GARY Rowett has put on his teacher’s hat and rated Millwall’s start to the season “five out of 10” as they go into the international break.
The Lions have five points from four games after playing play-off favourites Stoke, Brentford and Swansea, as well as promoted Rotherham.
Millwall lost for the first time in the league this season at Swansea last weekend, when they were denied a late penalty for what Rowett called a “blatant” foul on Shaun Hutchinson.
Rowett was asked to rate the season so far.
“I’d probably give us a five out of 10,” he said. “We’ve had a difficult start but nevertheless our aims are to be in with all of those teams.
“And if you look at the closeness of the Stoke, Brentford and Swansea games I don’t think in any of them we’ve looked massively short. All three of the games we could have easily taken a point or more. So I’ve been pleased with that.
“The five out of 10 is more for our points tally. But after four league games you don’t really gauge a team. The performances have been a little bit mixed but this is a team that notoriously has started really slowly in seasons.
“I think that’s because of predominantly the type of players we have. We’re a big strong team and sometimes a few of those players might need five, six, seven games to get into their stride.
“Of course they’re going to get those games very, very quickly after the international break because the frequency ramps up a little bit.”
After only a three-week break this summer, Millwall’s squad have been given an extended rest with the next game not until October 17.
Rowett added: “It’s something that we planned initially. You can look at it a couple of different ways. You can say we’re early in the season so we can do lots and lots of work.
“Or you can say we’ve only had three weeks off and in my opinion part of performing over a long period, particularly over Christmas when the games are absolutely hectic, is that when you can get a breather mentally as well as physically it is important.
“So what we’re trying to do is use these international breaks to give the players a little bit of recovery time and then we’ll get back to work. Ultimately it’s about making sure that three weeks off doesn’t become a problem three or four months into the season.
“That’s how we see it. Everyone will see it in different ways. We’ve got four, five days recovery and then we’ll be straight back at it in the build-up to Wycombe which is obviously an important game.”
Image: Millwall FC