Barnsley FC head coach Daniel Stendel provides dose of realism amid second coming

The players he inherited had a Championship relegation mark against their names, but good options remained at his disposal who were certainly League One-ready.

They were energised by his intense, gegenpressing style and quickly bought into it. Crucially, they also possessed the technical and physical qualities to adapt.

And so it gloriously proved in 2018-19, when the Reds hit the ground running and Stendel presided over an almost picture-perfect promotion back to the second tier, especially for someone new to English football.

The landscape on his return to Oakwell is different. The picture that the German painted in his first official press conference left few observers in any doubt about that.

As it stands, Barnsley aren't ready, in his eyes, to make the same impact as his exhilarating first spell.

This is partly due to the players currently at his behest, allied to the fact that he feels there aren’t have enough to fit into his high-press, fast-paced ethos.

A style switch from Conor Hourihane's possession-based pass-out-from-the-back credos to heavy metal football was never going to happen overnight, was it.

Stendel has had some pleasant surprises in pre-season - most notably young midfielder Arley Kay, whom he called 'the biggest surprise of pre-season'. He also feels he has other young players with whom he can successfully work with.

But in terms of assessing Barnsley's overall prospects going into a new season, Stendel is circumspect.

He is also candid enough to accept that the challenge he accepted in mid-May is a bit more difficult than he initially envisaged.

Stendel said: "A little bit, yes.

"I think I would not surprise anyone here in the club or anyone else (by saying) the quality of the team of 2018 was better than the quality of this squad and team.

"I'd say the club relegated at the time had some real potential players that we signed for the Championship. But I also have some players who have surprised me (now).

"I think also the young players that played last season can improve a lot, but they need a little bit more time.

"I know my patience is not so big, but this time I need a little bit more patience. Some good performances in the pre-season give me a feeling that we can do it if the consistency is right."

Offering a broader view in terms of where Barnsley are at in League One circles - the club have finished in mid-table for the past two seasons, Stendel remains realistic. First time around, he seemed a manager in a bit of a hurry to get somewhere fast.

He said: "You have to look at the last couple of years, seasons and the players, and when you're realistic, you can say: 'Yeah, you cannot expect that we - in this season with a lot more big clubs in the league - can say: 'OK, we win the league or we play the play-offs'.

"Sorry, this is not the case. We try to do our best to win a lot of games, and then we will see what happens.

"Our squad is not ready, and the last season was not great, and a new manager (Hourihane) came in and a new idea to play came in.

"I don't say it will not happen (top six), but realistically, we need time."

Given that Barnsley's modus operandi largely revolves around signing young, up-and-coming players with re-sale value, as opposed to those with proven League One pedigree and experience, it makes the transition from Hourihane to Stendel not so straightforward.

For his part, Stendel is likely to feel a bit better about things should Barnsley boost their forward ranks before the window shuts.

The current main striking options in Makenzie Kirk and Amani Richards have promise, but little wool on their backs at this level in a squad which has lost half of its goals output from last season in Messrs McGoldrick, Keillor-Dunn and Phillips.

While the arrival of Gillingham defender Sam Gale is rightly seen as a positive move designed to address the Reds' central defensive deficiencies from last season, bringing in at least one more headline central striker looks to be a must.

The Reds are one of several clubs linked with a move for Exeter City’s Jayden Wareham, who has a number of admirers.

Stendel, whose second coming begins on Saturday at home to Wigan Athletic in the EFL Cup, continued: "It's difficult to say how many, but we need more players.

"We need more goals. But not only one player scores more goals, we need also more players.

"From in the squad, the ones who also played in the last season here; we need more goals from them. Experience is not the big thing for me.

"The quality is important for me. And the quality for that, what we want to play, it means that we need power, mentality, pace to score."