GARY Rowett wants his players to make Leeds United “uncomfortable” and to be consistent across the entire game as he looked forward to today’s huge 12pm clash.
Live on Sky Sports, Millwall and Leeds will meet for the first time in over three years as simmering tensions come to the boil again.
Despite only winning one of their first five Championship matches, Daniel Farke’s side will pose a very difficult challenge with his team boasting several players who fought in the Premier League last season.
But Rowett is up for the challenge as he explained what Millwall had to do to win.
He told NewsAtDen: “We have to find moments to put Leeds under pressure and try to make them uncomfortable. We have to find moments where we stop them playing and we stop their good individuals. Sometimes you have to reduce space on the pitch in order to do that, sometimes you have to be aggressive higher up the pitch.
“There’s no one key to [winning]. Ultimately, it’s about trying to perform for virtually 100 minutes now and be consistent with it. I think we’ve put in good 45-minute shifts so far this season. Perhaps the Middlesbrough game was a full performance and we probably need to put in another full performance, that’s the challenge.”
The Millwall boss also said he isn’t shocked by Leeds’ slow start due to the issues some relegated clubs face readjusting to life in the second-tier.
Rowett added: “If you’re an outsider, and you look on paper at those players, you think ‘I’m surprised they’ve only won one game’.
“But I’ve been in a similar position where a team that comes down from the Premier League, there are lots of challenges, there are lots of things that people don’t see. There will be players there that have wanted to perhaps leave and had opportunities to do so. There will a little bit of uncertainty with that squad transition.
“And it’s very difficult as a manager. You want that solidity when you first walk in. You want to have a team that just want to get back into the Premier League when you first walk in, but it obviously doesn’t always work like that. I’m sure Daniel will be happy that the window has shut. I think he can now really do his best work which is with a special group and a group that knows where they’re going to be for the next period of time.
“They have really, really good players and if those good individuals turn in a very good team, they’ll be as good as anyone in the division. That’s the challenge for any team that comes down. Sometimes those challenges you don’t always see from the outside. I understand that and I also understand it doesn’t take much for a team like that to click into gear as well.”