THE message from Steven Gerrard is simple and defiant: It is not over until it is over.

Rangers are not quite at that stage, but the ten point deficit to Celtic leaves their Premiership ambitions hanging by a thread.

Until it is impossible, Gerrard will keep fighting, keep searching for the gains that would keep those ambitions alive at Ibrox.

He said: "The first thing I do is analyse myself and my staff in terms of what could we do better. What support do the players need? How can we pick them up and get them back?

"We are looking at every avenue you can think of. We are analysing it prior to the break and from last year.

"There is part of me that thinks “Are we over-analysing it? Is it just a sticky patch with one or two players not quite at it? Is it individual mistakes that are costing us?'

"Sometimes you can over think these situations. Six weeks ago, we won at the most difficult venue in the league.

"I wouldn’t be surprised if we go and give Braga a right good game over two legs and show everyone again that we are a good team. But we have to accept where we are, take accountability for it and try and resurrect it.

"If I concede something while this badge is on my chest, I will take it off and I will walk out and get in my car. It is as simple as that."

The aftermath of the defeat to Kilmarnock has seen Gerrard really questioned and doubted for the first time.

He accepts and understands it, but won't take on board the unnecessary noise.

He said: "I don’t listen to them when we get to the last 32 in Europe. I never used to listen to them when I scored the winner in a match. I don’t listen to radio phone-ins.

"Not because I am avoiding them, it is just not what I do in my spare time. I have got three girls and a two-year-old boy, I have been working on his left foot this week. I don’t listen to radio shows because I don’t get anything out of it. That was the same as a player.

"If I am not a manager next week I won’t listen to a radio phone-in because it is not what I do. Am I aware that I have had a lot of pressure, heat and scrutiny on me this week? A million per cent.

"Do I accept it? I accept the constructive side of it. Do I listen to phone-ins and emotional people around a keyboard? I think you know that by now."

Gerrard won't be fazed by the pressure and the criticism. He can't afford for his players to continue crumbling under the strain.

Gerrard said: "Don’t ignore it, be aware of it and try and use it in a positive if you can to bounce back as quick as you can. Look, I am the manager of one of the biggest clubs in the world and they are representing one of the biggest clubs in the world.

"There is going to be praise, there is going to be constructive criticism and there will be wild comments and opinions. We all have rivals, we all have people that don’t like us, we all have people that are really good at analysing the game and give you really good, constructive criticism and feedback.

"And that happens when you win and you are good as well and you get wild comments that you are the best thing since sliced bread. That is football, especially nowadays with how many people cover the games. That is life. Get on with it."