MusaRangers have gone from famine to feast this season – but Danny Rohl hopes his team are hungry for more.
A club that’s been starved of success in recent times looked to be feeding on crumbs yet again as Russell Martin served up a calamitous start to the season.
But under Rohl, Rangers have certainly given their rivals some food for thought having clawed their way back into the title reckoning.
Now as the final stretch of Premiership clashes comes into view, rookie Rohl is preparing for the real test of his abilities to lead and to inspire – starting with this week’s vital showdowns with Jens Berthel Askou’s maverick Motherwell and table-toppers Hearts.
This may be his first title joust as a boss but the former Bayern Munich assistant has experienced the sweet taste of triumph before during his trophy-laden stint assisting Hansi Flick.
And it’s those glorious memories of Munich that Rohl will fall back on as he looks to nourish Gers’ title bid in the crunch weeks of the campaign.
“The experience in Munich helped me a lot,” he said. “It’s about how you win games, and also that you are always hungry after one win, to go for the next one.
“I think this is the biggest part. It starts in training. Even in the small-sided games, you should want to win because it gives you a winning culture.
“This is what I learned from my time in Munich with the players there. When you see them there, the training quality, even if it’s a four-vs-four game, they want to win this game, and I think this is helpful.
“This is what I try, leading by example. Every game is important and this is now, I think, the result a little bit from the last couple of weeks.
“The first two, three wins feels like big wins – but five minutes after the game, for me it’s clear, it’s about the next one.
“The head must go straight to the next one, and this is what we have to do every time. If you can do this consistently, then you have a chance to get more. And we’ve done this in the last couple of weeks very well. Now we have teams ahead of us, games ahead of us, where we have to play at our highest level.”
Rangers’ January recruitment work appears to have nudged Rohl’s squad up a notch or two. It’s early days but the signs have been promising, with new striker Ryan Naderi bagging a double in Sunday’s eight-goal hammering of Queen’s Park.
Tuur Rommens and Tochi Chukwuani have added power and strength while Andreas Skov Olsen is slowly but surely rediscovering his sharpness after a frustrating three month stint stuck on the sidelines at Wolfsburg.
The new additions have helped add a different dimension to a team that has often been overly reliant on set-pieces to scrape past opponents. And their impact has been quick, with a Gers side frustrated by last week’s drab draw at Easter Road swiftly able to turn on the style while rattling in 12 goals against Killie and Queen’s.
Rohl said: “In general as a coaching group, we try to give the players as many tools as possible to score goals.
“We always try to give them a plan, we always try to give them clear instructions on what we want to see, and then it’s about my players – and my players at the moment have delivered very well on the pitch.
“We spoke after the Hibs game about what we have to improve – and three days later, we did exactly what we wanted, and it gives me a good feeling.
“The challenge as a manager is that you work on one thing, but then don’t forget the other things, keep going and collect more.
“And I think this is now really a process, what we have done in the last couple of weeks or months, in building up our house.
“It’s about the attitude, the mindset, the confidence, the trust in what we are doing.
“Because you can go into a duel thinking, ‘Maybe I win the duel, maybe not’ – or you go in 100 percent, and it’s a big, big difference.
“This is what my players have done really well in the last couple of weeks.”
Berthel Askou is going to face a tricky task working out what side Gers will pick for their showdown – a job almost as tough as Rohl’s actually working out who to leave out now that he’s got a wide selection of options to pick from.
The German – who will welcome back Manny Fernandez and Youssef Chermiti for the Fir Park trip – said: “It shows that my medical department does a good job, we have come through the busy time in December, which was not always easy.
“It gives me more options, it gives the group more quality, and I like to have the squad now together, not just the numbers also.
“I see more and more players coming out to 100 percent and I think this is the most important key that you have players, especially in the second half of the season.
“This is again an experience from Munich, you need in the crunch time your players on a perfect level. If you have this then you have a big chance.”
The odds on Rangers being anywhere near top of the table were minuscule when Rohl walked in the door back in October.
But there’s a distinct possibility now that they could find themselves sitting at the Premiership peak looking down on the rest if they can follow up a win over Well with another when Hearts visit Ibrox on Sunday.
Rohl said: “I think the great thing is that we closed the gap in the last couple of weeks, and now we have the opportunity to close it again.
“Of course it depends on our performance, not just about the result from the other places.
“If we do our job then we have it.
“But previously I’ve spoken about us being the ‘hunter’, even when we were in a different position.
“We should head again for the next win, it’s not just about the position, we should always head for wins. And if we do this as a group, then I’m very positive for the future.”
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