that Pedro Caixinha assembled at significant cost has underperformed and underachieved and the Gers head into the back-to-back fixtures with Aberdeen already six points adrift of their rivals for second spot this term.

Miller returned to Ibrox three years ago with the ambition of helping Rangers back to the top of Scottish football.

But supporters are struggling to see any light at the end of the tunnel as the Ibrox board continue their search for another manager.

Miller said: “I don’t know what’s going on off the field, but definitely on the field we could have been in a better position.

“I think there is improvement to be had in the group. We can definitely get a lot more out of everybody and collectively we can be a lot better.

“You can’t win anything on your own. You can have special players out there that are not quite working in relation to the team and maybe, at the moment, we’re looking a little bit disjointed.

“Maybe there is a look of a team of individuals rather than a team and I would take a team all day long.

“Murts has been trying hard to get that cohesion. But we have a couple of good ones then it all goes to pot. We had chances against Hamilton to win three or four games but we ended up losing the game which was unacceptable.

“Then we had last Friday’s performance which was really, really poor. It was lacking so much that you would expect from a Rangers team.

“So I can understand the frustration of fans and I felt sorry for Murts as well. There is more but it’s finding a way to get it out.”

There would be no better time for Rangers to show what they are capable of than in the double-header with the Dons at Ibrox and Pittodrie.

Fans will voice their frustrations towards the Gers board, over a range of issues, at the Annual General Meeting on Thursday morning.

But Miller knows it is what happens a few hours before and a couple of days later that must be the focus for squad that have questions to answer and points to prove.

He said: “I’m a player. I have to go out and give better performances than I have been giving, as do the lads that are playing at the moment.

“I do have views and opinions on things, but ultimately we have to be better on the field.

“You know what it’s like in the Old Firm. Everything is fine when you’re winning matches and at the moment we’re not doing that so everything else is highlighted, including the managerial position.

“But we’re not the only club in Britain that is taking a month to find a manager – there are others in the same boat.

“These things do take time but the fact that we haven’t won football matches and there has been massive inconsistency in our performances and results as well as the fact that we don’t have a manager.

“There are other things going on too and when you throw it all into the one pot it looks a bit of a mess.

“The bottom line is we need to be better and that’s something we have to put right in the next couple of games.

“There is not a better way to respond than winning a double header against Aberdeen.

“We find ourselves a little bit back in terms of league position and points so these two games give us a chance to really gain some ground.

“Come Sunday we could be in a far healthier position than where we are now so this is an opportunity to put in a couple of good performances against a decent team."