Danny Rohl’s new manager bounce at Rangers is faltering | OneFootball

One Ibrox Noise user mentioned today how it appears the new manager bounce at Rangers is a thing of the past already. The problem that Ibrox Noise would suggest is that we did not really see one in the first place, just like under Russell Martin. Danny Röhl has come from the Championship in England to a massive Goliath in Scotland in the form of the famous Glasgow Rangers.

Brann

His debut, of course, was abysmal. Let us not forget how bad it was against Brann. Röhl struggled badly against these Norwegian sheep herders and that has been a recurring theme in Europe. His performance against Braga was absolutely dire again, and we are not quite sure how he got a point out of that one. Fundamentally, Danny Röhl’s arrival has given us some lucky results in the league. Not a single convincing three-point victory, and even that luck ran out against Falkirk at Ibrox. In Europe, it has been dire. Nothing but losses until that fortunate draw against the Portuguese giants. Now, those reading this may think, oh, here we go again, another negative Ibrox Noise criticism of the ‘messiah’ that is Danny Röhl.

The truth is this

Yes, we absolutely acknowledge that our squad is horrible. It is the worst Rangers squad in the SPL of all time. There is no getting away from that. It is worse than what Pedro had, than what Warburton had. It is terrible. We will not dispute that point. However, there is a huge catch. It is still top-four material in the league. In actual fact, it is top-two material in the league. It is still, on paper at least, a very decent SPL squad that should be upper mid-table. And of course, it is. In the league at least, Rangers are in the top four. Not exactly the most ambitious goal to aim for, but it is the case.

The big problem

Even with the terrible players that Rangers have, we should still be able to decently beat the lower SPL fodder. The Falkirks, the Livingstones, the Motherwells, the Dundee Uniteds. These are traditionally not strong SPL teams. The Ross Counties, the St Johnstones. Yet Rangers are requiring fortune to beat any of them. Danny Röhl has not had a single convincing win in ten matches. Every performance is poor. There is no improvement, apart from those who are just happy to see the back of Russell Martin. They are enjoying the psychological improvement of not having him as manager. And no matter what is on the pitch, they think they are seeing improvement. The reality is the football is exactly the same. Rangers have just had more luck under Röhl in the league. And that is fair enough because Martin got some in the Champions League qualifiers.

Martin had luck, Röhl has had luck, but the football has not improved

We will never quite know how he got past Plzen and Panathinaikos. We came undone in Belgium against Bruges, who destroyed us. But that was four individual legs that we were competing in and winning some of. So, whatever you think about Martin, and we do not think a lot, he was a lot better in Europe than Röhl has been. But he got the luck there, no question. And that same luck has happened for Röhl domestically. No one in their right mind would think that Rangers have had a single convincing win under Danny Röhl. And that is where he falls down.

The simple fact is, even though the squad is a terrible Rangers-level squad, it is still good enough to beat Livingston with something to spare. It did not. It required luck. And that was not just a one-off. It has been a repeating cycle with every single SPL match. We have been terrible. Everyone will scream that supports Röhl, and to be fair, that is the majority. Look what he inherited, they say. But again, as we say, we have got Bojan Miovski. We have got Oliver Antman, albeit injured at the moment. Then there’s Nico Raskin. We have got Diomande. We have got players who are not mere Championship level in Scotland. These are players who are decent level. We are not saying it is SPL title-winning quality. It might not even be second in the league. But they are okay at that level. Just not for Rangers.

Still, even a decent coach or manager could get better performances than this guy is getting. We should be winning with a little more panache, to say the least. The performances have been horrible. Just like under Martin.

Professionalism

Many fans also blame the players’ professionalism, claiming that the players are not putting in the work. Ibrox Noise does not agree with that. No footballer worth his salt will go onto a pitch and laze. They will always follow the training. They will follow the instructions. And they will do what they have been coached to do. Whether you like it or not, that is how footballers work. They do not mutiny against the manager unless something dreadful happens, like probably happened in the end with Martin. Even then, they were still going by his instruction, which, to be fair, was not very good.

We are not seeing much better under Danny Röhl. He is more likeable, more affable, but he is not doing much better at all. Aside from the results in the league up till Falkirk, there is not much to cheer about. Time will tell if getting better players fixes all this. But we would have expected more, at least in the league against bread-and-butter opposition, from a new coach. We have not had that. We have had a bit of luck, and that has tidied us over. Time will tell how this develops. But we are not on the Röhl Express like so many are. Ibrox Noise does not slaughter him in the way that we did Martin. But we cannot see this guy as the answer.

FYI we should also add we’re getting an increasing number of emails and private correspondence from fans who agree with us, but who just like the Martin era, are too scared to say it publicly for fear of the abuse we got ourselves all year over Rohl’s predecessor.