Danny Rohl has said he doesn’t care whether or not he was first choice to become Rangers’ new head coach.
Rohl was appointed to replace Russell Martin at Ibrox on a two-and-a-half year deal and is set to take charge of his first game on Thursday against Brann in the Europa League.
He was introduced to the media on Tuesday, after the club held talks with numerous different candidates since Martin’s departure on October 5.
Steven Gerrard withdrew himself from consideration having travelled to Glasgow to discuss a return to Ibrox, before talks with Kevin Muscat collapsed at a late stage after the Australian had emerged as frontrunner.
Former Sheffield Wednesday boss Rohl insisted that the club’s interest in other candidates made no difference to his desire to take on the role.
New Rangers head coach Danny Rohl has vowed to get the fans back onside by winning games of football
“You can be the first, the second or the third choice. The important thing is that you win the next games and then you have to go forward,” he said on Tuesday.
“For me it’s not a situation because I’m honest with you, I cannot tell you which choice I was.
“I can just tell you that I’m here and it gives me the belief that I was the first choice.”
‘Win first, attractive football later’
Not only did Martin guide Rangers to their worst ever league start, but he did so while fans continued to express their dissatisfaction with the club’s slow style of play.
While Rohl admitted he wants his side to play a free-flowing, attractive brand of football – he insisted his immediate concern is elsewhere.
Following Rangers’ appointment of new head coach Danny Rohl, Kris Boyd criticises the club’s recruitment process, but insists the fans must get behind the new boss
“The first step is, and this is the huge one, we need wins in a row. I think this is very important because with wins in a row you can create self-confidence.
“I saw in the morning the training, we trained with intensity, we were very lively on the pitch, I see so much potential.
“My football, what I want to see on the pitch is intensity, it’s spirit, it’s togetherness and it’s a playing forward style. Because we want to create chances, we want to create goals.
“And we have to understand, and this is also part of the football, we have to defend as a group, as a unit, much, much better and be aggressive in the duels and all these things I want to bring to this club.
“At first you have to win games, then we can speak about playing attractive football. And if you do these points in this order, then we have a straighter togetherness with our fans again.”
Much has been made of the recruitment from the club in recent times, with question marks continuing to surround many of the summer signings brought in for Martin.
Though Rohl was clear in his belief that it was important to be aligned in recruitment moving forward, he also said it was his job to bring out the strengths of the current crop of players.
“For me as a coach, it’s very important that you bring the strength of the squad on the pitch and this was in the past always my mindset.
“You can have an idea of football but you have also to look at which players you have. If you can bring the squad together with your style of football, with the things you are demanding, then you will go in a fantastic direction.”
‘We have to change the mindset’
Rangers are sixth in the Premier League and having won just one of their opening eight games, leading to question marks over the mentality of the current squad.
“We spoke about what I want to see and I think it’s also important that you have to move step by step in the direction [we want to go in] and the first thing is we have to speed up our game,” Rohl said.
“We come in fantastic situations, we come between the lines but instead of attacking the last line, we break and we stop and I think this is something with the mindset.
“We want to attack the last line and it means for me if we do it again and again, we create more chances and we have more goals. It starts with a good positioning.
“The demand on the club is very high but you cannot just think we can win football games with nice football.
“We have to understand we have to press well, we have to hunt, we have to go on the counter pressing and we have to play with intensity and it starts from the striker and the defender.
“If you do it as a unit again and again then it’s very hard to beat us and to break us down.”
- Brann (A) – Europa League – Thursday
- Kilmarnock (H) – Scottish Premiership – Sunday
- Hibernian (A) – Scottish Premiership – October 29 – live on Sky Sports
- Celtic (N) – League Cup semi-final – November 2
- Roma (H) – Europa League – November 6
- Dundee (A) – Scottish Premiership – November 9 – live on Sky Sports
