STEVEN GERRARD has warned his Rangers squad players not to come chapping on his door after failing to take their chance to impress against Dundee.

The Light Blues boss made six changes for the trip to Dens Park as Joe Worrall, Andy Halliday, Jordan Rossiter, Eros Grezda, Ryan Kent and Kyle Lafferty came into the side following the defeat to Aberdeen in midweek.

But the switches didn’t have the desired impact as Rangers dropped two more crucial points in the Premiership title race and missed the chance to move level with Celtic.

Halliday earned the Gers a draw after Kenny Miller opened the scoring for Dundee and boss Gerrard was angry with another below par performance from his side.

Gerrard said: “It won’t happen again. People knock on your door, people shake their head when they’re not in the team, people are disappointed. That’s fine, that’s football.

“But when you are given your chance, go and back it up, go and perform, give me a problem or a headache.

“I think it’s pretty easy, pretty straightforward for me now. I know the players I can trust, and it’s a reality check today that we’re not good enough to make five or six changes.

“It should make my job easier going forward because there should be less knocks at the door. If players are honest with themselves and watch that performance back I don’t really think they’ve got a leg to stand on.

“But I welcome the knocks because I’ve got all the evidence and the ammunition to maybe show them why they’re not in the team in the future.

“I don’t think [it is a mental problem]. We were top of the league seven day ago, we beat a really strong Hearts team, but the last two performances have just shocked and surprised me.

“I can maybe understand one but then you expect a reaction - good players normally give a reaction but we never got it.”

Rangers moved top of the table with victory over Hearts last Sunday but have now squandered their advantage after two hugely disappointing showings in recent days.

The Gers couldn’t break down a Dundee side that played for 72 minutes with ten men after defender Nathan Ralph saw red for a challenge on Daniel Candeias.

Gerrard said: “The last two performances have been really poor and I take responsibility for that.

“Seven days ago we were top and it’s looking like we have Rangers players who can handle the responsibility of being a Rangers player as we’re at the top.,

“The last two performances don’t look like us and the team I’m trying to build.

“Individuals are not stepping up and playing at a level that is acceptable.”

“I don’t think [we got carried away]. I just don’t think we’ve done the things that have got us a lot of praise.

“The performances are out of character and individuals are putting in bad performances.”

Rangers will now look to put their Premiership frustrations behind them when they face Rapid Vienna in their final Group G encounter on Thursday night.

But Gerrard has warned his players their Europa League campaign will come to a premature end if they don’t raise their game in Austria.

He said: “It’s not ideal, you want your confidence to be high and you want to be in a good place, but it’s certainly a welcome break from the league because our last two performances in the league have been miles away from what I’m looking for.

“We’ll see what Thursday brings but if we perform anything like the last two games we’ll be out of Europe on Thursday night.”