GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST admits Rangers must start winning their defensive battles if they are to solve the corner crisis that is undermining their campaign at home and abroad.
A series of individual and collective mistakes have cost Rangers dear this term and Van Bronckhorst’s side face Aberdeen on Saturday on the back of successive 4-0 defeats away to Celtic and Ajax.
Rangers were again masters of their own downfall on Wednesday evening as Edson Alvarez was allowed time and space from a Steven Berghuis corner and nodded the hosts ahead.
The game was done within 17 minutes as Ajax raced into a three-goal lead and the manner of the defeat could have been even worse before Steven Bergwijn completed the rout late on.
Van Bronckhorst said: "It was a big defeat. We had a bad game.
"We weren't in the game enough to compete with Ajax. I think the level we reached in the first half is not on the level we needed to be competitive in the Champions League
"You can see the difference in moving, passing and thinking. That is the level we are facing the Champion League
"We weren't just good enough in the first half, in the second half we switched to a back five to get more control of the space and give less chances away but we faced an opponent, every mistake you make they punished us and we did that many times.
"It is about winning your battles. We have tall players in the zone and I think the smallest players on the pitch blocked one of our players.
"It is about the desire to everything you can to win your duels and not to be naive.
"That's what we have to get out of the team because gifting a goal like that is at this level us very damaging."
