Steven Schumacher explains why Mehdi Leris has been used at right-back in the last couple of friendlies
Steven Schumacher is taking a good look at Mehdi Leris at right-back in a pre-season experiment.
Leris, who joined Stoke last summer from Sampdoria, saw game time limited on the right wing as the season went on due to the form of January signing Million Manhoef.
The 26-year-old had a rare run out further back under Alex Neil but Schumacher is taking the chance in summer friendlies to see how he fares in the system he is preparing for the new term, where full-backs are encouraged to get forward and slot into midfield at times.
He has been used on the right of defence in wins over Cork City and Crewe Alexandra and is likely to be used again in that role at Stockport County tomorrow (2pm).
Schumacher said: “It’s something for us to look at. He is physically different to Lynden Gooch and Junior (Tchamadeu), who play in the right-back position, and gives us height and strength and that aerial presence that we might need throughout the season.
“Mehdi is someone who has played there before, he’s played there over in Italy and he’s played as a wing-back as well.
“I’ve said to him that in this system, playing as a full-back is slightly different, but he’s got great energy, he can run all day, he’s good in the air, and at Crewe you could see when he got opportunities to cross the ball, he put some good deliveries in as well.
“This is what pre-season is all about, testing things out and seeing where we’re at.”
It was Ki-Jana Hoever who held down the right-back slot for the majority of the last season-and-a-half but he has since returned to parent club Wolves. Gooch joined from Sunderland last summer and has been used in various positions, including on the left wing in the last two friendlies. Tchamadeu, who had a stop-start season after joining from Colchester, is making his case to be number one this time around.
The Stockport game will now be a normal 90-minute fixture of two 45-minute halves. There had been a plan to hold two halves of 60 minutes – and a complete change of XIs for each hour – but Stockport, who pulled out of a friendly with Barrow on Tuesday which was credited to “a change in our training schedule”, will instead host a traditional match.
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