Millwall development could encourage Stoke City to make Steven Schumacher call: View | OneFootball

Millwall were in real trouble.

The Lions were teetering on the brink of the relegation zone when Neil Harris returned to the hotseat, after their long-term project with Joe Edwards, the former England under-20's manager, did not last four months.

High-flying Southampton, armed with their squad oozing in Premier League class, awaited them on a daunting visit to St Mary's for Harris' baptism of fire.

Millwall were winless in their last eight games, and that forced James Berylson, the chairman, to act quickly and decisively. He needed the feel-good factor back at The Den. He needed South Bermondsey to be the station that no-one wanted to get off at.

Instead of "No-one likes us", it was more everyone liked playing Millwall. At least under Edwards, where the tough-tackling, direct, in-your-face style and philosophy of Millwall had dissipated.

The tough guys were now the nice guys - and they were the ones being kicked lumps out of.

And so, as Harris arrived, Berylson prayed that the club's all-time record goalscorer would have an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer-esque impact, similar to when the former Norwegian striker agreed to take the Manchester United reins on an interim basis after Jose Mourinho was dismissed in December 2018.

He's been there before...

Harris had had two spells as caretaker boss in the nascent stages of his coaching career, stepping in for Steve Lomas in December 2013, although he was replaced promptly after three games by Ian Holloway after the former striker oversaw a shock 4-1 upset at Southend United.

Harris assumed control once more after Holloway's departure in 2015, with the club staring down the barrel of relegation from the second tier.

Harris nearly kept his beloved Lions in the Championship, winning two and drawing four of his nine games at the helm, but it was too little, too late, and the club went down with less of a whimper than most had first thought.

He got them up at the second attempt at Wembley in 2017, that famous 1-0 win over Bradford City - Steve Morison the match-winner - helping to ease the pain of the previous year's defeat under the arch, 3-1 at the hands of Barnsley.

Things seemed to have soured for Harris when he tendered his resignation in 2019 after four and a half years in the job, with the Lions 18th in the Championship.

His stock was on the up after a play-off finish in his first season in charge of Cardiff City, but a run of six straight defeats at the beginning of 2021 saw him sacked, and plunged into the depths and confines of Leagues One and Two, where he took charge of a dismally toxic Gillingham side in freefall, relegated from League One with no complaints.

Harris was furious after the Gills went down, calling the season "a disgrace" and claiming that the seven players that were supposed to be under contract for the following campaign "will not be here next year".

He was dismissed in October 2023, after four defeats in seven had stunted a strong start to the season where the Kent club topped the tree, but had fallen to eighth, just outside the play-off places, with the club wanting "to go in a different direction".

Harris moved back up to League One with a struggling Cambridge United in early December, winning five of his 14 games in charge at the Abbey Stadium before Millwall came calling.

The return of the prodigal son

And so, with the club legend reinstalled at Millwall, it was a case of out with the new, in with the old.

The first thing Harris did? None of that tippy-tappy nonsense, please. Let's rough them up.

The possession-based 3-4-3 that Gary Rowett and then Joe Edwards had tried to instill was out of the window. Back in came the classic 4-4-2.

Unlike in Harris' day, when the Lions infamously had their battering rams up top, those days seemed long gone in the summer, with the arrival of the quick yet diminuative Michael Obafemi and the shift to a back three suggesting more of a want for a possession-based style of play.

But that did not stop Harris from lining up with Obafemi alongside the Lions' star man on so many occasions since his signing from Fortuna Sittard in the summer of 2023, Zian Flemming, who was granted the free role around and alongside Obafemi.

Quite the technician, but deceptively tall and strong, the Dutchman was able to link play with his back to goal and act as an auxiliary target, as well as nicking the ball around the corner on the half-turn, getting his head up to slide Obafemi into the channels.

Ryan Longman and George Honeyman were the flying wingers, while George Saville and Billy Mitchell kept things ticking in possession, recycling the ball quickly, and snapping into challenges in the middle third.

At the back, Jake Cooper was partnered with their surprise January loan signing Japhet Tanganga, who scored inside five minutes.

Ryan Leonard and Danny McNamara were the full-backs, with it being a more safety-first approach from the wide defenders rather than really busting a gut to under-or-overlap their respective wingers.

But a 2-1 victory at the automatic promotion challengers was quite the start to Harris' second reign.

He followed that up with a slender 1-0 win at home to Watford, with the rejuvenated Flemming showing his quality off the dead ball, whipping a free kick into the bottom corner to seal another three points that lifted the Lions up to 18th in the table.

How has Harris brought back the good times?

Harris' second coming at The Den has restored the true principles to what Millwall are all about as a football club, in a simlar vein to what Solskjaer did at United.

Both men, from their playing days at their respective clubs, recognised what was vital about the club's philosophy, and were determined to address that and reinstall those core values that had perhaps become blurred amidst the darkness.

How can Stoke City replicate that?

Harris' no-nonsense, tough guy approach is precisely what Millwall need in the relegation dogfight that they found themselves in, and it is what Stoke City could well turn to in their current predicament.

The Potters saw the miracles that Steven Schumacher was working on his shoestring budget at Plymouth Argyle, and wanted a piece of that. And why not? They had invested heavily in the summer on foreign talent, and saw Schumacher as the man to take them forward with his dynamic 4-3-3 system that had thrived with the likes of Bali Mumba, Morgan Whitaker, Finn Azaz, and Luke Cundle to make Argyle's step back up into the second tier that much smoother.

Schumacher has brought in familiar faces to him - Niall Ennis, who scored 12 goals in Plymouth's promotion campaign - arrived in January, with Cundle ripped out of the Devon club by Wolves, his parent club, to rejoin Schumacher in pastures new in Staffordshire.

Steven Schumacher's managerial record

Where did it all go wrong?

The arrival of foreign talent - Andre Vidigal, Ryan Mmaee, Chiquinho, and Wesley - was a statement of intent from Peter Coates. It showed that the Potters were serious about a promotion push, and were willing to find gems away from the reaches of the EFL in search of that.

Mmamee arrived with a goalscoring history at Ferencvaros in Hungary, while fans were keen to see the twinkletoes of Vidigal after his arrival from the Iberian peninsula.

The 4-1 win on the opening day over Rotherham, followed by a 2-1 victory over West Brom in the Carabao Cup gave the impression that this season was going to be one of excitement.

Alex Neil had the tools, and it appeared that he was getting the results.

Mmamee led the line, Vidigal scored a brace, new full-backs Enda Stevens and Ki-Jana Hoever were bombing up and down the flanks, with centre-field shored up by the physical technician of Josh Laurent alongside the buzzing Ben Pearson, and Luke McNally and Michael Rose resuming their partnership at the back after Wembley heartache with Coventry City.

It was supposed to be perfect.

But Stoke's downfall was similar to that of Millwall's.

We all remember the odd and confusing transfer activity in 2014 and 2015, when former Barcelona prodigies Bojan Krkic, Ibrahim Afellay, and Marc Muniesa to name the most prominent, arrived at the Britannia Stadium.

What good were these silky technicians? What were they doing on Trentside?

Indeed, Bojan and Xherdan Shaqiri became big hits amongst the Stoke faithful. Afellay and Muniesa? Not so much. It felt new and exicitng, with Mark Hughes, a manager who had expressed his desire to implement a different style of play, at the helm.

But it wasn't Stoke. The Potters' slide down the table ensued over the coming seasons. They had lost their way; their identity.

That feeling of "a cold, rainy night in Stoke" was gone, and they found themselves mired in the Championship once more.

Could Tony Pulis really return? Would he succeed?

Stoke, like Millwall, have a squad rife with talent, and they have some - not all - of the profile of player that a Tony Pulis would fancy.

But how might Pulis go about turning their fortunes around?

Were he to reinstall the 4-4-2, he has his target man in Wesley, who is yet to truly find his feet in English football, but still has quite the reputation for his exploits in Belgium with Club Brugge, where he scored 38 goals in 136 games.

Mmaee has the physical stature to play up with Wesley and act as a second target, but the Moroccan also has the pace to spin in behind and work off the Brazilian's flick-ons, while Tyrese Campbell, the academy product, can also play off a big man and run off the shoulder. The same can be said of Ennis.

At the back, if Rose and McNally can stay fit and refind the form they showed to fire Coventry to an unlikely play-off final, it would give the Potters a fine foundation to build on, with Stevens and Hoever as two quality full-back options that can whip early crosses in, as well as being defensively secure.

Junior Tchamadeu, a January arrival from Colchester, will offer excellent competition on the right for Hoever, while Lynden Gooch is the versatiity player that Pulis loves, able to fill in and do a job to shore up the system.

Josh Laurent and Wouter Berger can be the Amdy Faye and Glenn Whelan of a Pulis midfield. Both offer more technically than the latter duo, but have the physicality that Pulis loves to really assert dominance in the engine room battle.

Then, Pulis needs his Matthew Etherington - a flair player that he can really lean on and wrap up in a big coat, as Peter Crouch once said.

Vidigal could be that player - that Bojan or Shaqiri type off the flank to cut in and create that little bit of magic.

So could January arrival Million Manhoef on the right flank, giving the Potters two tricky wingers that can go both ways - inside and out - and look for crossing opportunities for their two strikers or shooting chances with the two front men taking defenders away.

Off the dead balls, Cundle and Lews Baker (remember him?) could be options off the bench, or as a neat complement to one of the physical Berger or Laurent.

It remains to be seen who might be able to replace Rory Delap in the long throws department.

But at the Bet365 Stadium, there should be reason for hope. The squad is dripping with talent, but perhaps Schumacher's pressing game is not what they need at this moment in time.