Danny Rohl is just 36, and experience is not something Rangers’ manager can boast much of. His whole career playing lasted till 21, then he went into the coaching side, where he was assistant till fairly recently. Danny Rohl in big matches is lacking.
An infamous spell at Sheffield Wednesday ended with mutual consent, although the German did reportedly save the Owls from relegation.
But his CV is young. It is very young. Danny Rohl is barely two years older than Rangers’ captain James Tavernier.
Big Game
And one of the things the former Bayern assistant is clearly very inexperienced in is ‘big game’. And Big Game management.
Danny Rohl is yet to win a single big game occasion with either Sheffield or indeed Rangers. We don’t really want to mention that he lost to Russell Martin and Southampton in the Championship, but there you go.
Every big match either domestically or on the continent has ended as a loss, or occasionally draw.
This is something Danny Rohl falls short on at Rangers, given our loss to Celtic in the cup and repeated humiliations in Europe.
Steven Gerrard
Steven Gerrard, a comparative example, had a big advantage. As a manager he had even less experience of big game occasions than Rohl does, but as a player he was a titan. He won the Champions League for Liverpool almost single-handedly, and while the fabled PL title eluded him, he was clearly a winner. He secured many trophies.
Rohl, sadly, just isn’t.
It is something Rangers’ manager is having to learn on the job, and that’s not ideal at Rangers.
You don’t get time unless you have the reputation Gerrard did in the game, and even then it was hairy for a while before 55. And ultimately he did only win that single trophy of 9.
Need to win
That all said, Rohl will need to learn very, very fast that Rangers need to win the big occasions.
He has only won a single ‘pressure’ match and that was the trip to Easter Road. Who he will face again in Govan on Monday.
You don’t get much time at Rangers, and Rohl, while improving Rangers’ lot in the league, has only done so by way of beating the bread and butter sides.
We need him to beat the top 6. And he’s only faced two. One win (Hibs) one draw (Utd).
Hibs
With the tough fixtures coming up now (Hibs won’t make it easy at Ibrox), Danny Rohl will have to do better in those tough encounters than he has in Europe.
Europe has been too soon for Rohl, he’s nowhere near ready to manage at that level.
But if he can get the results against the top 6 (and bottom) then he will put Rangers in a much better stead domestically.
But that lack of experience of doing so may be an obstacle. Danny Rohl in big matches is a problem.
One we hope this rising manager can overcome.