JOE Edwards insists he and his players are guarding against complacency as they look to keep up their strong league form.
Millwall return to the Championship tomorrow after last week’s FA Cup break and, in terms of league form, are on a run of three consecutive wins and four clean sheets in a row.
But Middlesbrough promise to be a difficult nut to crack as Edwards’ former side Chelsea discovered on Tuesday night.
Boro won 1-0 in the Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg against the Blues, a few days after pushing Aston Villa all the way in one of last Saturday’s evening FA Cup games.
Michael Carrick’s side have played two games since Millwall were last on the pitch and Joe Edwards was asked at his pre-match press conference if their cup exertions could be advantage to his side.
The Lions boss told reporters: “It’s hard to know, to be honest. Whenever you look at this scenario, you can always flip it. If you look at the week they’ve had, they’ve had a lot of load, they’ve probably had a late night on Tuesday night so may not have well trained particularly after whereas we’ve had a clear week.
“But you also have the confidence and momentum they have from giving a good account of themselves against two top teams. It might give them a bit of a spring coming into this game. We had a busy week over Christmas and had our best period of the season so we’ll try not to read too much into it when we do our preparation this week. We just analyse them as we always would to try and get a clear picture as possible about what they might try and bring.
“But, as I always say, the focus is on us. We’ve probably played really well and how I would like us to play for two or three or four games and that’s nowhere near enough to think we cracked it.”
On Millwall’s form, he added: “You can never just assume that it will just continue like that. Complacency is the enemy at this point, so we’ve been very focused this week. And we’re playing against a team who have put in two impressive performances themselves against Premier League teams so we’re well aware of what we’re up against.”
Carrick has earned rave reviews since taking over as Middlesbrough boss in October 2022 and leading them to fourth – and a play-off semi-final defeat – in his first season in charge.
His bright start to life as a manager comes after a superb, if in some parts underappreciated, playing career where he won five Premier League titles and one Champions League with Manchester United.
Asked about similarities between himself and Carrick, Edwards grinned as he said: “He was a slightly better player than I was, ever so slightly.”
He added: “I know one of Michael’s assistants Aaron Danks very well, we worked together in the England set-up. He and I have probably got a far more similar journey going back more than me and Michael would. So I’m sure Aaron has an influence.
“I can see the comparisons. Probably our ideal of how we would like our teams to play, there’s probably similarities there. We’ve both had the benefit of working with teams and players at the highest level. So if you’re talking about building and having possession and controlling games, we’ve both been very fortunate with the levels we’ve been able to coach at.
“Certainly Michael’s been doing it a fair bit longer than I have in terms of the amount of games he’s managed in the Championship and particularly the amount of wins he picked up last year. I’ve got every respect for the job he’s doing so far and it’s definitely a difficult game for us at the weekend due to how well-coached they are.”
Both teams have injury problems with Boro’s considerably longer injury list appearing to grow on Tuesday when Emmanuel Latte Lath and Alex Bangura both went off with issues in the opening 20 minutes against Chelsea. In better news for Millwall, Edwards said he believes both Brooke Norton-Cuffy and now Murray Wallace may be fit enough to make the bench.
But this does little to immediately address the Millwall manager’s lack of centre-backs who are fit to start the game. Only Wes Harding and Jake Cooper are available with the Lions having settled into a back three formation in recent weeks.
Edwards hinted he was ready to start Danny McNamara, who is a full-back, in the last line of defence after he replaced Ryan Leonard and did well in the 3-2 FA Cup defeat to Leicester City.
He said: “Without giving the team away, I’m comfortable saying I’m a big believer in consistency particularly in that backline. And if you look at the performance against Leicester when Lenny got injured in the first half, if you look at the remainder of the game, Danny McNamara went in on the right of the back three, did a really good job.
“Ryan Longman [who was subbed on for Leonard, allowing McNamara to make the switch in position] played right wing-back and again he did more than his job defensively and offered a good offensive outlet as well.
“It does what it does, these injuries. It tests the depth of your squad. You do have to come up with things and people covering positions that maybe, on paper, wouldn’t be their best position. But we readjusted after Ryan [Leonard] got injured and thought we still looked quite strong. We’ll be okay to cover it and I hope we can get more bodies back sooner rather than later.”