Miron Muslic began work as Plymouth Argyle's new head coach yesterday, as preparations began for the Championship game against Oxford United at Home Park tonight.

It is a fresh chapter in the club's history with the 42-year-old Austrian becoming the Pilgrims' first ever overseas boss. Muslic has carved out his reputation after a successful spell at Cercle Brugge in the Belgian Pro League, which included leading them into European competition for 2024/25.

The start of this season proved challenging for a number of reasons, though, and Muslic lost his job at the beginning of December. Six weeks later, he is back in football management and for the first time his coaching career has brought him to England.

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Given his excellent work at Cercle, Plymouth Live's Argyle reporter Chris Errington spoke to Belgian football expert Scott Coyne about what Muslic is like, both as a coach but also a person, and he only had good things to say about him.

Why do you think he is a good fit for Argyle?

I think there has been a recognition from the club's hierarchy that they need to do something different. A lot of the things they have done recently haven't really worked for the club. I think they haven't wanted to approach this appointment in the same way that they have done others. So I think there has been a feeling they want to change direction and probably think slightly longer term as well.

Miron is a name who when Argyle's fans were feverishly doing their own research on Friday, when it looked like this was going to happen, I'm sure the initial thoughts of a lot of them were 'I don't really understand this appointment, it's a bit of a strange one'.

But the thing with making appointments is often what's not on someone's CV is just as important as what's on it. So Miron's CV, if it was to land on your desk, would be reasonably unremarkable in some respects but it's when you meet Miron and you experience the personality and the charisma, I think that's when you start to listen.

There are very few people in football who actually get your attention immediately as soon as they walk into a room. Miron is definitely one of those people. I have been on the receiving end of that impression he has with people. It was clear to me when I first met, which was a couple of years ago now, that he was somebody who was seriously impressive.

He had a pretty meteoric rise as well in his coaching career and I think that has everything to do with his personality and his charisma. What he has achieved in what is a pretty short coaching career so far has been notable and has really got the attention of a lot of people. I think he can appreciate where the club is at, at the moment. There are some definite similarities between the situation that Cercle Brugge were in when he came to the club back in October of 2021 and the situation Argyle find themselves in at the moment.

Miron is taking over Argyle when they are bottom of the Championship but this is not his first experience of that sort of situation is it?

He likes a challenge naturally anyway so there will be no fear from Miron in relation to that. When he came into Cercle Brugge he was actually brought in by the then technical director, Carlos Avina, who is now in a similar role at Monaco. Monaco and Cercle Brugge are actually owned by the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.

Carlos met Miron in the summer of 2020 at a footballing network event and had pretty much the same experience that I and lots of other people who have met him have probably had where they thought 'Wow, this guy is really impressive'. It's about how he carries himself as much as anything else, and how he talks and interacts with people.

Carlos decided he wanted to bring him to Cercle Brugge because his coaching style broadly fit with the direction and the template that he was putting in place at the club so he knew there would be a place for him on the general coaching staff. Carlos has told me his plan was for Miron to always become the head coach of Cercle Brugge at some point. There was a longer term plan.

So when Miron comes in, in October 2021, Cercle were led by Yves Vanderhaege and he was in a bit of trouble at that point. Cercle were not playing well, not picking up points and in a real dogfight. Yves lost his job and they brought in Dominik Thalhammer. He is also Austrian like Miron is. Dominik initially started very strongly and had a three or four month period where it was looking really good before it fell off a cliff.

Dominik lost his job and that's when Miron takes over in September 2022 and in his first full season he guides them clear of the relegation zone. For those who maybe don't follow Cercle or know too much about them, they have flirted with relegation on and off over a number of years.

When Carlos came in the plan was to make the club a safe mid-table side. In Miron's first season he was able to get to Play-Off II in Belgium, which is one of the European play-offs. They narrowly missed out on Europe that year and then last season was the really remarkable one.They finished in Play-Off I which is inside the top six.

They actually finished fourth at the end of the season and qualified for Europe outright for the first time in 14 years and went on an European adventure. Ironically enough it's that European adventure which has been one of the reasons that led to Miron leaving Cercle because they struggled to adjust to that schedule, which can be quite difficult.

There are a number of factors that came together over the summer that sowed the seeds of Miron's departure in a way. His contract was due to end with Cercle at the end of the current season so I think there was an expectation anyway that he would be possibly leaving at the end of the season regardless of how it went. What happened over the summer was, off the back of last season which was extraordinarily successful for them, they lost a number of really important players, all of which they knew were going to be leaving.

So they lose Jesper Daland to Cardiff, Kevin Denky - who was the top scorer last season in Belgium incidentally had his big move (to FC Cincinnati in the MLS), and Leonardo Lopes, a really strong attacking midfielder they lost him, as well as Hugo Siquet and Felix Lemarechal.

They lost the core of that side that had been the bedrock of their success. They all moved on and they brought in a number of players to replace them, and to be fair to Cercle they did that very early on. They did their transfer business in the summer really early. They brought in six initially and I think in the end it was about eight or nine in total.

