Tis the season to be jolly….but Millwall’s happiness dependent on greater points return in Championship

It may be the season of good cheer, but there’s not been much to shout about in Bermondsey since August.

Millwall’s issues at The Den have been well-documented, but the manner in which they have slid down the Championship table over the past six weeks pose a far bigger problem for Joe Edwards.

Wednesday night’s 3-2 defeat to Leicester made it just one win in six for the new Lions head coach, who has had a fairly rough introduction to life as a number one.

He’s already had to negotiate trips to the Championship’s free-scoring, runaway top two in Ipswich Town and Leicester City.

After imploding swiftly in Suffolk, the Lions’ game plan worked a treat for the first half in Leicester – but it was still the same old ending.

Tom Bradshaw’s neat header had nudged the visitors into a 10th minute lead and it could have been even better at the break.

Leicester enjoyed the lion’s share of the ball but it was Millwall who had the better chances. They looked incisive in transitions and the Foxes couldn’t claw their way through Millwall’s rigid, uncompromising shape out of possession.

It was a performance with the perfect blend of grit and guile and had the natives restless. But that all changed after the break.

Matija Sarkic hasn’t clocked up many matches in a Millwall shirt, but he won’t experience many weeks worse than this. He was at fault for Cardiff City’s winning goal at the weekend and he handed out another early Christmas present when he gifted Jannik Vestergaard an equaliser after being caught in no man’s land.

His positioning was suspect just minutes later when a cross looped over him at the far post, but there were also no white shirts on hand to prevent Patson Daka from plundering the easiest goal of his career, either.

It’s impossible to legislate for the type of errors which gave Leicester a route back into the match – particularly given how effective the Lions were in the first half both on and off the ball.

Millwall can’t really afford to put a foot wrong in the transfer market if they are to compete with the riches on offer elsewhere in this division. It’s still very early days, but the seven-figure sum the Lions parted with to bring Sarkic to SE16 isn’t particularly looking like money well spent at this point.

It would be unfair to write the young goalkeeper off – others have come back from far worse over the years, plus he’s had a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

But The Den is an unforgiving environment and Millwall is a notoriously difficult place to build confidence. He, like so many others in this team, desperately needs to find some.

It’s almost hard not to feel sorry for Edwards, who inherited the majority of the problems which now plague him ahead of a must-win match against fellow strugglers Huddersfield Town tomorrow.

The defensive stability which became synonymous with Millwall during Gary Rowett’s reign has long since eroded.

To add to that, Millwall have been a hard watch on the ball for years. Attempting to change that was, and remains, the correct direction of travel for an analogue club stuck in a digital age.

Edwards hasn’t exactly thrown the baby out with the bathwater at this stage- recent matches haven’t been lost due to stylistic changes, but to errors and the inability to do the basics right.

While no blame for Millwall’s current plight can be apportioned to Edwards, the onus is on him to concoct a formula to get the Lions moving in the right direction.

The club is in a boom period. Attendances are up and Millwall have established themselves in the upper echelon of what is now essentially the Premier League’s little brother.

Relegation, simply put, would be unthinkable. And while it’s far too early to be penning any obituaries, this is a team right now that looks bereft of belief. It’s also one which hardly thrived under pressure during the final leg of last season’s play-off chase.

Matches against teams who boast the quality and riches of Leicester should not – and will not – define Millwall’s season. But the fact it’s now mid-December and it’s hard to recall a full 90 minute performance speaks volumes.

The next few matches heading into the new year will have a big bearing on where the Lions will finish come May.

Teething problems were a given once Millwall decided the time had come for a fresh approach. There’s still plenty of time for the Lions to rediscover their bite – but things may yet get worse before they get better

STAR MAN
George Honeyman. Faded after the break, like others, but epitomised everything about Millwall’s first-half performance. Full of grit and guile.

BEST MOMENT
Tom Bradshaw’s opening goal was the best of the five scored on the night.