Barnsley FC caretaker coach Joseph Laumann promises changes but no instant revolution

The 28-year-old German coach will take charge of the team at home to Derby County on Wednesday and Hull City at the weekend after the sacking of Markus Schopp.

And although time has been short with the Austrian only dismissed and Laumann only put in charge on Monday, he has promised there will be changes, without going into specifics.

"We're going to change a couple of bits but it's not going to be major," he said. "We don't have the time to go from here to here.

"But there's a couple of things we were lacking in the last couple of weeks we need to change in and out of possession and hopefully we can cause a few surprises with that.

"I think it needs a couple of changes but not big one. We'll think more about us and adapt details for the upcoming fixtures."

Laumann has no new injuries to deal with and has the bonus of Mads Andersen, Josh Benson and Jordan Williams all putting themselves in contention to start with their performances at Bristol City, where the feeling was that the Reds played well enough to win, but let themselves down with avoidable errors.

Laumann has had less luck off the field, with fellow coach Tonda Eckert in quarantine after Covid-19. Laumann says his colleague is feeling better after a difficult first few days.

Laumann says he has relied heavily on the team analysts and new goalkeeping coach Thomas Fawdry, rather than calling up academy coaches to help him.

Irrespective of Schopp's sacking, these are two important games against the other sides in the Championship relegation zone. After them, the club heads into an international break.

"It's been very busy, lots of things in a short amount of time," said Laumann, who joined the coaching staff under Schopp's predecessor Valerien Ismael. "It's always very sad when a a manager leaves. He's been a great human being, a nice person to work with.

"It's sad for all of us, we're all responsible for the situation.

"Everybody's focused on the next two games and aware of his responsibility for the situation, to get it going.

"I found out (I was going to be caretaker) the day Khaled (El-Ahmad, the chief executive) announced it to us and Markus, and he asked me to take over the team.

"I'm honoured to get the trust from the club. I will do my best with the staff to get the best out of the team and get the lads going."

Laumann, who had a spell unofficially running German second division team Sportfreunde Lotte when he was not licensed to be the manager, has long-term ambitions in that direction but is coy about doing the job at Oakwell now.

"I'm in charge for these two games, this week, then we have the international break," he said. "We're just focused on these two games.

"I don't focus on what the time will bring, I just focus on getting the best out of the lads and preparing team well for the games.

"I don't even have the time to think about the future, I just have time to prepare the boys and communicate with the staff.

"At the minute all the staff are helping, doing three or four jobs. Everybody's on it and communication is big.

"Hopefully we will have a full crowd because we need the fans to back the team. It's not about me, it's us as a group."