ERIC Cantona, eat your heart out. The surrealist French frontman’s old line about the seagulls following the trawler sprang to mind at Auchenhowie yesterday afternoon when Pedro Caixinha chose an old Portuguese proverb about dogs and caravans to summarise his club’s predicament ahead of Sunday’s pressure-laden Premiership visit to Dingwall. “We have a saying in Portugal,” said Caixinha with a grin. “The dogs bark. And the caravan moves. The caravan goes on. So that is what we are doing.”

This adage, it was pointed out afterwards, was also used in May 2015 by Caixinha’s fellow countryman Jose Mourinho to thumb his nose at those who accused his Chelsea side of being boring after a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace. The message was simple: the critics are the dogs and we are all in the caravan, ignoring all background noise after the early Europa League exit and four points from the club’s first three league games to focus purely on ourselves.

But this being the modern world, social media was instantly ablaze with numerous gags and gifs about Caixinha being barking mad, his bandwagon going off the rails, and the dangers of being stuck behind a mobile home on a stretch of single track road on the A9.

The metaphor, it soon emerged, still had a distance to travel. Asked by one of these slavering pitbulls in the media if the caravan might wobble and change course if the barking became too incessant, Caixinha said he wasn’t afraid to start towing the caravan himself. It is, of course, easy for such comments to get lost in translation and exposed to ridicule, but what the Portuguese meant was that he was happy to shoulder the pressure himself. You might say he is ready to take the ruff with the smooth.

“I’m the one driving the caravan,” said Caixinha. “And I’m the one who, when the dog is barking, I’m not changing direction. I’m a straight guy, a clear guy, an honest guy. I have a really strong character. I love arguments and challenges. I’m the one who, if I need to get out and pull the caravan by myself, I will be the first one to do that. Even if the dogs are going to get me after, I don’t care. Let them bark.”

Everyone he had met - the casual, anonymous fans at the supermarket or in a restaurant - had been supportive. “I’m not a guy who goes a lot on the streets, but when I need to go shopping, when I need to have dinner, when I need to go to the city centre, when I need to contact other people because I am also a citizen of the world, I contact with the anonymous fans,” he said. “And they are supporting us and backing us in everything.”

As diverting as all this stuff was, it only gets you so far. Caixinha must know by now that he must throw the dogs a bone with a win in Dingwall on Sunday, even if it is to buy himself some precious time. Booed off after a hugely underwhelming goalless draw against Hearts last week, if results don’t go their way this weekend, they could be trailing Celtic by eight points in the table, the entire tally of points which the Parkhead side surrendered to their SPFL rivals last season.

Rangers drew all three of their league meetings against County last season, and the Ibrox side will have to make do without Josh Windass, who is suffering from bruised ribs. On-loan Manchester City winger Aaron Nemane is not ready to play just yet, but will be an asset to the first team. “He is a good player one v one,” said Caixinha, “We needed a player like that to offer more options in the wide areas.”

Ross County are by no means a kick and rush outfit, but they also present a physical challenge which Caixinha needs to find an answer for. “I can tell you that you have a lot of good teams [in Scotland] trying to play good, positive football,” he said. “There are then other teams who try to play much more on the physical side of the game, which is good and is normal. It is the culture here and I’m not criticising that. What I’m saying is that you have to understand that to play against it.”

If a Rangers win would be just what the doctor ordered for the club’s fans, then the winning goalscorer should really be young Ryan Hardie. Caixinha revealed during the week that he had been part-persuaded into giving the 19-year-old striker - called up for the Scotland Under-21s this week, and available despite breaking a thumb against Hearts - a chance by club doctor Philip Jackson.

“The doc has been looking after me in more ways than one at the moment,” said Hardie. “The first time I met the new manager was in the canteen. I walked in and the doctor said, ‘there’s the big goalscorer’. I think that might have stuck in the manager’s mind. The doc and I are quite close and he’s seen what I can do. He’s obviously said to the manager so it’s nice to know you have people looking out for you.”