“We haven’t quite got bang for our buck” – Millwall boss admits striker signings not fully paid off this season

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Gary Rowett has conceded that Millwall’s attacking signings have not totally worked out this season.

West Bromwich Albion loanee Kenneth Zohore has suffered an injury-disrupted stay in SE16 while Tottenham recalled Troy Parrott after he struggled to hold down a starting spot – sending the teenager out to Ipswich Town instead for the second half of the League One campaign.

And Rowett is quick to point out that boosting a team’s firepower is never a simple fix – especially if you try and dip into the lower leagues in England.

“It is not easy to find guaranteed goalscorers – at any level,” said the Lions manager. “And I would argue that we have got quite a few strikers that if you put them in League One they would score a good amount of goals. It is not an easy jump to the Championship.

“We are looking all over the place – England, Scotland, Ireland and abroad, although the new restrictions make that a little harder to take some of those players and get work permits.

“Harvey [Bussell, head of recruitment] has come in and given us a different view. He has a really good knowledge in Europe as well.

“We’ll try to win games and finish as high as we can this season, but we also need to plan certain things for next season and get that recruitment as good as we can. This year we haven’t quite had bang for our buck with some of the forwards we’ve brought in. But that is always going to be the challenge, it will be next year.

“It is a season where fewer goals have been scored. If you look statistically across the leagues there has been some real anomalies – Liverpool have not scored as many and they have lost their last six games at Anfield. There are so many psychological challenges that wouldn’t normally be there. It is a season you can’t really compare to any other.

“We get all the stats. Last year we scored a lot of goals from set-pieces and not many from open play. This season we are in the top six for chances from open play, but we haven’t managed to get the set-piece goals. It is a balance all the time.

“It is pleasing that we’re creating chances in every game. When we have been clinical we have won games. When we haven’t been then, quite simply, it has cost us.”

Rowett believes plenty of the additions made in the last two transfer windows have enhanced his squad.

“We’re never going to build at the speed that people hope you can, that’s just the way we are. But we have got that ambition and we want to keep moving forward.

“We’ve seen a lot of clubs have a brilliant season and then not a very good season – they have real fluctuations of performance. We want to be consistent in finishing in the top echelons of the division.

“We’ve got a clear vision of how I see us progressing. You can see that this season with the likes of Mason Bennett, George Evans, Scott Malone and Maikel Kieftenbeld. When they have played you can see they have all gave us something extra.

“I wouldn’t say we’re in no-man’s lands but that challenge between now and the end of the season is to kick on when there are no fans there to egg you on.

“When we get back some of our injured players then I’m sure that will give us a boost.”

Millwall’s 2-0 reverse to Blackburn on Saturday ended a six-game winning streak at The Den and leaves them 11th in the standings.

“We finished eighth last season and I can have the argument to say we finished higher than any of our relevant clubs in the division,” said Rowett. “In terms of where we’d expect to be this year it is probably only Barnsley who are higher than us. But for every Barnsley I can look at a lot of bigger clubs who are below us.

“When I came in I had a very clear vision of what we needed to be. We needed to get – very quickly – to being a competitive top-half Championship side. And I would say that is exactly what we have been.

“We’ve got clear challenges – how do we bridge that next gap? What we’ve done is taken the first steps quite quickly – and with that comes a little more expectation. We’re in exactly the same position we were before, but with a bit more consistency and solidity.

“If you look at Watford, in second position, they have scored 12 more goals than us. If you look at our top goalscorers we haven’t got one of those strikers that has scored those numbers at the moment. That’s a team collective and something we have to work towards.

“There are other reasons behind that little bit that has stopped us kicking on again.

“We’ve done a lot well this season and we showed a lot of character to come back from our little blip in mid-season. We’ve got 11 games left to see where we finish.