Millwall head coach has interesting answer when asked about prepping and analysis of oppositions

Joe Edwards has explained his process for analysing opposition teams – with the head coach making it clear that the main focus in the lead-up to matches will be Millwall-orientated.

The Lions won 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday in the 37-year-old’s first game at the helm.

Next up are Coventry City at The Den on Saturday before a trip to Ipswich Town next Wednesday.

And Edwards reckons there are drawbacks to overly concentrating or fixating on what an opponent is going to do.

“It varies very much based on the schedule,” said Edwards, when asked by the South London Press about when he begins to analyse the next team he is facing. “So, for example, we are playing Coventry at home on Saturday and I had my first look at them on Thursday last week – which is nine days in advance. But purely because we could. There is nothing else on the horizon.

“When we play Ipswich I’ll probably be looking at them for the first time on Sunday morning, so a few days before.

“My big thing at the moment is that I’m a coach who believes in focusing much more on himself than the opponents.

“Something I’ve experienced in recent years is that, firstly, I speak to players a lot and I ask them what they find useful and like – I also speak to them about managers and coaches they’ve liked working with because I find it interesting to learn their viewpoints and previous experiences. A recurring theme has been that sometimes they’ve worked with managers they think are good coaches and managers but sometimes there is so much information about the opponent that you end up either probably be overly fearful of the opponent – because you see a lot of what they are good at – or you get to a point where you know more about an opponent than what your own team and game plan should be about.

“We also had a period at Chelsea (when he was on the coaching staff) where teams kept changing formation based on what we were doing. So we’d prepare by looking at an opponent – this is how they typically play and set up – but then you get to game day and they’ve done something completely different to what we’d been looking at for four days.

“I learned from that not to get overly drawn into getting to know inside out your opponent.

“In the coaching team you can definitely have an in-depth knowledge to be ready for what you might need to face on game day or game night but the big thing is the players – I prefer them to be absolutely clear on what we want to be about and what our plan is about based on us and our principles.

“Probably just having a good awareness about what the team we’re about to face is about, what it is going to look and feel like – who are their biggest threats?

“But certainly it will be a bigger focus on us than them. Even this week, as an example, we will be talking about us a lot. Thursday and Friday, I’ll start dropping bits in about what Coventry will look like.

“The players will definitely go into the game having heard a lot more about Millwall than Coventry.”