Danny Röhl’s first match in charge of Rangers ended in a damaging 3–0 defeat to Brann, but it was his response, rather than the scoreline, that set the tone for his tenure.
After just three days in the job, Röhl walked across the pitch at full-time to directly face the travelling support. He did not deflect, delay or disappear. He apologised, and then he made a vow.
Post match he said: “I apologised because nobody deserved to travel so far and see a 3-0 defeat.
“I will work very hard to bring Rangers back where they have to be.”
Rather than shelter behind the fact he had minimal preparation time, Röhl chose to place himself inside the problem. In his first post-match press conference as a Rangers manager under pressure, he made no attempt to soften the reality when he said: “We have high standards at Rangers and today we were not on point.
“You see exactly where we are at the moment.”
He framed the defeat as an exposure of frailty rather than an aberration, not something to excuse, but something to address. And he made it clear that doing so falls squarely under his remit.
He continued: “My job now is to find solutions, to develop and improve the players and the group.”
Röhl repeatedly returned to mentality. This, he suggested, was not just a tactical failure, but a psychological one. The pressure of playing for Rangers, and being expected to win, must be something his players live with, not shrink under.
“We are part of a big, big club and we have to understand the demanding, and the demanding is winning games,” he asserted.
He spoke like a man already assessing who can play under scrutiny, stressing he had now seen players “under pressure” and learned “what they can do and what we have to improve.”
That same pressure will now apply to him. But by fronting up so directly, he has at least controlled the early narrative of his tenure: accountability, urgency and emotional honesty.
Sunday against Kilmarnock at Ibrox will provide a clearer indication of what a Danny Röhl team truly looks like. But in the aftermath of humiliation in Bergen, he did what many of his players could not, he stepped up, faced the consequences, and reset expectations.
He has made his first public promise. The question now is, will he be the first manager in a while to keep it to a apathetic support?