What Cercle do, and this is another factor, is they recruit very young and develop players. That's very much the model at Cercle Brugge so most of their signings regardless of position tend to be in that sort of 18 to 22-year-old bracket and look to be developed and then sold on. I think you have this big change over of the playing staff, a lot of new young players come in, and I think they struggled to adjust to the demands of not only staying as consistent as that side did last season but also competing consistently in Europe with the additional schedule challenges, all the additional travelling and all the things that come with that.

It has been a very difficult balancing act for them and they have suffered a little bit as a result of that in terms of their form. The story of their season so far has been one where they are kind of stuck in that relegation zone, although they had a good win on Sunday night (1-0 at home to Mechelen) funnily enough so they have just managed to get out of that zone.

What do you think Argyle fans can expect to see from their team with Miron in charge of it?

Essentially, it's what you would describe as a form of gegen-pressing, which comes out of German and Austrian football. It's an aggressive, high intensity press, and an aggressive counter press, so the forwards and the wide men look to squeeze things early in that final third. There are different forms of gegen-pressing obviously. There is the Red Bull model and this isn't quite the same as that. It's a little bit different. The counter press only works in certain areas of the pitch.

It's a form of gegen-pressing that will require the players to be very physically fit, looking for a lot of knock downs, looking to win a lot of second balls. I have been talking a lot over the last few days with some Argyle fan podcasts about the misunderstandings some people have around the term direct football.

A lot of people think that's simply a long ball and then you look for a big physical striker to make the best of that. It's not like that at all. It's more about getting the ball into those key offensive areas as quickly and effectively as possible. Possession, as a general thing, is much less important. It's more about what you do with the ball rather how much you have of that.

That's the direction world football is moving in. We are moving away from possession being king. It's about what you do when you have the ball and actually possibly what you do when you don't have as well is arguably even more important. It's a form of gegen-pressing they are going to see.

How do you think Miron will get on in the Championship?

I think he's excited by the challenge. I spoke to him over the last couple of days. The last time I saw him in person was over the summer. Cercle were beginning their European campaign and they were playing Kilmarnock up in Scotland, where I'm based. I went to see them and when we were chatting we were talking about his career development funnily enough. I think he has always had an ambition to coach in the UK somewhere.

Although he was expecting to take a little bit more time I think this opportunity came up very quickly. The thing is, when you have such a meteoric rise like he has had over the last couple of years it's a difficult balancing act taking that time out before you take your next role, and being offered a role somewhere you would like, while the memory of that success is still fresh. I think that's important as well.

I think he's excited by the challenge of playing in a big league which has an extremely busy fixture schedule as well. There's challenges that come with that, which he's familiar with, and just challenging himself more and taking himself to the next level against new coaches. I think the whole package is attractive to them.

He likes his history as well. I'm sure he did some very quick research into Plymouth as a city and into Argyle as a club as well. I know from what he has told me, that appealed to him. It has probably got something to do with the similarities in some way between Argyle and Cercle I think. Devon has probably appealed to him as a place to live. I know that he will coming over on his own. His family will be staying in Austria, like they did when he was at Cercle as well. So they will just be coming over from time to time.

The priority for the second half of the season is to stay in the Championship and retain that status, and then build from there. Being a three-and-a-half year contract allows him a good bit of time to build something slightly longer term. Obviously, coming in during the winter transfer window means he's not really able to impact on that or contribute to that in a meaningful way at the moment.

So the next window in the summer, which will obviously be being discussed already, will be something he will have a little bit more impact into as he is able to shape that squad a little bit more to his liking over the next few months as he gets to know the players and decide which ones buy into his system and maybe which ones aren't right for that.

He has got extremely strong man-management skills and is really good at creating a strong team dynamic as well, which is going to be very helpful I think, a really clear identity and a set of standards for players to represent. He's really good with the media as well. He's incredibly personable.

He makes a real effort to get to know people, and people like being around him. Talking to Argyle pods over the last couple of days I think the city is going to have to get used to seeing more of him as well. He likes to go out running locally so people might bump into him in local parks in Plymouth.

I think he absolutely understands it's part of being a leader and taking the responsibility for that and being seen in the community. I think that charisma will rub off on other staff inside the club as well, not just the playing and coaching that Miron will work with day to day, but I think everyone else inside the club in different roles will start to feel a bit better about themselves, ideally when form picks up. That's the kind of effect you get from a coach who is quality and has a real degree of class about them.

I have always been hugely impressed by him and it's one of the reasons why I have stayed in touch with him as well. I kind of recognised he was a figure who was going to go quite far in the game. It's definitely a coup for Argyle because a lot of clubs have been watching him, and he has certainly been on the list of a lot of clubs.

Technical directors keep lists in their draw just in case of eventualities and he will have been high on a number of those lists, both inside Belgium but I think in other countries because of his work over the last couple of years as well.

Scott Coyne is the co-host of the Belgian Football Podcast. Click HERE to find out more.

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