Danny Rohl on Sheffield Wednesday’s relegation battle, Chansiri and giving his ‘heart and soul’ – The Athletic

There are more tranquil assignments than taking over a big club at the wrong end of the Championship table mid-season, with a chairman openly warring against his own supporters — especially for a foreigner who had never worked as a head coach before.

You wouldn’t know it from talking to Danny Rohl about his first two and a half months in charge of Sheffield Wednesday, though.

“I have never, for one moment, had the sense I was in the wrong place, despite our start not being that easy,” the 34-year-old German tells The Athletic.

“It is the opposite. It feels so good here. I enjoy going to training every day, I get into my car and spend the whole day at the office. I love it so much.”

Results don’t immediately explain his upbeat mood. Wednesday remain in the relegation zone, nine points off safety, with Rohl picking up just 13 points from his 13 games in charge after taking over in October.

“It will be a long slog and really tight until the very end,” he says when discussing the battle to avoid relegation to League One. But he also takes great encouragement from his belief that “hope and belief have returned to the club” following some decent wins that have brought the Hillsborough crowd to their feet.

“Twenty-five thousand fans carried us through to (a 2-1) victory against Queens Park Rangers,” he proudly recalls. “They all stayed behind after the final whistle cheering. It was crazy.”

Wednesday supporters have certainly welcomed his aggressive tactics and, a little to his embarrassment, serenaded him with chants of his name to the tune of Boney M’s Daddy Cool. He now can’t get the song out of his head.

“It is very moving. The other day I went to the Christmas market and didn’t get far because people wanted selfies and were singing the song the whole time. It is not about me, though. It is about the team’s performances, and they have been sensational. We are performing at our absolute limit and the fans respond to that.”

Sheffield Wednesday’s 34-year-old captain Barry Bannan, speaking about Rohl, says: “He is destined for the top and is probably the best manager I have had in my career. He has shown me things on the tactics board, in meetings and in games that I have never seen any manager do.”

Those nice words notwithstanding, Rohl is under no illusion that “results are still below expectations” and that “there’s a ton of work” ahead. But he believes that Sheffield Wednesday are “on the right path”, and have improved on the pitch under his management.

“We had to learn to defend aggressively and actively, and we also had to learn to play better football. The biggest takeaway from recent weeks is that we have become more varied tactically — we can change things during games to get better a grip on situations.

“It’s also been a new experience for me as head coach, I’ve learned how and when to make changes and become better at it. On the whole, we have shown that we can compete even with the best teams. That is a big positive.”

After seven years as an assistant coach — at RB Leipzig, Southampton (both to Ralph Hasenhuttl), Bayern Munich (Niko Kovac and Hansi Flick) and the German national team (Flick), Rohl felt ready to take the step up but he couldn’t be entirely sure whether his methods — a blend of RB-style pressing and more positional football in the final third — would be a good fit for the Championship’s second-oldest dressing room.

“When you are a new coach, players look at you, they check you out first. It’s one thing to make all your plans on paper and quite another to start working with the lads. But from the first day, they were so open and ready to listen, it’s been a thrill working with them. Their attitude and character are first-class. Even after defeats, the energy on the training pitch is amazing.”

Having caught the English football bug as Hasenhuttl’s assistant at Southampton, Rohl was desperate to work in the country again. His decision to take on a seemingly moribund Wednesday this autumn as the youngest coach in the league raised quite a few eyebrows in the industry, however.

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It felt like an unnecessarily large career risk for a coach being tracked by Bundesliga sides. Unlike in Germany, where up-and-coming coaches of good repute are afforded at least a couple of bites at the cherry, England can be unforgiving to those who aren’t successful straight away.

Rohl, however, insists that he moved to Hillsborough with open eyes and was far more concerned with the opportunity to sort out a historic club rather than the potential career pitfalls.

Even off-the-pitch-turbulence, like Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri demanding fans should put up £2million ($2.55m) for a tax bill in November (it has since been paid) could not dampen his enthusiasm for the task.

He had already been in the running to get the job in the summer — on that occasion it went to Xisco Munoz — and jumped at the chance when it came around three months later with Wednesday in trouble.

“Before taking on the job, I looked at the sporting dimension without any prejudice,” he says. “I tried to get as much information as possible — I analysed the squad, I watched back lots of games and I studied the table and fixture list. I only focused on the things that I could directly influence.”

He admits he wasn’t fully aware that Wednesday did not have a CEO, sporting director or head of recruitment — until they appointed one in Kevin Beadell this month. But Chansiri agreed that the new manager could bring in two assistant coaches (Henrik Pedersen and Chris Powell), a performance coach (Sascha Lense) and a goalkeeping coach (Sal Bibbo) and has been attentive to the manager’s suggestions overall.

Rohl during his first game — a 1-0 loss to Watford (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Rohl finds shouldering the added responsibility an enjoyable challenge. “It’s a lean structure and pretty full on. I’ve taken on many things that go beyond coaching, such as the hiring of personnel and talking to agents.

“It’s nice that I had a chance to use some of the experience I had at Leipzig when it comes to building a structure at a club. That is part of the attraction for me here and it is satisfying to have that kind of influence and impact.

“The decision-making process is quick and we always work together with the owner. I can propose things and lay the groundwork, but the final decision rests with him. He is open to good arguments.”

Some of those arguments are rather urgent and concern player recruitment. “We need some good transfers in this window,” Rohl says. “If we get them in, we can look ahead with optimism. But even then, it will go down to the wire (the battle to avoid relegation).”

In the meantime, he is determined to “ride that small wave” of positive momentum for as long as possible. Some of his players and long-standing employees have told him that Wednesday, despite their relegation worries, are in “a special moment”, experiencing a spell of rare unity.

He is too modest to take credit, saying: “The players deserve it, due to the hard yards they are putting in.” However, he acknowledges that helping to create a positive atmosphere is very much part of his job.

“I’m trying to lead the way with a positive attitude and encourage that togetherness,” he says. “This is a family club and I think the supporters sense that I’m fully into it — with my heart and soul.”

Judging by the love they have shown to “Danny, Danny Rohl” so far, they clearly do.

(Photo: Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images))