MILLWALL manager Neil Harris says he has “learned a lot” about his squad after a difficult first part of the season.
The Lions face a crucial week next week with three fixtures against teams also occupying places in the lower reaches of Sky Bet League One.
The squad travel to bottom-place Crewe on Saturday knowing a loss would see the Railwaymen leapfrog them in the table.
They then play Port Vale and Southend, both of whom are coming off the back of wins in their last games and who are two points ahead of Harris’ side.
And he acknowledged the importance of three games which could have a big influence in shaping Millwall’s season.
Harris said: “I’ve learned a lot about my players in the last four weeks, I’m a lot clearer on some of them. I still think there’s a balance to get right.
“I’ve had to search at times because of injury to get the right balance and I’m a lot clearer now on team selection and what will be my settled team.
“That will be evident in my starting XI from Saturday onwards.
“Ideally you’d play Saturday to Saturday to give you the time to recover and to give you an opportunity to plan for the next game.
“I’d love to have played Saturday, we were ready for the Port Vale game. But with the international call-ups had we picked up a few injuries against Peterborough we would have been light.
“What the break has done is give us an opportunity to see Crewe, Port Vale and Southend so we know exactly what we’re up against.
“A lot of our preparations for those games have been done already and it’s been a good week for us.
“It’s a big week for us now. We go to Crewe, which is always tough, we go to Port Vale, and then Southend at home who’ve had some good results and who are finding their feet at this level.
“They are three games against teams who find themselves early on in a similar position to us. And they are three games after which we hope to have more points on the board.”