‘We have to demand more of ourselves’ – Millwall head coach Edwards provides verdict on 3-2 defeat at Leicester City
Joe Edwards has called on his Millwall team to step up following their 3-2 defeat against Leicester City at The King Power Stadium tonight.
Tom Bradshaw headed the Lions into a 10th minute lead after some fine play from Murray Wallace but defensive errors gifted Jannik Vestergaard and Patson Daka two quickfire goals shortly after the break.
A deflected strike from Ricardo Pereira left Millwall with a mountain to climb before Kevin Nisbet bagged a late consolation.
Millwall performed well in the first half, restricting Leicester to few chances and made the most of their transitions but a poor start to the second half – compounded by a major error from Matija Sarkic – undid that hard work.
Edwards stressed that he wants more from his players after producing a rally which was too little, too late ahead of Saturday’s crunch clash against Huddersfield Town.
“We know a lot about the threats that Leicester pose, but we came with a clear plan,” said the Lions head coach.
“I fully appreciate that it’s quite simply having plans and it’s the players that have to execute it. That takes a lot of work and concentration, and they did it to a tee in the first half.
“When you come with those plans, where you’re happy to allow the opponents to have as much of the ball as they did – purely to block the space and nullify their threats, which they have so many of – you’re then putting a lot of faith in your quality when you get your moments.
“We showed that today. The first moment we had a run at their goal, Murray puts a great ball in, a fantastic header from Tom Bradshaw.
“At half-time it was a dressing room that felt confident and ready to do it again. We came out and they changed their shape slightly but the game followed a similar pattern until we concede a sloppy goal. That was the story of the first half hour of that second-half – we were there in numbers but just not quick enough or clinical with our defending around the box and we got punished.”
Millwall averaged 22 per cent possession against the Championship leaders but matched them for shots on target. No other team in the division has scored twice against Leicester this term.
Nisbet’s late goal proved to be little more than a consolation, though, after Millwall failed to react to their early second-half capitulation.
Edwards added: “When we set up our plan, it was exactly how it looked in the first-half. We fully respect that if we come here and high press and go toe-to-toe with them, particularly with the spell we’re in at the moment, we’re not going to get any rewards for coming with a great style of play and losing 4-0.
“We came here with a clear idea of what we’re about knowing that we can and should always offer a threat going forward. We did and I felt this was a frustrated stadium at half-time. That’s exactly what we came to do.
“But it goes hand in hand. Yes, we conceded some sloppy goals which were really costly, but we also then had a period where the goals rocked us and when we did get the ball, we didn’t show enough quality or composure, which we then showed again in the final 10 minutes.
“We have to demand more of ourselves. It happened at Ipswich – we go 3-0 down and we then score a goal and get on the ball and look a bit more composed. We need to stay in games longer and make teams feel on edge. They need to feel the threat we do carry for longer. That’s really the story of my journey with this team so far. I’ve seen stuff that I like, quality, but we’re not doing it for a big enough period to win football matches.”
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