Plymouth Argyle and Miron Muslic will hope for Sheffield Wednesday, QPR repeat | OneFootball

Miron Muslic can follow in Danny Rohl and Marti Cifuentes' footsteps to be a success at Home Park

The Miron Muslic era at Plymouth Argyle got underway with a 1-1 draw against Oxford United on Tuesday night, with the Green Army getting their first taste of life under their new Austrian boss.

While the former Cercle Brugge manager only had one training session to get his ideas across to his new squad before facing the U’s, there were glimpses of a change of game plan for the Pilgrims, who will be looking to turn their fortunes around in their bid to stay in the Championship for a third successive year.

With Wayne Rooney departing the club on New Year’s Eve, the Devon outfit will be hoping to see an upturn in results during 2025, with a failure to put the ball in the back of the net, as well as pick up points on the road adding to their disappointment in the early stages of the current campaign.

But the Greens don’t have to look far for inspiration when it comes to bosses coming in from further afield and turning things around in the second tier, with Sheffield Wednesday and Queens Park Rangers both experiencing a rejuvenation in the last 18 months after similar appointments.

Danny Rohl, Marti Cifuentes can be Plymouth Argyle, Miron Muslic inspiration

Much will have been made about Argyle appointing a man that has no experience of the English second tier in their battle against the drop, but that narrow-mindedness fails to see what expanding your horizons can bring to a football club.

A new approach from someone with experience on the continent can work just as well as a manager who has plied his trade in England all their life, and the former can often work better, as seen in front of Argyle’s eyes over the past two campaigns.

Wednesday were a side who looked doomed before Rohl took over last season, with the ill-fated tenure of Xisco Munoz leaving the Owls rooted to the bottom of the table during the early part of the 23/24 campaign, before the German rallied his side to turn things around in the most dramatic of fashions.

With no win until late October, the writing almost looked on the wall for the Yorkshire side right from the off, but Rohl’s ability to galvanise a squad that looked on their knees saw Hillsborough become a place that teams feared, with safety secured by the end of the campaign.

Cifuentes did similar with a side that had just eight points after 14 league matches last season, with the Spaniard’s first taste of the English game seeing him turn things around at Loftus Road, and get a team who looked bereft of quality, grinding out results on a regular basis to ease themselves clear of the bottom three.

While it may not always be pretty, it has been effective for the pair, and you only have to look at both teams in their current guise to see how what might be seen as a left-field appointment can work wonders if given the opportunity to flourish.

Miron Muslic ready to tackle Plymouth Argyle relegation battle

While it was far from a vintage Argyle performance against Oxford on Tuesday night, there were shoots of promise from the Greens as they ground out a 1-1 draw against Gary Rowett’s side, with their new boss’s approach in its embryonic stage.

There were countless times in the first 30 minutes or so where the hosts won possession further up the field and sprung attacks, with Rami Al Hajj unlucky not to open the scoring with a fine effort in the opening stages, with visiting goalkeeper Jamie Cumming equal to the Swede’s opportunity.

A more direct game plan was evident, with Daniel Grimshaw launching the ball more often than the Green Army will have seen under Rooney, while the Bali Mumba [pictured] and new recruit Tymoteusz Puchacz were under obvious orders to get the ball into the box earlier than they have usually been doing, with the latter creating the Pilgrims’ equaliser in such fashion.

The Pole’s centre was diverted home by Al Hajj just after the hour mark to rescue a point, with the new boss pleased with chunks of what he saw from the side in Tuesday’s encounter, with the equaliser a sign of things to come at Home Park in the future.

Speaking to Plymouth Live, he said: "We had some very nice combinations in the second half, players very well positioned in between the lines, but also with the width.

"It was a goal like we are going to score a lot of in the next weeks and months, high up on the pitch, a lot of players in and around the box and then occupy them, keep the attacking waves alive and then you can score.

"It was a beautiful goal from Al Hajj and that was enough for us today. We didn't have the power to push for the second (goal). We tried and if you can't win don't lose it.

"It's a point and we take this point. We have the next opportunity on Saturday against QPR and then we will try it again. Defensively, I think the last three games we have only conceded one goal. That's okay, but we need to increase our offensive threat and I'm very confident we can do this."

The latter point is the most important in the months to come, with Argyle’s lack of number nine costing them dear at the moment, with no focal point to their attacks through the middle.

With Ryan Hardie and Michael Obafemi both struggling for fitness, new signing Michael Baidoo has been leading the line, something he has done in the past, but not a position he thrives in, with his best work being done behind the frontman.

If Muslic is able to delve into the transfer market with the aid of Simon Hallett’s funds and bring in a capable striker who can give the Pilgrims a presence up top, this could be a very different entity in the future, with energy and enthusiasm in the final third to punish teams when they get the opportunity.

Experience of the Championship isn’t a necessity when making an appointment, and while there will still be those crying out for Steven Schumacher, or David Wagner, or any others that were linked with the vacancy, Muslic has experience of turning fortunes around at a football club, which speaks louder than having stood in the dugout in the second tier of English football before.

You only have to look at Rohl and Cifuentes for the perfect blueprint in how to make teams effective after entering a new environment, and if Muslic is afforded the resources, as well as time to do so, he could be on to something special at the Theatre of Greens.