BENIK Afobe admitted a blast from Millwall assistant manager Adam Barrett reminded the Lions they needed to improve their set-piece record.
Millwall didn’t score their first goal from a set-play in the league until their fifth game of the season, the 2-1 win against Blackpool at The Den when Jed Wallace fired home a direct free-kick.
The Lions’ first goal from a dead-ball delivery and a first-contact finish was in their 11th game, when Murray Wallace headed home Wallace’s corner for the winner in the 89th minute of the 1-0 victory at Barnsley.
Millwall have improved that area of their game recently. During their eight-match unbeaten run, five of their goals came from set-pieces. Afobe’s second (above) in the 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town was from a Scott Malone delivery when the ball broke to him on the edge of the box and the striker lashed home.
Four of those goals were in games Millwall won by one goal, highlighting how important set-pieces are to a side that rank in the bottom half of the table for goals from open play.
Barrett leads the Lions’ work on set-plays.
“There’s no secret with Millwall, we base some of our game, some of our chances on set-pieces, we’ve got great players who come up from the back, great set-piece takers,” Afobe said.
“There’s a crazy stat that most goals are scored from set-pieces. As great as Man City and Liverpool are, they score a lot of goals from set-pieces.
“For us to keep scoring goals from set-pieces we’re going to take that and we’re going to keep working on it on the training ground.
“Thankfully for us it’s coming off on match-days now because at the beginning of the season Adam Barrett was getting on to us for not being very good at set-pieces!
“Better late than never.”
Image: Millwall FC