“I know what we need” – Millwall boss Rowett confident of what transfer business needs to take place

BY ALEX GRACE

Gary Rowett knows what he needs in this summer’s transfer market to put Millwall in a position to challenge for a place in the Championship’s top six next season.

Their top-six chances were heavily hampard by a poor run of form during the winter which saw them win just one of 15 games between November and the middle of January.

“I’ve probably known for about three months [what we need for next season],” said Rowett. “Which is why, when the season was almost over, I just wanted it over so we could get the work done and get to the next little bit.

“Of course, we owe it to everybody to try to finish strongly and the players are certainly trying to do that – but I’m quite clear on what we need to do. We have an excellent nucleus of really good players for next season – we just need to add one or two little bits on top.”

Millwall controlled possession and chances created against Bristol City on Saturday and Rowett was asked if that performance was something fans could get used to seeing Millwall look to reach the next level in 2021-22.

He said: “We’ve tried to do that on a number of occasions this season [move the ball really well] – perhaps today was one where we seemed to be a little bit more comfortable. Whether taking the pressure away from the game allowed us to do that a little bit more than usual. There were some bits in there where you can see the progress that the team has made, you can see the control of the game and of possession. I think we had close to 60 per cent possession and created chances with that.

“I’ve never been one for worrying about possession, all I define the team on is how many chances did we create and how many goals did we score? Whilst we’ve been very good defensively, on the other end we haven’t been quite as clinical as we could be. We’ve had quite a lot of chances this season, we’re up there in terms of open play chances. We know we’ll add set-piece chances next season, we know we’ll be better there. So I think there’s a lot to be positive about.

“We have to be a club that finds different ways to win but certainly the movement, some of the incisive passing and incisive running off-the-ball is something that we want to get better at.”