GARY Rowett is hoping to avoid a potentially “experimental” situation against Huddersfield Town at The Den on Wednesday night.
With George Evans (calf) the latest to join the injury list, Millwall are down to only two senior central midfielders: Billy Mitchell and George Saville.
The Lions are set to be without four midfielders against the Terriers. Rowett told NewsAtDen yesterday it is unlikely he will have any of his injured players back. That means Evans, Ryan Leonard, Maikel Kieftenbeld and long-term absentee Luke Freeman would be unavailable.
If anything were to happen to Mitchell or Saville then it could pose a major problem.
“Yeah, it’s been a conversation piece [Tuesday] morning,” Rowett said. “But we’ve been in the situation quite a number of times this season where we’ve had to have different plans for different situations. We’ve had to have different options and possibilities.
“It would mean someone playing out of position or a change of formation. You look at all of those things as games go by.
“We’re pretty well planned for that, it won’t be ideal but if that’s what happens it happens. We’ve got a squad that’s really being tested.
“A lot of them haven’t played in central midfield.”
Jed Wallace and Connor Mahoney can play centrally, though in advanced midfield positions, potentially as No.8s in front of a conventional defensive midfielder.
Alternatively, Rowett could decide to use a defender in midfield.
He was asked who else could play a defensive midfield role.
“We’ll keep that to ourselves,” Rowett replied. “It always depends on what type of game it is, what stage of the game it is. If it’s early in the game then of course you’ve got to think about that energy in there. If it’s late on in the game you might not need that quite so much.
“We’ve got players that can play just on front of the back three or the back four. There are players that can play a little bit ahead of it in a three.
“There are different options but hopefully we won’t be in a position where we have to find out.
“It would certainly be experimental.”
Image: Millwall FC