GARY Rowett has given a more detailed explanation of what he means when he says he wants to use the rest of this season partly to learn about his side for the next campaign and take some “gambles”.
Rowett says it doesn’t mean completely changing formations or handing starts to players who haven’t featured in this campaign.
The Lions boss explained it is more about patterns of play within games and working on specific tactical approaches, such as playing out from the back or pressing.
Millwall are in a comfortable position in the top half of the table with four games left, after dropping to 17th at one point earlier in the campaign.
The Lions could be without eight first-team players through injury when they play Bournemouth at The Den on Wednesday evening.
But Rowett can still pick an experienced side.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean me being hugely experimental with the team,” Rowett said when asked to elaborate on his quotes before the 0-0 draw at Brentford. “It just means we try one or two things within the game.
“Again, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re suddenly going to throw out completely different formations. It’s things we’ll do within the game to see if we can do things differently.
“It might not be massively noticeable to everyone else but I’m clear on what we’re trying to do and what we want to achieve.
“What I would say is with our injuries it’s going to make it that more challenging because we haven’t got those options to try and change things with. We’ll have to be a little bit creative.
“It just means different ways of playing out from the back, different passing movements, different ways of pressing the ball.
“As soon as I say that [about taking gambles] people thing we’re going to change completely the formation and put six players in who haven’t played. It doesn’t necessarily mean that.
“Because, again, if those six players were ready I would have played them already. We’ve had so many games, everyone who’s been fit and available has featured in the games.
“I don’t think there are going to be any surprises in that sense. I’m not going to suddenly go and play the under-23s.
“It’s those subtle things within the game that we’ll try to do. They might not be hugely noticeable.”
Image: Millwall FC