Who's the Rioch to Evatt's Neal?

[jmjhb]

A little surprised it's moved so quickly if that's the case, I wasn't expecting movement until the end of next week.

Not complaining though as he would be my choice of the options given.

[Bertie Wooster]

A little surprised it's moved so quickly if that's the case, I wasn't expecting movement until the end of next week.

Not complaining though as he would be my choice of the options given.

Its only people claiming they know, its possibly just speculation - as we know they haven't even drawn up a shortlist yet and haven't yet started interviewing so you & BWFCI may be correct it may be the end of the week.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Probably just speculation and attention seeking. Could also be he was always their man and they've been quickly and quietly been trying to get it done whilst keeping options open through 'having a process'. Schuey has felt like the natural choice since he became available. Not much of a stretch that Sharon felt the same.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

There'll always be folk giving it the ITK, but the betting being suspended is... interesting.

[BWFC_Insane]

A little surprised it's moved so quickly if that's the case, I wasn't expecting movement until the end of next week.

Not complaining though as he would be my choice of the options given.

Its only people claiming they know, its possibly just speculation - as we know they haven't even drawn up a shortlist yet and haven't yet started interviewing so you & BWFCI may be correct it may be the end of the week.

He works for the club. It’s possible the talk it was a longer process was wrong. Or that things changed over the weekend. Who knows? We will find out.

Who do you want as manager anyway? Sorry if I missed it….

[irie Cee Bee]

We need to move quickly to give the new manager time to get 2 in before the window closes to help him mould the team into how he wants to play. Promotion via playoffs, is still possible.

[Spartan2]

We need to move quickly to give the new manager time to get 2 in before the window closes to help him mould the team into how he wants to play. Promotion via playoffs, is still possible.

9.0 on bet365

[DJBlu]

There'll always be folk giving it the ITK, but the betting being suspended is... interesting.

It's because they saw us play yesterday and only a mad man would put money on anyone but Julian!

[Worthy4England]

There'll always be folk giving it the ITK, but the betting being suspended is... interesting.

Aye.They don't generally, if there's still dosh to be made...

[BWFC_Insane]

There'll always be folk giving it the ITK, but the betting being suspended is... interesting.

Aye.They don't generally, if there's still dosh to be made...

They suspend them normally because of a flurry of bets. Doesn’t necessarily mean the prompt for them is correct. Guess we will see. I do think and have for a while it would be a surprise if it’s not Schumacher. But then this is football….

[Worthy4England]

There'll always be folk giving it the ITK, but the betting being suspended is... interesting.

Aye.They don't generally, if there's still dosh to be made...

They suspend them normally because of a flurry of bets. Doesn’t necessarily mean the prompt for them is correct. Guess we will see. I do think and have for a while it would be a surprise if it’s not Schumacher. But then this is football….

Oh for sure but if they can still lay-off more than any potential blood-bath, then they're more inclined to leave the book running. None of which mean "It's Schumacher," just that the maths isn't adding up as good as it needs to.

[Prufrock]

He's the obvious choice. I can't be arsed going back checking but I doubt we've ever had such an overwhelming manager vote on here. I think it's always been his to turn down/not come across mental in the interview. Hopefully the rumours are true and we're getting it done!

[Spartan2]

What's his football like, anyone know a good run down?

[nicholaldo]

What kind of football do Schumacher teams play?

Here's the Stoke local press getting the lowdown from Plymouth on his appointment: https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/f ... er-8987544

Schumacher had Argyle playing an exciting brand of attacking football, which worked extremely well at Home Park. They have won 27 of their 34 league games there since the start of the 2022/23 season. He largely refused to compromise on his approach in away games and the Pilgrims have yet to win an away Championship match this season, although most of their matches on the road have been against the top sides, such as Leicester City, Ipswich Town, Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion.
Argyle played a 3-4-2-1 formation during their 2022/23 League One title campaign but Schumacher has largely gone with a 4-3-3 set-up this season with the aim of trying to give them more solidity playing against better teams at a higher level. One of his biggest strengths is undoubtedly working with young players and developing them. His use of substitutions to change the course of games has been good too.

