Rene Maric or Will Still, who is the better option for Sunderland?

After a highly disappointing 23/24 season, Sunderland can’t afford to get another managerial appointment wrong. The Black Cats had a strong start to the season under Tony Mowbray, however the season quickly collapsed. Mike Dodds took interim charge of the team for 3 games before Michael Beale’s disastrous appointment.

Will Still – Still is a 31-year-old English/Belgian head coach who has just left French club Stade De Reims. Still has been heavily linked with the Sunderland job on two different occasions, when Tony Mowbray left the club and now. Still became interim manager at Reims when former manager Oscar Garcia left the club, however, he was given the job permanently after just 5 games becoming the youngest manager in Europe.

Still is seen by most as a good fit for Sunderland. Kyril Louis Dreyfus wants his team to play pressing, attacking football with an emphasis on promoting youth into the first team. Still played a high pressing, aggressive 4-2-3-1 system at Reims, which helped the team go on a famous 19-game unbeaten run.

Rene Maric – Another 31-year-old coach, the Austrian is currently in charge of Bayern Munich u19’s. Maric is also the head of playing philosophy at Bayern. Maric has a very similar background to some EFL coaches who have had a lot of success recently, namely Kieran Mckenna and Enzo Maresca. Maric started his career by analysing on his blog, Spielverlagerung.

Maric has served as assistant manager to Marco Rose at Borussia Monchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund. Maric then moved to Leeds United along with Jesse Marsch, where he once again served as an assistant manager. Maric is seen as one of the most promising young coaches across Europe. The natural next step for Maric is to become a head coach, could Sunderland be the perfect place for him?