‘I’ve got to find the solutions’ – Millwall boss Rowett disappointed by manner of Burnley defeat

Gary Rowett admitted he was “really disappointed” after Millwall’s 2-0 defeat at Burnley on Tuesday night.

The Lions made the trip to Lancashire off the back of a 1-0 loss against Reading at the weekend and were unable to bounce back against Vincent Kompany’s side, who sealed the points courtesy of second-half strikes from Vitinho and Jay Rodriguez.

And Rowett admitted that he was disappointed at the goals his side gave away at Turf Moor.

Rowett said: “Really disappointed. We actually held our shape tactically in the first half. Our front three made it very, very difficult for them to play through us. They’ve got good quality, they move the ball around and they sort of keep looking for those openings.

“We had some moments in the first half – when we actually showed some composure, we got down the side of them and we got into our forwards. Vogi and Flem looked really, really bright and dangerous when we got into those areas. We can get into those areas a lot more – we need to show a bit more quality and belief to give those front three the ball a little bit more often.

“[We] get in at half-time 0-0 when we’ve had a couple of moments [ourselves] and defended well. Then at the start of the second half we have a 10 minute spell where we actually just started to really come into the game. We got into some excellent positions and had a few shots on target. I think we have one moment where we break and Zian has a chance to put Bradders in with the keeper and just hits it behind him, and there are moments away from home where if you can take that opportunity and go 1-0 then it’s a very different game.

“Then they virtually go down the other end and score a goal where we’ve got a defensive shape, the ball comes in the box, I think Rodriguez gets across and I’m not sure if he gets a touch – if he does, then the lad’s definitely offside – if he doesn’t then we have to defend it.
There’s no way that a player can react quicker than two of our defenders on the back post and we switch off. It’s those little moments in the last three or four games that are really costing us.

“The difficulty [then] is the second goal, we parry it out and Rodriguez reacts quicker than our defenders. So, there’s two moments there where you’ve got to come here and be defensively perfect to stop them scoring. That was the disappointment – we had some moments where again, we can at least get one goal and make it interesting at the end. Disappointed. A lot of hard work, but again, nothing to show for it.”

Burnley’s second goal came just as the Lions were about to make a triple change, with Tyler Burey, George Honeyman and Benik Afobe introduced shortly after Rodriguez sealed the points for the hosts.

Rowett added: “There’s always a chance at 1-0 down. But what you can’t do again, we’re just about to make three substitutions to bring a little bit of speed and attacking quality off the bench and we concede just before it.

“Again, you can understand the disappointing nature of when and how we concede some of those goals. We’ve had three years of being really defensively solid as a team, not just the defenders, but as a team. This season, we haven’t done that, we’ve conceded too many goals. I’ve got to find those solutions – as a manager, I’m disappointed. At the start of the season, my ambitions were top six. At the moment, we haven’t matched that on the pitch and I’ve got to look at what I’m doing as well.”