Jermaine Pennant's advice to Steven Schumacher after Stoke City appointment | OneFootball

Highlights

Steven Schumacher has made an unbeaten start to life as Stoke City manager.

The former Plymouth Argyle boss got his reign underway with a 0-0 draw at home to Millwall on 23 December.

The 39-year-old has overseen one win and three draws from his opening four games since taking charge.

The gap to the relegation zone has opened up to seven points, with the Potters aiming to avoid the drop into League One this season.

Stoke had been struggling under previous manager Alex Neil, which led to the decision to change managers ahead of the new calendar year.

Jermaine Pennant: “All about getting the right players in”

Former Potters winger Jermaine Pennant has identified some key issues with Stoke that Schumacher will have to deal with.

However, the 40-year-old believes that Schumacher can use some of his experience as a League One winning manager to bring success back to the club and advised him that building and retaining a stable core of players was vital.

“It’s key when you've got a manager who's done it before, has the know-how for getting promoted it's a valuable asset," Pennant told Football League World, courtesy of William Hill.

“When you've got a team like Stoke who have had so much turnover.

“A lot of new players going in past windows, that doesn’t help your team.

“When I was at Stoke there weren’t too many key players leaving.

“We’d get players in but we wouldn’t ever lose our core team or key players but Stoke have been doing in recent years.

“It’s very hard to build anything when you’ve got players coming in and going out.

“Let’s hope that Schumacher now uses some of his knowledge and background from winning promotion at Plymouth.

“It’s all about getting the right players in, building that core, and trying to kick on.”

Stoke have been out of the Premier League since suffering relegation in 2018, and promotion back to the top flight is looking extremely unlikely this year barring a remarkable turnaround in form.

Stoke City league position

The Potters are 19th in the Championship table, seven points clear of the bottom three and 11 behind the play-off places.

Schumacher has made a positive start to life at the Bet365 Stadium, with his new team now level on points with former club Plymouth.

Stoke will be optimistic of avoiding relegation following their recent run of form.

However, this weekend sees them competing in this year’s edition of the FA Cup.

Schumacher’s side will host Brighton in a repeat of last season’s fifth round clash, which went in favour of the Seagulls.

A positive start to life at Stoke for Schumacher

Neil’s tenure at Stoke did not go to plan at all, with the summer overhaul of the squad failing to yield an improvement in results.

A change in manager was no surprise, as the team was sliding down the table and heading for the relegation zone.

Schumacher doesn’t have a lot of experience on his CV, but his work at Plymouth deservedly earned him a lot of praise.

If he can replicate that level of success with the greater resources of Stoke, then this could be a more exciting path forward for the club.