GARY Rowett has claimed that the positioning of Millwall’s full-backs against Sunderland was unintentional.
The Lions used Murray Wallace on the left side of the back four and Danny McNamara on the right, with the former sitting incredibly deep while the latter often pushed forward into the final third when his side had possession.
It worked incredibly well in the first half, with Wallace marshalling Amad Diallo while McNamara combined with Andreas Voglsammer to cause chaos down the Black Cats’ left flank.
However, after the break, Amad started causing Wallace significant issues while McNamara left far too much space behind him after pushing high up the pitch, with both partially at fault for two of the goals on Wearside.
Rowett claimed that “wasn’t the thinking” and ended up as an unintentional part of Millwall’s set up, explaining to NewsAtDen why his side ended up in such an asymmetrical formation during their defeat at the Stadium of Light.
“It was simply that [Jack] Clarke defensively wasn’t the sort of winger that would track back,” he explained.
“We spoke to Danny and said that there was an opportunity to take him the other way, and I think Diallo probably pinned Murray back a little bit more on the ball as well.
“I think it was more of that rather than anything that was intentional. I think it’s something that Danny can bring to his game more when we play in a flat back four, we still need the full-backs to get forward.
“He’s got a lot of energy, you saw against Preston he did that, and that’s something I think he can do more.
“We weren’t playing lopsided intentionally, that’s just how the game worked out.”
Photo: Millwall FC