Steven Schumacher has to make Stoke City call to unearth next Souttar, Collins or Bursik: View | OneFootball

The Potters boss must continue to put faith in his youngsters after they starred in the Carabao Cup

Stoke City have an exciting crop of youngsters coming through their ranks right now, and the most notable are being given chances to prove themselves in senior football under Steven Schumacher.

The Potters have been busy in the transfer market this summer with six new faces arriving at the club so far, but their squad is far from complete, and so boss Steven Schumacher has had to rely on some of his emerging talents in the opening stages of the campaign in both league and cup.

Schumacher handed striker Emre Tezgel his first start in a Stoke shirt in their opening day Championship win against Coventry City, while Jaden Dixon, Freddie Anderson and Sol Sidibe were all given starting berths, and Tezgel was substituted on, as the Potters took on Carlisle United in the League Cup first round.

All four players have impressed in their respective minutes, and Anderson and Tezgel both netted at Brunton Park to score their first goals for Stoke, and in the former's case his first in professional football, as Schumacher's side dispatched of the Blues with relative ease to set up a second round bout with Middlesbrough.

Given the nature of their standout performances in Cumbria, Schumacher must continue to put faith in his young players, and they must be given continued chances to prove their worth at senior level throughout the campaign.

Stoke's youngsters are seizing their chance

Schumacher's squad is still quite bare in certain positions, and he has had to contend with a myriad of injuries in the opening stages of the new season, prompting him to rely on his young players more than he likely would have expected to.

Anderson, Dixon, Tezgel, Sidibe and Nathan Lowe have all been training with the first team throughout pre-season, and while the latter three all made first-team appearances prior to this season, it may have come as a surprise to see the former duo fast-tracked into the senior set-up so soon after their respective arrivals from Manchester City and Spurs in the last 12 months.

Schumacher sprung a surprise by including 18-year-old Tezgel in his starting line-up for the visit of Coventry with Ryan Mmaee and Sam Gallagher out injured and Niall Ennis on the bench, and the England youth international did his chances of more appearances no harm as he stood up well to the Sky Blues' tough backline.

With the trip to Carlisle so soon after that opening day clash, the Potters boss understandably made changes to his starting eleven, with 17-year-old's Anderson and Dixon given professional debuts at centre-back and right-back, and 17-year-old Sidibe playing as an advanced number eight in a largely second-string Stoke side.

Anderson got his crowning moment after 48 minutes as he rose highest to head home Lewis Baker's quick free-kick, and then Tezgel netted his first goal for his boyhood club not long after entering the pitch with eleven minutes to go, as he latched on to Lynden Gooch's through ball and saw his initially saved shot bounce into an empty net.

All of the academy graduates did themselves proud on a cold night in Cumbria, and they will surely have thrust themselves to the forefront of Schumacher's thinking when it comes to trusting them to play in other cup games, and even in bigger games in the league with his current senior options looking threadbare, especially up front and at the back.

While there is still a lot of work to be done in the transfer window, there should be some serious considerations made to keep all of the youngsters in and around his squad going forward - they have proved themselves on a relatively strong stage, and will only get better with more experience in the first-team.

Schumacher must follow Souttar, Collins and Bursik blueprint

Stoke have placed a much bigger focus on their academy in recent years, as they look to get the best out of their existing talents rather than spend big fees on players that may not work out at the club.

The Potters rarely saw a player work their way through the youth teams to become a permanent fixture in the first-team while in the Premier League from 2008 to 2018, but things have had to change in years gone by, with the club walking a tightrope regarding Financial Fair Play and trying to stay self-sustainable.

There has been a bigger onus on bringing players through the academy system and into the first-team since relegation to the Championship - Harry Souttar, Nathan Collins, Joe Bursik and Tyrese Campbell have all broken into the senior side and gone on to become regulars at Premier League or Championship level, with Souttar and Collins both fetching sizable fees when sold on to Leicester City and Burnley respectively.

Schumacher should take inspiration from those past players when it comes to developing the current crop of youngsters that he has at his disposal, as all of them could mature into regulars in the second-tier and similarly sold on for a big fee, providing they avoid injury and stay on an upwards trajectory with Stoke.

The club also need to keep showing their youngsters that they are the best place to continue their development, and have done a good job so far with Sidibe and Dixon tied down until 2027, and Anderson until 2026, but Tezgel's contract is up next year, so they will have to keep giving him chances to prove to him that he should stay at the club beyond this season.