Rangers 1-5 Celtic reaction: Forget Caixinha, it's the end of the road for these players

If you're not familiar with Pascal's Wager, it's the old assertion that, since believing in God doesnae really cost anything, you might as well do it since if you don't believe and you turn out to be wrong, you get enclosed in a fiery tomb for all eternity. Being good Protestants, we obviously don't need to bother with things like that, but if you're a gambling man you'll understand the need to take the odds. A similar point of view is that you might as well believe in God because the alternative is too horrible. Although today's result might cast some doubt on that theory.

Anyway, the relevance of this is - there's not much point in suggesting that Pedro Caixinha was the main person at fault for this. If he is, well, he's not going to get sacked this season and he'll get found out eventually, so there's no point in whinging about it. But ultimately, it might just be more palatable - and let's be honest, probably more accurate and verifiable - that the entire team have just collectively shat it and there was pretty much nothing he could do.

Let's look at the evidence. Firstly, we'd looked the most organised we had been all season leading up to these two Old Firms. Would we then neglect that for much bigger games against a much better side? Unlikely.

Secondly, was the failing today really down to team shape? Yes, we didn't really get numbers back enough, just like at Hampden. But at Ibrox, even if we had set out to keep it tight, get men behind the ball, and carried it out vaguely well, we'd probably have bemoaned the side failing to have a go. The team shape wasn't so much to blame as terrified players, meek tackling, atrocious passing, rubbish defending and woeful finishing.

We can point to a few things. Barrie McKay probably should have started, Martyn Waghorn probably should not. Maybe we should've been a bit more rigid. That doesn't add up to a record Ibrox defeat to Celtic. What does? All of the aforementioned individual mistakes.

It's half the team that started, really. Myles Beerman showed his inexperience and nerves with a ludicrous decision which put us on the back foot straight away. Wes Foderingham is obviously good enough to be here next season but had a rare shocker today. Danny Wilson, James Tavernier and Clint Hill have their merits individually but exposed against this lot - no. Emerson Hyndman looks more and more like a highlights player every game. Jason Holt is not cut out for playing at this level. Josh Windass - lol. Joe Dodoo - still raw and is only anywhere near starting because of how unfathomably bad the alternatives are. Martyn Waghorn - the unfathomly bad alternative who started anyway. Kenny Miller - well, we know all about Kenny Miller.

Not starting were McKay - slightly harsh but he's hardly in stellar form. Jon Toral was absent amid rumours that he was too feart to play in the last one. Andy Halliday was benched because he's terrible. David Bates, who is inexperienced. Would you like to set up this absolute shower into a system that can beat Celtic in that mood and that form? Sometimes there's less than one right answer and you're just fucked, frankly.

There's no point in giving abuse to the players, but it's patently their fault. More or less entirely. If you believe that Caixinha has failed, then you're seemingly suggesting there's a good team full of good players here which is being misused. We've seen that disproved time and time again. It's over for these lads. Don't give them aggro. Just feel sorry for them. They're not good enough, and they've had that brutally, humiliatingly exposed more than one time too many. The idea that a small number of smart signings are going to revolutionise this side and lift up the levels of everyone is not looking a safe bet anymore. We didn't want another summer where we have to replace an entire team. But unfortunately, we've got one.