New Millwall recruit offers ‘different profile’ to other centre-back options

Alex Neil has talked about Millwall new boy Tristan Crama providing a different profile to their existing centre-back options.

The Lions made the Brentford defender their second signing of the winter transfer window when he joined on a permanent deal on Friday.

Crama, who had spent the first half of the campaign on loan at Exeter City, was an unused substitute in Millwall’s 1-0 loss to Hull City on Saturday.

“Tristan is a very different profile from the centre-backs we’ve got in the building,” said Lions head coach Neil. “He’s very quick.

“He’s probably more of a ball-playing centre-back, whereas I think most of our lads are out-and-out defenders. They’re big, they’re strong, they’re physical, they win their headers and they defend the box really well.

“So I do think, for instance, if we’re trying to create assets and we want to try and develop the brand of football, we’re going to need some guys that can handle the ball and play in that manner as well. It just gives me more variation in the squad.

“We do need reinforcements. I think particularly across our backline we’ve got a lot of older players in there.

“I think every club, irrespective of what your playing shape is, will carry four centre-backs as a minimum. We’ve got more than that at the moment. We’ll see what happens.”