Glasgow Rangers have officially confirmed the appointment of Danny Rohl after youth team manager Steven Smith led the side out at Ibrox at the weekend.
Smith oversaw a 2-2 draw with Dundee United in front of the home support at Ibrox after being placed in interim charge, two weeks after the club decided to part ways with Russell Martin.
The former Light Blues boss, as shown in the graphic above, endured a dismal time in the dugout in Glasgow after joining in the summer as the first appointment of the new ownership.
Five wins and 24 goals conceded in 17 matches was nowhere near good enough and it was not a surprise to see the board opt to remove him from his post after the draw with Falkirk before the break.
Now, Rohl has been confirmed as the new head coach at Ibrox and will lead the team out against Brann in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Why Danny Rohl can bring success back to Ibrox for Rangers
Supporters, after what happened with Martin, may look at Rohl and be unimpressed by another manager coming up from English football and the Championship, which is understandable.
The 36-year-old head coach finished 20th and 12th in his two seasons in the second tier managing Sheffield Wednesday, who had “never-ending” problems behind the scenes, per chairman of the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters’ Trust Ian Bennett.
Even though progressing the Owls from 20th to 12th with ‘never-ending problems’ was an impressive achievement, it may not provide supporters with hope that he can turn Rangers into a winning machine.
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However, his time as an assistant manager at the very top level suggests that he knows exactly what it takes to coach an elite team to win trophies on a consistent basis, as he was Hansi Flick’s assistant for two seasons with Bayern Munich.
Rohl won seven trophies in those two seasons, including the treble in the 2019/20 campaign, winning the Champions League, the DFB Pokal, and the Bundesliga, per Transfermark, which is why he could bring success back to Ibrox.
Sheffield Wednesday
Manager
89
Germany national team
Assistant manager
25
Bayern Munich
Assistant manager
101
Southampton
Assistant manager
24
RB Leipzig
Assistant manager
83
RB Leipzig
Video analyst
15
RB Leipzig U17s
Assistant manager
29
As you can see in the table above, Rohl has worked at some top teams, including Leipzig, Bayern, and Germany, as well as impressing in difficult circumstances at Sheffield Wednesday, and can bring a winning mentality to Glasgow that Martin could not.
TalkSPORT noted that Rohl, as one of the coaches at Bayern, helped Robert Lewandowski to score 55 goals in 47 matches in the 2019/20 campaign, as the Poland international led the team to a treble, per Transfermarkt.
The legendary marksman also scored 48 goals in 40 matches in all competitions for Bayern under Flick and Rohl’s coaching in the 2020/21 campaign, per Transfermarkt.
Lewandowski scored 41 Bundesliga goals in that season with Rohl as one of his coaches, and he has never scored more in a single league season in his career, before or since.
This suggests that the Rangers manager has coaching ability to get the best out of a clinical number nine, albeit he was working alongside Hansi Flick as his assistant at the time. At the very least, he knows how to coach a team to create chances for a striker on a consistent basis.
With this in mind, Rohl could unearth his next version of Lewandowski at Ibrox by getting the best out of summer signing Bojan Miovski this season, and beyond.
What Rohl needs to do to get Miovski firing at Rangers
Rangers swooped to sign Miovski from Spanish side Girona in the summer transfer window to bolster their options at the top end of the pitch, 12 months on from his move to Spain from Aberdeen.
Unfortunately, though, the Macedonia international has struggled for form at Ibrox since his move back to Scotland. Per Sofascore, he has scored one goal in five matches in the Scottish Premiership under Martin and Smith to date.
One of the issues that Miovski has had since his move to Rangers has been that the team have not created enough chances for him in front of goal.
The left-footed star has only had four ‘big chances’ to find the back of the net in five appearances, and only averaged 0.6 shots on target per game, per Sofascore, which shows that he is getting a lack of service into the box.
Celtic
32
11
Hibernian
24
14
Hearts
19
19
Dundee United
18
14
Falkirk
18
10
Kilmarnock
17
11
Motherwell
16
12
Aberdeen
15
5
Rangers
13
8
St Mirren
11
5
Livingston
11
10
Dundee
8
8
As you can see in the table above, Rangers rank ninth in the Premiership for ‘big chances’ created, illustrating exactly what Rohl needs to improve to get Miovski firing.
The German head coach’s Sheffield Wednesday side created 98 ‘big chances’ in 46 games in the Championship last season, per Sofascore, the fifth-most in the division despite spending less than £5m on new signings after finishing 20th the previous campaign, per Transfermarkt.
This shows that Rohl, who predominantly plays a 4-2-3-1 formation, can coach a team to excel in the final third as a creative unit, even with limited resources, which is further backed up by his work as an assistant in Lewandowski’s best league season of his career.
Miovski, who was hailed as a “complete” player by journalist Josh Bunting, has the potential to be the manager’s next lethal centre-forward, given his impressive form for Aberdeen in the past.
The Rangers forward, as shown in the graphic above, has proven that he can score goals on a regular basis in Scotland, but it is down to Rohl to put together a team that creates enough chances for him to thrive.
If his work with Lewandowski at Bayern Munich and with Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship is anything to go by, Rohl has the coaching ability to turn Miovski into a goalscoring machine at Ibrox.