Plymouth Argyle will already be fearing Steven Schumacher, Ryan Lowe repeat | OneFootball

Miron Muslic has already caught the eye at Home Park, but that will come with its own dangers in the future

It may be early days, but Miron Muslic has already had a major impact on Plymouth Argyle and the wider footballing community since making the move to the English game.

The Pilgrims appointed the Austrian last month after parting ways with Wayne Rooney on New Year’s Eve, and the former Cercle Brugge boss has wasted no time in getting his game plan across to his players, and winning plenty of admirers along the way.

An erudite, powerful leader is exactly what Argyle needed in their battle against the drop in the Championship, and that is exactly what they have in Muslic, with those in green prepared to run through brick walls for their new boss, with some eye-catching early results underlining the change in momentum at Home Park as a result.

The Green Army will want to keep their new boss under lock and key for the foreseeable future though - whatever division they find themselves in next season - having been left to pick up the pieces from impromptu managerial departures in recent seasons.

Miron Muslic early impact shows signs of something special

While his Championship return with Argyle will show just two victories from his seven league matches to date, the turnaround in performances in recent weeks has given Janners plenty of reason to believe they can get out of the mess they currently find themselves in.

A 5-0 defeat to Burnley was the nadir of his early time in charge in Devon, and since then, he has been able to bring the squad together and get the best out of what he has at his disposal, with a run of seven points from a possible nine the best short burst of form the Pilgrims had shown all season.

The early signs of a turnaround in fortunes came in the trip to Sunderland at the end of last month, where 1,000 members of the Green Army travelled to the Stadium of Light expecting another routine tanking on the road, given their form away from home this season.

But you could sense this was a side who had different ideas on the pitch; they were hounding the opposition in organised formation, and largely kept the Black Cats at bay for the first hour, before Ryan Hardie forced the visitors into the lead.

Quickfire goals put the hosts ahead, and that would normally be that. Three points to Sunderland, thanks for a good day out and best of luck for the season. But this time it was different. There was hope, there was desire, there was belief.

Nathanael Ogbeta’s 90th minute equaliser was the least the Greens deserved that day, and from there things have generally looked positive, with West Bromwich Albion and Millwall both sent home from Devon pointless, with safety now as close as it has seemed within some time.

Even when the club was hovering outside the relegation places, a slide down the division looked inevitable under Rooney, but right now things are about as rosy as they have looked all season, which says a lot when you are 23rd in the division.

But Muslic has got this team coherent and aware of what the game plan entails, and although there was the blip away at Blackburn Rovers last weekend, the Pilgrims head into matches in an all-round more positive frame of mind than they did two months ago.

With some crucial matches against fellow relegation battlers on the horizon, Argyle’s new-found momentum will be put to the test, with a tough-looking run-in needing them to pick up points over the next month to ease their need for points as things tighten up at the end of the campaign.

But to have any hope at all is down to one man and one man only: Muslic. The change of system, the focus on gaining territory, a burning desire to win every challenge, fight for every ball and win every header, he has Argyle under his spell, and has shown signs that he could be a very special manager in the making.

Plymouth Argyle will be wary of Ryan Lowe, Steven Schumacher repeat with Miron Muslic

There is a natural sense of trepidation that the Green Army will feel when they have a manager that makes the headlines, for they have been burned too many times before when their boss gets ahead of their station at Home Park.

For all the great publicity and joy that the 1-0 victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round brought earlier this month, it will have put Muslic on the radar of a number of sides, given his ability to eke the best out of the talents he has at his disposal, just as he did when he had success in Belgium in the past.

Even within a month of being appointed, Janners will have come out in cold sweats thinking about the departures of Ryan Lowe and Steven Schumacher, with the pair both being tempted by the prospects of Preston North End and Stoke City respectively, before both came a cropper before too long.

The grass isn’t always greener away from the Greens. This is a unique football club that harnesses an energy like no other when everyone is pulling together, and that can often be understated in how it breeds success when the right boss comes along.

After the disorder of Rooney and Ian Foster before him, Argyle look to have struck gold once again with Muslic. It may be a completely different style of play to what has come before him, but it has already proven that it can reap rewards when it is carried out to the letter.

Keep the Greens up this season, and who knows where the Austrian can take them in the future? This is a side that wants to earn the right to stand alongside those in the Championship and hold their own ground, and keeping hold of the man in the dugout can make that happen.