Former Preston North End Under-14 assistant manager Will Still is currently causing quite a stir in football with his managerial skills and tactics, find out more about the Reims manager, his brief bio, career, and stats.
The 30-year-old upcoming manager had a very unorthodox and interesting route to becoming a first-team coach at Reims.
Who is Will Still Reims Ligue 1 manager, his age, height, career, stats, tactics
Will Still got into coaching via the video game Football Manager.
In 10 years, he's risen all the way to manager for top division French club Reims.
He's unbeaten in 12 matches — but the team is fined $27K every game because he still doesn't have a pro coaching license. pic.twitter.com/h2OQjkQqNv
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) January 30, 2023
Reims are fined £22,000-per-game every time they play under their manager Will Still, due to him not having his pro licence yet.
They are currently unbeaten in 12 league games under him and drew 1-1 away at PSG last night.
Superb 😂 pic.twitter.com/kA1YIdRgC7
— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) January 30, 2023
Interestingly, Will Still currently hasn’t obtained his UEFA Pro license yet and Reims are fined £22k everytime he manages them.
Will Still brief bio
William Still was born on 14 October 1992, in Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium to English parents who had left the UK. The Belgium-born tactician admitted that he was initially determined to become a footballer.
However, he stated that playing the popular video game Football Manager, influenced him to shift his career to coaching. He was just 17 years old when this happened and he reportedly spent many hours playing the popular video game.
Back then, he was playing for the Sint-Truiden and Mons youth teams, besides the Tempo Overijse first-team. However after playing Football Manager inspired him to rethink his career, Still instead opted to study to become a coach at the Myerscough College in Preston.
Age and height
Will Still is currently 30 years old and stands at around 1.90 m or 6 ft 3 in.
Managing Career
Will Still’s managerial career began by first working as an Assistant Manager for the Preston Under-14 side while studying at Myerscough College in Preston. After completing his studies, Still moved back to Belgium and worked as a Video Assistant for St-Truiden. He got the job after inquiring Yannick Ferrera if he required his services.
Will then spent some time working as Assistant Manager for a number of Belgian clubs including Lierse and Beerschot. From there he joined Reims to become Óscar García’s Assistant Manager. However, he had to return to Belgium for his UEFA Pro License courses, while working briefly at Standard Liege.
Despite not finishing his courses, Reims called him back to return as García’s assistant when the 2022/23 campaign began. However, just after a couple of months into the season, García got sacked in October. As such, Still was given the job of managing Reims as an interim manager.
Much to the surprise of everyone however, Still exceeded expectations and ended up winning nine points from his five matches just before the start of the World Cup break. This included a memorable 0-0 draw against Kylian Mbappe’s PSG. As a result, Reims appointed Still as the Manager with a contract running till the end of the season.
Stats
Under Will’s management, Reims currently sits on the 11th spot in Ligue 1. They are just ten points away from securing a European qualification spot.
Throughout his career as a first-team coach, Still has managed to win 18 of his 33 games. He drew seven of the remaining games and lost eight and has an average of 1.85 points per game.
Immediate changes were visible when he took over and didn’t change much of the team’s identity and continued playing in a 4-2-3-1, which has been successful for them so far. During the build-up from the back, they look to go long from the keeper but, at times, they look to build from the back and when they do this, they tend to form a 4-1-2-3 formation.
Once into the final third, Still prefers his team to attack the box constantly either from the flanks or through the centre and also wants his team to switch sides via long balls to constantly move the opponent’s defence and create space.
Pushing the full-backs high in the final third stretches the opponent’s defensive lines, creating spaces in between and ommitting a lot of players while attacking in the final third acts as an advantage during their to transition to defence. Upon losing possession, due to their numerical advantage, they look to crowd around the opponent ball possessor either trying to win the ball or to delay the attack.