AFC Wimbledon manager Johnnie Jackson believes Sheffield Wednesday have made an exciting appointment in Danny Rohl after announcing the German coach as Xisco Munoz’s replacement last week.
The Owls are rooted firmly to the bottom of the Championship in their first season back in the second tier and made the decision to cut their losses with Munoz after just 12 games in charge, with the Spaniard departing with an unenviable 0% win rate (if you count their penalty shootout win over Stockport County in the Carabao Cup as a draw).
Rohl heads to Hillsborough as the youngest manager in the EFL at just 34-years-old in what will be his first time taking the lead. He does however hold pedigree in his native Germany having coached at RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and the national team.
All eyes will be on the Yorkshire club to see if he can pull off the great escape, and Dons’ boss Jackson is eager to see what his counterpart can achieve. The 41-year-old is enjoying a good start to the League Two season at Wimbledon, having lost just two of their opening 13 fixtures. Speaking to the What The EFL?! podcast, via The Star, the former Charlton Athletic manager said;
“He has got a real job on his hands looking at what I have seen so far from Sheffield Wednesday and that league. They are really up against it in terms of climbing the table… He is going into a team that can’t really get any worse at the minute. If he does make incremental improvements, that’s going to show pretty quickly.
“As far as first jobs in management, it’s a giant of a club. It’s a great opportunity for him. I don’t know a lot about him and his background. He was assistant to Hansi Flick at Bayern and Germany so, obviously, he has worked with top players at the top level – so he’s really well thought of.
“I think it’s quite exciting; I love to see young managers get opportunities so I think it’s an exciting one for Sheffield Wednesday but it comes with the unknown that he has got no body of work as a manager to look back on.
“He joins a club in a really tricky position in the league, but he has got a lot of time to work and to try and pull them away from the bottom. There are 30 plus games to go so there’s plenty of time for him to get it right.”
Rohl will take charge of his first game this weekend when Championship football resumes following the international break in a tough clash against Watford at Vicarage Road, where he will be hoping to deliver Wednesday’s first win of the season.
Writer’s View
Johnnie Jackson’s view is one that is shared by many and it will be interesting to see how Danny Rohl will perform in his first managerial outing. There have been plenty of instances of coaches taking the step up and failing, but there have also been resounding successes, such as Jose Mourinho.
Sheffield Wednesday will hope that they have unearthed a gem and start to quickly pick up points. Jackson is right that there is still plenty of football left to be played this season, but the German will need to hit the ground running to stand any chance of survival. Wednesday are already seven points adrift of safety, with Watford sitting in the spot just above the relegation zone. A win would close that gap whilst giving a new confidence to his underachieving squad.
