‘We need people to step up’ – Millwall boss on decision to tweak team shape against Burnley

Millwall boss Gary Rowett opened up on his decision to tweak his side’s shape following Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat at Burnley.

The Lions were bidding to bounce back after losing 1-0 against Reading at the weekend, and Rowett handed full debuts to summer signings Zian Flemming and Andreas Voglsammer.

The duo lined up alongside Tom Bradshaw in a 5-2-3 formation – a slight variation on the 5-2-1-2 shape that the Lions have adopted so far this term.

Although the change failed to yield any points, Rowett felt as though the change of shape made his side look more dangerous in the final third.

When asked why Flemming and Voglsammer were deployed either side of Bradshaw, Rowett explained: “Because we haven’t scored goals.

“You’ve got to give people a chance to stamp their authority on the game. I said that to the players afterwards, I don’t think we’ve got that many players at the moment that are saying: ‘You’ve got to pick me every week’. We need people to step up, because we’re better than that.

“I know the team is capable of performing better than we have. Burnley are a good side with some very, very good players, so it’s a difficult place to come. But if you want to take points then you’ve got to defend well first and foremost.

“I thought [the shape] looked a little bit better. I thought we got into better positions and we looked a bit more of an attacking threat. Defensively, for the majority of the first 60 minutes we held our shape well. Again, I’ve got to tweak what we’re doing. If what we’re doing is not bringing us results – we’ve won two games this season – then we have to try to find a solution to settle the team down and see if we can perform a little bit more consistently.”