Mark Warburton amazed by crisis suggestions at Rangers

Mark Warburton admits he has been "amazed" by the adverse reaction to his Rangers side dropping their first points of the season.

The Ibrox team lost 2-1 to Hibernian at the start of the month after 11 successive Championship wins and drew 1-1 with Livingston last week.

They had gone into the game at Easter Road with a chance to open their lead over closest challengers Hibs to 11 points.

Seeing the Edinburgh side win meant the gap was reduced instead and Alan Stubbs' men have played once more since, meaning they are now level.

That has prompted talk in some quarters of a crisis at Rangers, with suggestions that they are struggling for goals.

"I keep reading that and I'm amazed by it," Warburton said. "Our goal difference is plus 31 after 14 games.

"I'll be very polite with what I say here: I'm amazed the word 'crisis' is used when we've played 14, won 12, drawn one and lost one.

"If that's a crisis, then there is a crisis in football generally and that's not us being arrogant.

"We're in a situation where at the start, teams saw how we were going to play and quite naturally are now putting eight, nine and 10 men behind the ball. I understand that.

"Teams will do what they have to do to win a game of football. That's perfectly natural. We have to deal with it but it's tough to break down compact defences with that number of men.

"I read one comment in the paper that Rangers had been sussed out. Well, teams are not going to come and play the way we want them to.

"We have to find solutions, which we will do. But when I hear people saying the goals have dried up, I find it amazing. We've got 37 points out of 42. That's not a bad record."

Although Rangers have scored a total of 58 goals in 20 games, the bulk of them came in the first few weeks of the campaign. They have also scored only once in four of their last five outings.

Even so, Warburton maintains spirits in his group are high and his plans for the transfer market - where additions are expected to be minimal - have not changed.

The former Brentford boss added: "There's no lack of confidence. The team is doing well. The squad is more than strong enough.

"But as you enter February and March when you get heavy pitches, injuries and suspensions, we have to make sure we have options.

"So we will need one or two players more, definitely, there's no doubt about that."