Millwall frontman’s confidence and form has dipped – but boss says it is “quite normal” after summer of change

Millwall head coach Joe Edwards believes that Kevin Nisbet’s self-belief has taken a bit of a hit of late – but adds it is a normal occurence for many players adapting to changes in their football career.

The Lions signed the Scottish international from Hibernian in the summer.

Nisbet has scored five goals in 27 appearances – three of those since Edwards succeeded Gary Rowett in the Millwall hotseat – but he is now eight matches without netting.

He was replaced by Ryan Longman in the 56th minute of last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at QPR.

“When I arrived it felt like a player who didn’t have any rhythm,” Edwards told the South London Press. “He had a little niggle at the start of the season. He had a couple of goals but didn’t really have a consistent run of the football that you need to adapt to the intensity of the Championship. In my opinion it is a big jump.

“Of late, after having a period of scoring a few goals – just leading into Christmas – since then I think it is as simple as form and confidence looked like it had dipped a little bit.

“Across the board in the game on Saturday – and I include wing-backs because we have been very offensive with them when we’ve been playing well in recent weeks – I didn’t think anyone was offering the same threat as we’d been offering against Leicester and Middlesbrough, in particular.

“Sometimes when you just look a bit stuck as a team you need to make changes, so I decided to make the change.

“In terms of Kev, I think it’s probably quite normal that players who are in their first season at a club – in a different league – they can have their ups and downs in form and confidence.

“We’ve got to keep supporting and helping him through that.”