Millwall boss made call to go five at back to withstand late QPR pressure – with Leeds loanee Cresswell impressing again
Gary Rowett has talked about going to a back five in Millwall’s 2-1 win at QPR on Saturday.
The Lions boss had also toyed with shifting from a four-man defence the previous weekend, with Dennis Cirkin heading a late leveller for Sunderland.
This time Rowett did make the switch, bringing on Ryan Leonard in the 89th minute to replace George Honeyman.
Chris Martin had cut the R’s deficit to one goal when he headed home Ilias Chair’s cross.
Rowett said: “We’re a pretty solid team, aren’t we? We’ve got players who do their jobs in those moments. Sometimes you have to accept some of your qualities as a team.
“For 15-20 minutes at Cardiff we sat in and shut up shop. Today we had the debate, because I didn’t want to wait too long. I perhaps waited a little too long against Sunderland. When you feel like the other team has the momentum, sometimes you have to accept that’s going to be the last 15 minutes of the game – you just have to put more defenders on and see it out.
“Other games you need to put more attacking quality on to get you the other way and have that threat.
“We saw it out pretty well. I wouldn’t say comfortably, they put a good few balls in the box. There were a couple of moments, like for our goal, if the ball just drops to one of their players (it causes a problem).
“We were worth the win. It would have been a little bit unfortunate if we hadn’t come away with the three points.”
Leeds loanee Charlie Cresswell once again produced a solid showing in the absence of injured captain Shaun Hutchinson.
“Hutchy is such a important player for us but he’s actually quite a quiet leader – he leads by example,” said Rowett. “Coops, Cressy, Sav and Billy have taken on that role. You see Z giving information to players. Everyone has got to do that. There are less old time captains around anyway.
“It was another opportunity for Cressy. In the last two games he has played really, really well. He’s played again with that little bit of calm authority about him. He’s going to be a top, top player. This season is about learning those little lessons in the Championship. In the past couple of matches he has been a really calm, assured presence in our defence.”
MAIN PICTURE: ROB AVIS