‘It’s a nice problem to have’ – Millwall boss Gary Rowett on factors that go into his tactical approach for Huddersfield

BY DANIEL MARSH

Millwall boss Gary Rowett has opened up on the “multitude of factors” that will tie into how they approach today’s clash with Huddersfield Town.

The Lions make the trip to Yorkshire level on points with the Terriers, who are just above them in the Championship rankings in eighth spot.

The introduction of Matt Smith and a change of approach paid dividends as the Lions fought back to clinch their fourth win in five games against his former club Stoke City last weekend.

And Rowett admitted that could come into his thinking ahead of deciding how to set-up against a Huddersfield side who, like Millwall, have played in a 5-2-3 shape.

“I think every time you get a result in a game you look back at what’s helped you get that result, whether that’s formations, individuals or people coming off the bench,” said the Lions boss when asked if that approach could be utilised on the road this weekend. “But then you also look at the team and it’s capabilities and then the opposition, so there’s a multitude of factors that come into selecting the style of play and how to do things.

“When we first came in we played 4-2-3-1 predominantly at home and 5-2-3 away from home. We then started to look far more comfortable and organised in a 5-3-2 or a 5-2-3 so we continued that.

“When you’ve finished eighth and 11th, and we’re now joint-fifth essentially in the league, it’s very difficult just to throw that all away and say ‘do you know what? Maybe just to score a few more goals and create a few more chances let’s change completely what we’re doing’. I don’t think it’s a case of that, but what we always do is if certain things are perhaps not quite working the way we’d like then we always look to see if we can adjust them or do something different.

“That’s certainly how we look at our home performances. Whether we need to do that necessarily away from home, is again, something we’ll look at. But it’s a nice problem to have. We’ve consistently picked up a nice amount of points and consistently got into the top half of the Championship.”