JED Wallace has admitted the intense nature of the season has left him feeling fatigued and he was glad of a recent rest – particularly as the team won in his absence.
Wallace, 26, has played in 34 of Millwall’s 35 league games this season. The only one he didn’t feature in was against Sheffield Wednesday last month when he was named on the bench and then wasn’t needed as the Lions won 4-1.
Since he joined the Lions permanently in the summer of 2017, Wallace has played 43 league games out of 46, then 42, and featured in 43 Championship games last season.
Millwall have to pack their 46 league games this term into a campaign that is over a month shorter than usual due to the late start after the delayed 2019-20 season.
Wallace respected manager Gary Rowett’s decision to leave him out against the Owls.
“Sometimes you forget, I play nearly every week and it can be hard with the volume of games,” Wallace said.
“The pitches have been difficult as well so sometimes you feel fatigued. Maybe centre-halves can get away with it a little bit more and goalkeepers, but for offensive players it’s difficult to play week-in, week-out.
“I can probably count on one hand the number of games I’ve missed for Millwall the last three or four years. It’s something I’m proud of. I take care of my body.
“I have a good relationship with the manager where if he wants to take me out we’ve got freshness about us coming in. No one is more important than the team getting results.
“A major factor this year is competition for places and people have made big impacts off the bench. We need that.
“It’s all about the team so I was happy to be on the bench and watch us win. When you’re not in the team you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and work hard to try and get back in.
“I came on against Reading and did well. I scored in the next game against Birmingham. It’s good [to rest players], it keeps everyone on their toes.
“I just want to play the best I can but it has been difficult this season. I don’t think anyone apart from Hutch [Shaun Hutchinson] or Coops [Jake Cooper] or Bart [Bialkowski] is going to be able to play every minute of every game.”
Millwall appear to have little chance of reaching the play-offs this season, and they don’t need to worry about relegation.
But Wallace isn’t going to get complacent.
He said: “I know it sounds clichéd but we have to take it as it comes, the games are so frequent one bad week can change your whole season. A good week can do the same as well.
“Every single game is difficult. At this level every team has three or four players that can really hurt you.
“If four or five of our players don’t play well we’re not going to win games. We need nine or 10, 11 playing well to win because we don’t have the luxury of a lot of clubs that have 20, 25 players to pick from.
“We need at least nine of our team playing well to win games. If there are more than that off it then we won’t win.”
Scott Malone can’t played against his parent club, with Shane Ferguson, Danny McNamara and Junior Tiensia the options to replace him.
Derby, meanwhile, are in a relegation battle under Wayne Rooney but picked up a positive result mid-week with their 0-0 draw at a Barnsley side that were on a seven-game winning streak.
The Rams are seven points above the bottom three.
Possible Millwall starting XI: 5-3-2: Bialkowski; Romeo, Evans, Hutchinson, Cooper, McNamara; Mitchell, Woods, Thompson; J Wallace, Bennett.
Match odds: Derby 7/4 Draw 2/1 Millwall 21/10
Last meeting: Championship (December 5, 2020): Millwall 0-1 Derby (Knight 69’).
Image: Millwall FC