‘The energy – you just feel it’ – Casper De Norre on sky-high confidence in Millwall ranks

Casper De Norre has praised the “energy” of the Millwall team in their 1-0 win over Burnley on Sunday.

Jake Cooper’s second-half header earned a deserved three points against the Clarets. It was a third straight victory for Millwall and moved them up to seventh in the Championship.

“The energy today—you could just feel it,” said Lions midfielder De Norre. “We didn’t feel like we were ever in any trouble. It was a strong performance from the team, like we’ve been playing in the last four or five games. We’ve only conceded five goals in 11 games now. We feel very solid, very strong, and we always score a goal, so we are always winning.

“We are very good at defending. They can play around us—that’s no problem for us—but we don’t want them to play through us, and they never really did that today.

“We’ve done really well this season when we’ve won the ball back. We also try to keep it and have a bit of momentum ourselves, and that is what we’re doing well.”

De Norre described how the team gradually adjusted their press as the game progressed, noting a tactical shift that ultimately paid off.

“For the first 20-25 minutes, I wouldn’t say we were passive,” he said. “We were trying to work out the best way to press, and once we pressed a little bit higher, they started losing the ball a bit.

“We gained some momentum after the break [when the linesman went down injured]. We finished the first half very strong and got going early in the second half.”

The Belgian opened his account for the season against Swansea last weekend – the same venue in which he scored his only other goal for the club.

De Norre said: “I just got the opportunity twice—those late runs into the box are what I can bring to this team. In my career, I haven’t scored that many goals, but they’ve all come from that area. It’s just about getting there, and at Swansea, it has happened twice. Maybe it’s a lucky place for me.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD