Muslic reacts to draw on Home Park bow
Miron Muslic’s first game in charge of Argyle ended in a 1-1 draw at home to Oxford United, and the new boss was in considered mood after the game.
Despite Argyle being on top in the first half, Oxford led at half-time following a great strike by Will Vaulks, and with something to defend, United made it difficult for the Greens after the interval.
Argyle got through, and equalised via Rami Al Hajj, heading in a Tymoteusz Puchacz cross, but could not find the winner they desired.
“It's a point and we have to take it,” said Muslic, after the game. “If you can't win, then don't lose.
“I think we started well, very powerful. We had some dangerous moments. Everything was good; we didn't allow Oxford anything offensively - and then a banger in minute 44, the first shot on the goal, [went in]. It was a beautiful goal; you have to accept this.
“Going into half-time, we said that structurally we are okay, stick to the plan, play the ball forward, stay high up on the pitch, try to turn this around. Then I think we also scored a beautiful goal. It was exactly the goal we talked about, [getting] in between the lines to break them, to go to the side and then to occupy the box. If you want to score a goal, we have to get high up on the pitch and then we need bodies.
“I think we had four or five players inside the box. A beautiful cross from Puszka and a very nice finish from Al Hajj.
“The belief was that we could get out of half-time and face this, also try everything to turn this. There are a lot of things we prepared only in one day and it was visible. Exactly the way we scored we actually prepared this in the session, even though it was just a walkthrough.
“We stabilised the defensive structure again. If you just look at the last two games, we only conceded one goal, and it was a goal you can’t defend. It’s a step forward; we have to continue, and we will continue.
“Some things that we can work on, a million things we can improve.”
Muslic’s next game comes quickly, on Saturday lunchtime against Queens Park Rangers. He hopes to have a couple of players back from injury issues, but at the same time may face other problems picked up during Tuesday.
“We had also some injury problems before the game, and some injury doubts throughout the game. But again, it's a point and we will take this point.
“We have another opportunity Saturday and if we can manage to do this, that's okay in the end.
“The most important thing right now is just to recover, and also to get some lads back. We need every single player and we need them fit. They can only perform if they are on the pitch and we will need them on the pitch, so I hope that we can have one or two players back.
“I think Brendan [Galloway] will be out. He suffered an injury, around his hip or quadriceps. Kornel [Szucs] is out, so we are struggling with the centre-backs, but we will have a good starting 11, a good bench, a competitive team – and we go again on Saturday.”
