GARY Rowett wants to see more consistency from his side as he assessed the start of the season ahead of the big Sunday game against Leeds United.
The Den is sold out for a fixture against the Whites which rarely fails to bring excitement and drama.
Millwall have seven points after five games, a point more than Daniel Farke’s Leeds. In Rowett’s three full seasons in charge, the totals after the first five games are: 2020-21: eight points; 2021-22: five points; 2022-23: seven points.
The Lions have twice in those three seasons taken their top-six challenge to the last day.
“In essence I think the fact we came so close last year maybe the expectation is that we start a little bit stronger,” Rowett said. “But the reality is it’s probably been a similar start to the last four seasons. We’ve had eight points, we’ve had seven points and we finished in and around it every season.
“So I don’t think it’s necessarily about the start but I’d like a touch more continuity, I’d like a touch more consistency as a manager, of course you do. But we’ve got a good group of players and we’re working hard to get towards it. It’s not always easy to get that when you’ve signed some players late, when you’ve got some key injuries in different games that almost makes it impossible to pick the same team. But that’s what a squad’s for and we’ve got to make those decisions.
“What’s nice after five games and another chunk of five or six games [before the next international break] is you get a natural chance to reflect and look objectively at some of the things you need to do better and then subjectively what you felt you needed to do better and see if they marry up.
“Different ideas, different ways of playing, we have to be flexible which is something I spoke about in pre-season. We have to try to be flexible in how we approach games.
“The Middlesbrough game I thought we were excellent, first half of the Stoke game, first half of the Birmingham game I thought we were very good. Bristol we were okay during the game but not particularly good and Norwich we were poor for most of the game. If you take that you’re just trying to marry up those best bits and see that more consistently within the team.
“It’s up to me as a manager to find those solutions, to find that continuity and consistency. And we need a little bit of fortune with players staying fit in order to give us the best chance to do that. We’re a team that rely on our key players because we’ve got a smallish squad and we need to keep those players fit and on the pitch.”
The game against Leeds was moved to midday Sunday and is live on Sky Sports.
Rowett said: “It doesn’t make too much difference, your week just looks slightly different. Normally we would work for two days, have a day off [for recovery], and then two days building up to the game. It just gets shifted a day forward, essentially.
“Some of the internationals have played decent match minutes, some not, so it’s just assessing where they are. They’ve all been back in [Friday], they’ll all be ready to go, they’ve worked hard.
“We’ve got other players chomping at the bit who haven’t had those international minutes but have had a lot of training minutes. So certainly no complaints [about the kick-off time].
“Typical return to Championship football but in some ways games for us at the moment are not a bad thing because it feels a little bit like with injuries, the transfer window, the international break that you can’t really get going with any rhythm.
“For us there’s been a little bit of a lack of continuity. We’ve had a good few players away but we’ve managed to do good work with the ones that are here so hopefully we’ll be better for it at the weekend.
“We’ve got some good minutes into players that needed it on the training pitch, the likes of [Ryan] Longman, Wes [Harding], Casper [De Norre[, Allan Campbell a little bit. That’ll stand us in good stead down the line.”
Leeds were relegated last season and have so far fallen well below expectations of title challengers.
The last meeting between the sides in SE16 was in October 2019. Millwall won 2-1 with goals from Jed Wallace and Tom Bradshaw in current assistant Adam Barrett’s first game of his three-match spell in temporary charge before Rowett’s appointment.
“You have to respect that they were a Premier League side last season. They’ve got an experienced Championship manager in Daniel Farke who knows what it takes to get out of this division, he’s done it with Norwich,” Rowett said.
“You have to respect that, you have to respect some very good individuals that they’ve got. And of course, a little bit like us in different ways, they’ll be wanting to feel a little bit more like a team after the international break now that the window is shut.
“We have to go out there and do what we do. We’ll always respect the opponent, we’ll always understand that we have to do certain things to make it difficult for them and stop certain individual players. But at the same time we’re at home and we’ve also got to make it very difficult for Leeds to stop our players and the way we want to play and go about things.
“It’s always a good atmosphere, the game always has a different feel to it and it’s up to us to try to utilise that.”
Image: Millwall FC