Less than a week ago, following another defeat in Europe, Celtic manager Martin O’Neill found himself fending off criticisms his side is a Jekyll and Hyde outfit.

His opposite number in the blue half of Glasgow, Derek McInnes, ought to be equally concerned about that label getting slapped on the heads of his players in the wake of a messy performance at Tynecastle that ended with an ill-deserved point.

His team got away with it thanks to Olwethu Makhanya’s late header. Celtic slipping up at home to Dundee United helped too. That, though, should not disguise the glaring problems with this display and the questions they raise over Rangers’ ability to keep the pedal to the metal.

In most games, they go through periods where they lose focus. They never got going at all in this one. It’s extraordinary that Dujon Sterling might actually have won it at the death.

McInnes needs to take a degree of the blame himself, of course. Rangers had been scintillating against St Johnstone at the weekend when winning 4-0 and seeing their front four of Kevin Kelsy, Ryan Naderi, Kim Min-su and Badredine Bouanani light up Ibrox. Yes, Bouanani was taken off with cramp against Saints. There’s a cup semi against Aberdeen at the weekend as well. However, dropping the Algerian, moving Min-su out right and putting in Djeidi Gassama on the left didn’t work out at all.

Gassama was frankly awful. When he was taken off eight minutes into the second half, it wasn’t a moment too soon.

Rangers’ alarming slide from title contenders to no-marks under Danny Rohl last season showed that the one-time Sheffield Wednesday winger wasn’t up to it and, despite some decent contributions in recent months, that hasn’t changed.

This was a stark reminder of the need to replace him and other guys who had their chance at a championship crown last term and blew it. A real problem for Rangers throughout the match was the inability to get any kind of grip on midfield.

Dan Neil gave away a slack free-kick in a stupid area when tripping Tomas Magnusson to set up the home side’s first goal. Giving away needless fouls in daft areas was a constant issue.

However, Nico Raskin was much worse in the engine room. It remains unsettling that the transfer Brains’ Trust inside Auchenhowie couldn’t muster up a decent deal to sell the Belgian in the summer after he had been heavily involved in his country’s World Cup campaign.

Overall, Raskin has been a disappointment at Ibrox. He wants to move on and, if something can’t be put together in January, a buyer has to be found before next season. He cannot be part of the longer-term plan there.

Same goes for Emmanuel Fernandez. He got booked late in the first half for a brainless foul on Josh McPake and could have been yellow-carded earlier for a trip on Magnusson. The less said about his efforts at both of Hearts’ goals, the better. Mind you, Sterling was even worse at their second.

How Rangers can go from playing Celtic off the park twice in quick succession to the likes of this is quite the mystery.

Of course, there have been lots of changes in the playing staff of late in a bid to throw off the club’s ‘losers’ tag and it’s impossible to overturn the squad completely in one window.

However, carrying on with guys who were part of past failures is in danger of delivering failure again.