We always quite fancy Millwall to make the play-offs, and then they never do. Their start to this season doesn’t suggest that’s going to change, and our correspondent Lucas Ball has been disappointed so far, but with Sheff Utd, Burnley and Norwich all among their initial away games you’d be daft to write them off just yet.

How was last season?

Really promising, even if it was a little disappointing to just miss out on the top-six in the end. We’ve had something of a squad overhaul with loan players departing and the loss of a couple of others - most notably Jed Wallace. Wallace was once again our key attacking force despite his injury issues last season and it’s gutting to lose him, but we have some other very good players still and have made some excellent additions.

Millwall league games so far…
Millwall 2-0 Stoke Cresswell 12, 65
Sheff Utd 2-0 Millwall Ndiaye 7, Berge 22
Millwall 3-2 Coventry Cooper 36, Honeyman 53, Saville 85 — McFadzean 2, Godden 28
Swansea 2-2 Millwall Manning 1, Obafemi 13 — Wood og 90, Cabango og 90
Norwich 2-0 Millwall Sargent 50, 75
Millwall 0-1 Reading Sarr 14
Burnley 2-0 Millwall Vitinho 62, Rodriguez 72
Millwall 2-0 Cardiff Cresswell 63, Afobe 90

How's the start of the season gone?

To be honest, quite disappointing. We’ve looked bereft of any ideas in an attacking sense and have generally defended poorly for spells - which has previously always been a strength despite a dearth of creativity. We may need to look at changing systems - particularly away from home where we’re on a winless run and have performed particularly poorly in a number of games.

What did you make of your transfer window in the end?

On paper, very good. Zian Flemming and Andreas Voglsammer have been the standouts, impressing off the bench before earning their first couple of starts - they will be key players for us. Callum Styles is a big improvement at left wing-back and allows us to mix it up more, too. Benik Afobe coming back was a deal we wanted done - hopefully he can kick on now he’s got his first goal of the season. Jamie Shackleton provides energy in midfield as does George Honeyman - though both sometimes may benefit from slowing it down. Charlie Cresswell has looked a threat from set pieces but has made some defensive mistakes - he’ll learn.

Ins >>> Zian Flemming, 23, AM, Fortuna Sittard, £2.3m >>> Benik Afobe, 29, CF, Stoke, Undisclosed >>> George Honeyman, 27, CM, Hull, Undisclosed >>> Andreas Vogalsammer, 30, CF, Union Berlin, Undisclosed >>> Connal Trueman, 26, GK, Birmingham, Free >>> Charlie Cresswell, 19, CB, Leeds, Loan >>> Jamie Shackleton, 22, RM/RB, Leeds, Loan >>> Callum Styles, 22, CM, Barnsley, Loan

Outs >>> Jed Wallace, 28, AM, West Brom, Free >>> Mahlon Romeo, 26, RB, Cardiff, Free >>> Connor Mahoney, 25, RM, Huddersfield, Free >>> Maikel Kieftenbeld, 32, DM, Emmen, Free >>> Alex Pearce, 33, CB, Wimbledon, Free >>> Ryan Sandford, 22, GK, Dover, Loan

Stand out players and weak links in the side?

Flemming and Voglsammer the standouts, currently. Styles had an impressive debut too. Those will provide attacking threat from different areas while George Saville has been excellent in midfield.

Defensively we’ve been poor so that’s something of a concern despite Bartosz Bialkowski outperforming his xGA between the posts. Cresswell’s inexperience may be something QPR look to target.

It’s all about adding more goals without losing our defensive stability. We’ve consistently had one of the strongest defensive records in the division for the last few years but haven’t been able to add enough goals to turn our huge number of draws into more wins.

Revised expectations for the season?

Around mid-table unless we can add some more creativity - or Voglsammer and Flemming click quicker than expected and start adding more goals to the team. With a little extra creativity and less individual errors defensively, a late play-off push may not be beyond us still given a few of the expected top-10 have had poor starts.

Links >>> Millwall official website >>> South London Press — Local Paper >>> News at Den — Blog >>> North Stand Banter — Forum >>> News Shopper — Local Paper

The Twitter @LucasBall2211, @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

Action Images

TacticalR added 10:10 - Sep 14 Thanks to Lucas. For a team without creativity, Millwall have still managed to score goals (they are not that far behind QPR in goals scored). Jed Wallace played well against us, so it's to our advantage that he has moved on.
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