NEIL Harris says both Macaulay Langstaff and Kevin Nisbet need “a little bit more” sharpness and match fitness ahead of the new season.
The pair have largely been peripheral figures during Millwall’s pre-season and have not clocked up as many minutes as some of the other senior players.
Langstaff’s summer has been disrupted by a toe operation before he arrived at The Den last month, leaving him unable to do as much summer fitness work as his team-mates.
Meanwhile, Nisbet has not played regular competitive football since January after picking up a hamstring injury during his debut season with the Lions.
Both players came off the bench to play a role during the second half of yesterday’s 1-0 defeat against Southampton while defender Shaun Hutchinson, another who is still lacking match fitness, played 45 minutes.
Asked if Langstaff and Nisbet needed more fitness, Lions boss Harris said: “Both of them a little bit more, for different reasons.
“Macca had a toe op in the summer which we were aware of, obviously. When he came he hadn’t done an off-season programme like our lads or the Notts County lads had done.
“So he came in and where our lads have had seven or eight running sessions plus six or seven training sessions. Macca had done two days. So we knew he was 10 sessions behind and what we’ve seen with him – which is really encouraging – is he’s gotten sharper and sharper each week he’s been with us. And that’s definitely culminated in this week being sharper.
“Today, Bradders would love to have gone 90 minutes but ultimately we needed to get Macca out on the pitch at The Den just for 15 minutes just to get the surroundings, the pitch dimensions, a feel for it with the fans.
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“We’re patient with our players. Shaun Hutchinson played 45 minutes. We have to make sure, with such a small squad at the moment, that we don’t push players too hard.”
Harris was speaking pitch-side with some Millwall players, Nisbet included, engaged in what appeared to be a four on four mini-match.
The Millwall head coach added: “Kevin’s getting strong all the time. Kevin’s played quite a lot of minutes over the course of pre-season. Sometimes players need different types of minutes and that’s why he’s on the pitch training at the moment.”