And then by March:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68533796

Stoke City boss Steven Schumacher says he does not mind abandoning his footballing principles if it secures Championship survival for the Potters. [...]
"The football hasn't been exactly how we wanted it over the last three games, we haven't played out from the back [as much]. But I'm not bothered about that, I just want to get points."
At previous club Plymouth, Schumacher's Pilgrims were renowned for an attacking, free-scoring style but the 39-year-old admitted he has had to temper that philosophy in his new surroundings. [...]
"What I am really pleased about is that, in the last three games in particular, we are going until the very last minute," Schumacher added. "That wasn't the case when we first came in - the facts and the data were there, we didn't score from 75 minutes to 90, and now we look as though we can. There's also been a realisation from myself: 'What are we actually really good at?' And we're a physical type of team."

If you want a really in-depth tactical look, ask a numbers nerd (bless them).

His Plymouth team (in January of the promotion season):
https://totalfootballanalysis.com/team- ... is-tactics
In short: short passing through the thirds but also happy to mix it up

His Stoke team (Mar 2024):
https://totalfootballanalysis.com/team- ... is-tactics
In short: good high press, well organised defence, blunt attack

See above.

[Spartan2]

Thanks DSB (and nicholaldo for pointing it out) it seems he's quite adaptable then. Is it not a little concerning that Evatt smashed him 4-0 at Wembley though?

[BWFC_Insane]

Thanks DSB (and nicholaldo for pointing it out) it seems he's quite adaptable then. Is it not a little concerning that Evatt smashed him 4-0 at Wembley though?

Why would it be? Plymouth went up with 101 points that season. I’d have swapped places with them in a heartbeat.

[Worthy4England]

Thanks DSB (and nicholaldo for pointing it out) it seems he's quite adaptable then. Is it not a little concerning that Evatt smashed him 4-0 at Wembley though?

Pretty sure most managers going to have the odd car crash. Frequency is pretty important.

[Bijou Bob]

My only reservation about Schumacher is the teported insistence on playing out from the back. Yesterday, it seemed that Huddersfield had been briefed to expect the keeper to play the ball sideways from goalkicks, at which point they should then press quickly. It looked like JD had briefed them however, to move the ball upfield much more quickly and on occasion, just go long, which HT struggled to adapt their game plan to.

If Schumacher is more pragmatic and we do move the ball quicker or go direct, then fair enough, particularly if we bring in a big number 9. It'll get toxic very quickly if it's just Evatt 2.0.

[GhostoftheBok]

Our team was (and is) a lot better than most of our fans think and Schumacher made the mistake of trying to play expansive football against us on that Wembley pitch. He got walloped.

Buckingham did it too and lost 5-0. He realised he had to play compact and exploit transitions and did us 2-0 as a result. I do wonder what might have happened if Bucks didn't have that wake-up call and time to reflect.

After that final Schumacher lost one more game that season, winning 4 of 5 away games and all his home matches, so his team gave him a reaction and didn't feel sorry for themselves.

If Schumacher can get this team playing expansive football when it benefits us and pragmatic stuff when it doesn't, we may be on to a winner.

[BWFC_Insane]

My only reservation about Schumacher is the teported insistence on playing out from the back. Yesterday, it seemed that Huddersfield had been briefed to expect the keeper to play the ball sideways from goalkicks, at which point they should then press quickly. It looked like JD had briefed them however, to move the ball upfield much more quickly and on occasion, just go long, which HT struggled to adapt their game plan to.

If Schumacher is more pragmatic and we do move the ball quicker or go direct, then fair enough, particularly if we bring in a big number 9. It'll get toxic very quickly if it's just Evatt 2.0.

Schumacher is not dogmatic on playing out from the back - Plymouth fans have said even during his time there he often setup for games more direct when it suited them.

And at stoke he basically said he has no dogma and will play how it suits the players which at stoke was not playing out from the back.

That’s why I think he’s the right man. We don’t want a person who only knows long ball. Or someone who thinks if you don’t play out from the back you’ve failed.

Schumacher’s big thing seems to be a preference for quick transitions and pace. I think both things we’ve needed for a while.