Wayne Rooney’s appointment at Plymouth went about as well as could be expected, and now it’s down to Austrian Miron Muslic to rescue to the Championship’s bottom club – we asked the guys @ArgyleLife1886 if they think he can do it.

How's the season been so far?

Make no mistake about it. The season so far has been pretty grim. Aside from our excellent cup win at Brentford (which I’m sure gave your fanbase a little to smile about) the form on the road is nothing short of abysmal. We’ve scored just three league goals away from home and three draws in the process, losing every other game. We’ve had three different 4-0 defeats as well as a 5-0 and a 6-1, quite aside from a 3-0 loss at Leeds where we didn’t register a single shot all game. The home form has been better but hardly great, with only four wins to our name. Stars of last year like Morgan Whittaker and Ryan Hardie haven’t reached their previous heights. We’re left in the position of praying for a miracle to stay up.

Plymouth in the league so far
Sheff Wed 4-0 Plymouth Lowe 35, Galloway og 52, Windass 82, Smith 90
Plymouth 1-1 Hull Cissoko 52 – Coyle 63
QPR 1-1 Plymouth Frey 3 – Whittaker 28
Plymouth 0-1 Stoke Manhoef 83
Plymouth 3-2 Sunderland Ballard og 54, Hardie pen 73, Edwards 90 – Roberts pen 24, Mundle 86
West Brom 1-0 Plymouth Maja 62
Plymouth 3-1 Luton Haji 8, Cissoko 69, 90 – Moses 70
Burnley 1-0 Plymouth Brownhill pen 26
Plymouth 2-1 Blackburn Obafemi 15, Whittaker 90 – Rankin-Costello 86
Cardiff 5-0 Plymouth Robertson 16, Colwill 24, El Ghazi 52, Robinson 75, Willock 80
Millwall 1-0 Plymouth Esse 13
Plymouth 3-3 Preston Issaka 55, Gray 82, Whittaker 90 – Greenwood 16, Frokjaer-0jensen 45, Potts 48
Leeds 3-0 Plymouth James 30, Piroe 33, Aaronson 38
Plymouth 1-0 Pompey Obafemi 82
Derby 1-1 Plymouth Yates 8 – Randell 41
Plymouth 2-2 Watford Gray 23, 90 – Bayo 8, Porteous 41
Norwich 6-1 Plymouth Sainz 2, 17, 72, Duffy 51, Slimane 80, Crnac 82 – Bundu 39
Bristol City 4-0 Plymouth Twine 57, Mehmeti 62, 70, Armstrong 90
Plymouth 1-2 Swansea Bundu 79 – Fulton 44, Cullen 60
Sheff Utd 2-0 Plymouth Hamer 19, Moore pen 88
Plymouth 3-3 Boro Gibson 38, Gyabi 72, Bundu 81 – Howson 50, hackney 77, Latte Lath 84
Coventry 4-0 Plymouth Sakamoto 5, Eccles 20, 45, Mason-Clark 39
Oxford 2-0 Plymouth Brown 14, Placheta 61
Plymouth 2-2 Bristol City Haji 50, Pleguezuelo 90 – Mehmeti 32, Knight 56
Stoke 0-0 Plymouth
Plymouth 1-1 Oxford Haji 63 – Vaulks 44

Wayne Rooney, what went wrong there? Other than it being a stupid thing to do in the first place...

It’s tough to say what went wrong with Rooney (aside the obvious) without reaching too far into speculation. Suffice to say I don’t think things were right for him on the pitch or off it. Part of me feels bad for him because he is clearly desperate to make it work as a manager but we’ve all tried to turn our hand to things we aren’t good at, this is no different. His tactical acumen is very limited and he fell back on blaming the players after every bad loss. He was eventually put out of his misery on New Year’s Eve and we immediately looked better for it.

New man. Bit left field, and not just because he's not from Liverpool. What do we make of this appointment?

Miron Muslic is certainly not a name many Argyle fans had heard of ten days ago, still less expected to be our manager. Director of football Neil Dewsnip followed Rooney out the door and so did the apparent obligation to hire a manager from Liverpool. I’d have thrown the kitchen sink at Steven Schumacher though, so who am I to talk? There’s no denying his credentials are good as a manager in Belgium. There are perhaps some concerns about how his direct style may be unsuited to a possession-based squad, but he has charisma in bucketloads. Early indications are good but he needs wins fast for survival, we don’t have the luxury of bedding in period.

Plymouth were being praised as one of the country's best run clubs under Simon Hallett - has the Foster, Rooney, 'documentary', league position started to damage the faith a little bit?

In short, yes. A reputation as a well-run club is hard to gain and easy to lose. Ever since Steven Schumacher left for Stoke on that fateful day in December 2023 Argyle have lurched from one disaster to the next. The big picture is still positive. We are financially stable with big improvements being made to infrastructure, especially regarding the youth team. Yet, we are still on the verge of one of the most unnecessary relegations I can remember. The trouble is we try to be too clever by half and lack the necessary urgency. Even now at the time of writing, we’ve lost four players this window and only bought in two.

Some early January business done, tell us about that. What else you hoping for?

We have made signings but they were badly needed as the squad is riddled with injury and absenteeism. Versatile attacker Michael Baidoo comes highly rated but clearly isn’t a centre forward on the basis of his first two games. Left-wing-back Tymo Puchacz had an encouraging debut v Oxford, getting a cross for our equalising goal. I do wonder if the late decision to pivot to a manager with such a different style has caused us to rethink our transfer strategy.

Summer Ins >>> Rami Al Hajj, 22, AM, Odense, £900k >>> Daniel Grimshaw, 26, GK, Blackpool, £600k >>> Kornel Szucs, 22, CB, Kecskemet (Hungary), £250k >>> Victor Palsson, 33, CB, KAS Eupen (Belgium), Free >>> Andre Gray, 33, CF, Unattached, Free >>> Marko Marosi, 30, GK, Unattached, Free >>> Nathanael Ogbeta, 23, LB, Swansea, Free >>> Darko Gyabi, 20, CM, Leeds, Loan >>> Ibrahim Cissoko, 21, LW, Toulouse, Loan >>> Muhamed Tijani, 23, CF, Slavia Prague, Loan >>> Michael Obafemi, 24, CF, Burnley, Loan >>> Muhamed Tijani, 23, CF, Slavia Prague, Loan

Winter Outs >>> Lewis Gibson, 24, CB, Preston, £1.5m >>> Andre Gray, 33, CF, Karagumruk (Turkey), Free >>> Adam Forshaw, 33, CM, Blackburn, Free >>> Marko Marosi, 31, GK, Cambridge, Free

Best bits of the team?

Morgan Whittaker has been nowhere near his previous majestic self but he’s still one of the best players in our team. Few are as calm on the ball in tight situations as he is. Adam Randell has also really shone in CM this season, stepping up a level from last year - it’s a shame about the dross around him.

Weak links?

Any weak spots… most of them, if I’m honest. Victor Palsson at centre-back was a Rooney signing and seems miles off the pace of the league. Dan Grimshaw has also been disappointing in goal. He’s one of those who was signed to be great with his feet. Well, he isn’t up to much with his hands and we now have a manager who likes to go long. Shots from distance to his side really tend to be his undoing, as you may have seen watching Oxford’s opener.

Will you stay up?

No, probably not. I have reasonable faith that they’ve stumbled onto a good ‘un with Muslic but all indications are that he’s a long-term process manager rather than a quick fix. I think we are probably relegated with a game or two to spare: we need top half form for the rest of the season to stay up and I just can’t see that happening.

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