After a very turbulent few weeks, The Potters' attention now turns to Millwall at the bet365 Stadium this Saturday.
Steven Schumacher will take the reins at Stoke City, hoping to turn The Potters' fortunes from midtable mediocrity to promotion candidates.
Schumacher will be determined to get The Potters' back on track and what better way to start his campaign than with a win over Millwall?
Here’s everything you need to know about The Potters' upcoming game against The Lions…
In-depth: Steven Schumacher
At long last The Potters have made a big change that will instil hope in even the most pessimistic Stoke City fans.
But what is this change exactly? Well, in a recent article that has come out from The Sentinel. Ricky Martin (Stoke's Technical Director) has stated that Stoke City must “evolve with modern football.” The Potters aim to do this by hiring Schumacher as more of a head coach rather than a manager.
This is a beam of hope piercing through the grey clouds of mediocrity that The Potters have been for so long.
Many teams have adopted this approach from Brighton to Brentford with colleagues taking up certain tasks that allow the manager to focus more on the football. This new system has seen great success across the football league. This could finally mean the days of bringing in managers and having them bring in constant new players that aren’t up to standard is over.
Although Schumacher will still have some say in what players are being brought into the club his main focus will be the football.
But what style of football does Schumacher aim to play?
Steven Schumacher likes his teams to not always focus on possession as a key factor in the game. They look to implement a patient style of play with the centre-backs playing short passes to reach the midfield third.
Once they are in the midfield third, they look to stretch the opponent to create space further up the pitch by having presence in the centre and on both flanks. Once the opposition is stretched Schumacher likes his team to play into the pockets of space created and hopefully result in a goal.
Source: Total Football Analysis
Predicted XI
Schumacher's favourite position he liked his Plymouth team to play was the 4-3-3 therefore it would be safe to say he will try and implement a similar formation.
(GK) Bonham, Stevens, Rose, McNally, Tchamadeu, Pearson, Burger, Johnson, Haksabanovic, Junho, Vidigal.
Head-to-Head
The Potters have been the most successful team overall winning 23 drawing 15 and losing 22.
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