Crunch time is here
Steven Gerrard has gone into full self-preservation mode.
He has listened to the booing which accompanied his team into the dressing room at half-time and full-time on Saturday and he has not mistaken it for the sound of a ringing endorsement of him or his players.
So the manager's instinct for survival kicked in when it came time to attend to his post-match media duties after a fourth league and cup match in succession without a win.
The tell tale signs of attempting to placate a seriously discomfited supporter base are easily detected by long standing watchers of that particular practice.
Tell the fans that the other lot had no interest in playing entertaining football and were only intent on kicking lumps out of your team. That's always a good place to start.
The only problem was the game at Ibrox was littered with high visibility examples of indiscipline from Gerrard's side, including a spectacularly cynical, glaringly obvious foul on Kilmarnock's Liam Millar by Connor Goldson which should have resulted in a red card being shown, but didn't.
Rangers' goalkeeper Allan McGregor, who now appears to be suffering from a weekly rush of blood to the head, ran half the length of the pitch to confront the referee at another point in the game.
And then there was Alfredo Morelos being, well, Alfredo Morelos.
Kilmarnock came for what they knew would be a hard-fought point, and that's what they got.
The rest of it was just about a man and his attempts to deflect attention away from growing tension within his club.
It wouldn't come as a surprise to me if I was told Gerrard was at home in the bosom of his family on Merseyside by the time Match of the Day started on Saturday night.
And he is well entitled to take the respite offered by Scotland's Euro 2020 qualifiers in Khazakstan and San Marino.
The scatter gun is out and target practice is reserved for Rangers' recruitment policy, Gerrard's tactics and substitutions and even his body language.
In La La land, if you stand still on the touchline or, worse still, take a contemplative minute or two in the dug-out to review a match situation, it is regarded as dereliction of duty when things are not going well.
Only a voluntary bout of St. Vitus dance accompanied by a stream of invective directed at errant players is deemed an appropriate response to any set-back.
Rangers now sit an uncomfortable ten points behind Celtic in the league table. Their next game is away to Neil Lennon's side on Sunday week.
If that is lost then the obdurate reaction from the fans on Saturday will seem like a peace rally when compared to what will follow the final whistle at Celtic Park.
Kilmarnock were not obliged to entertain at Ibrox at the weekend. They were duty bound to do whatever they could to maintain the pressure on Aberdeen for third place in the league table, which they duly did by moving to within one point of Derek McInnes' side.
Lennon, meanwhile, is currently auditioning for Brendan Rodgers' old job at Celtic Park.
Auditions are best when they are about singing and dancing as opposed to coughing and spluttering.
Celtic were allowed to do the former after demonstrating lots of the latter at Dens Park yesterday. If the team collectively fell out of a window they would go in an upward direction at the moment.
A win over Rangers would strongly enhance Neil's case to still be in charge at the start of next season.
By the same token, Gerrard's recovery from bruising would be accelerated by a second, successive win over Celtic.
We lead simple, un-complicated lives in this part of the football world.
Gerrard is here to stop Celtic winning Ten in a Row. If it looks as if he will be unable to perform that task then he will be removed from office.
If he can prevent that unprecedented event from happening then there may be a statue erected in his honour outside Ibrox.
It's a mad world, but it's the only one we've got and it's the only one we want, I suspect.