Leam Richardson on Rotherham United environment he is trying to create and how

Richardson would have preferred not to play the Millers’ FA Cup third-round tie at Fulham on a Friday but it gives seven clear days before the Championship game against Stoke City – the longest pause of his short tenure.

The game is his seventh in only 25 full days as coach, although he did not come in completely cold.

"I'd not just watched them on video, I've competed against some of these players and worked with a few, I've seen them close at hand and live many times so nothing surprised me," he said. "It's about how my environment suits them, how their environment suits me and how we can build a culture around the training ground.

"I want to coach every day three times a day but there's different ways of learning – visual, tactical, physical. Every day we've had individual unit meetings on where we can improve, then we try and take it onto the training ground."