Danny Rohl has trait that Wenger and Souness didn't as epic comeback shows one thing over Rangers head coach
The Rangers head coach has been handed emphatic backing ahead of Old Firm day.
Arsene Wenger, Graeme Souness and Walter Smith’s work has been witnessed first-hand - and Mark Hateley is certain that Danny Rohl brings a factor to Rangers that neither legend had when he worked with them.
The former Sheffield Wednesday boss has arrived as the new head coach at Ibrox after Russell Martin’s summer appointment proved calamitous. A 3-0 defeat to Brann in the Europa League showed him the extent of his problems but he has changed to three at the back, yielding Premiership wins over Kilmarnock and Hibs in the last week.
It puts Rangers in a positive frame of mind ahead of this weekend’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final with Celtic and Hateley knows Rohl from watching his Sheffield Wednesday stints. Instances like orchestrating a comeback from three goals down at Middlesbrough on Boxing Day last season have provided him with hope that Rohl has the managerial skills to handle the Glasgow pressure cooker.
Will Danny Rohl be a good Rangers manager?
Hateley worked with a young Arsene Wenger at Monaco, then Graeme Souness and Walter Smith at Rangers. Having coaching at the likes of Bayern Munich, Rohl brings more coaching experience according to the Ibrox hero than either of those football icons did when they were starting out, and now it’s about using those tools to full effect.
He said: "I'll give you an example. I think it was last season when Sheffield Wednesday played Middlesbrough. They were 3-0 down at halftime and then Danny brought all the boys in, changed it all around, changed the formation and should have won the game. Got back to 3-3, had chances to win the game. That's what interests me a lot with the fluidity. Everybody keeps saying, I'm going to say lack of experience, and all this sort of stuff as a young man.
"My success came with three of the youngest managers without experience,. Arsene Wenger, six years older than me when I went to Monaco, won a title, went to a cup final. Graeme Souness, same, first job, young man. Walter Smith, first job as a young man at a big club. All those three had tremendous success.
What has Danny Rohl changed at Rangers?
“I think you look back right through Danny's career now, I think he's got more experience at this or at this level or coaching level than any of those three probably had. I'm going to argue probably with Wenger on that one, but yeah, he's got a fine pedigree. He's just got to turn that now and transform it with a big club as a number one. But I think he's got all the tools to be able to do that.
“When Danny came in, he said I can't pick a formation yet because I don't know the quality of my players. But when I find out the quality of my players and my best players, we'll play a formation to suit those players. So that's what you have to look at. Not judge them or judge until recruitment has been assessed over a period of time. So that's how I see it. But when you're at a club like Rangers and I'm going to say Manchester United now because I think Ruben Amorim has been in the same sort of pressure and has handled it.
“You look at the formations now and possession they're getting in right positions and the pressure seems to have come off now. That period of time where he's had the players come in is now starting to work and that's what a coach does. He finds his best players and builds teams around them.”