NEIL Harris is calling on his players to return to being a “powerful, aggressive Millwall team” when they face Swansea in front of the Sky Sports cameras at The Den on Saturday evening.
The Lions lost successive league games away from home for the first time since March 2017 and are looking to revive their Championship form in their own backyard.
Swansea haven’t won in three league games and are 10th in the table, three points above Millwall. Graham Potter took over the Swans this summer after leading Swedish side Ostersund from the fourth to the first division within five years and to the last 32 of the Europa League last season, including a 2-1 win over Arsenal at the Emirates.
“Graham’s taken on a tough position in the medium term, the team’s been relegated and immediately it becomes about financial budgets again, as we seem to talk about a lot,” Harris said.
“He has to turn around a group of players with people in and people out. He did a remarkable job in Europe, what he achieved, in surreal circumstances, to be honest. It was a great story and I really look forward to meeting him at the weekend.
“He’s gone to a really big club at this level. I enjoy listening to him when he talks. There’s a real freshness and honesty about his comments.
“We know it’s going to be a testing game because they’ve got really good players. They’ve had a stop-start beginning to their season, a little bit like us.
“We’re all striving for that consistency. They’re no different.
“He’s got them playing a good passing game and they’re a really dangerous side. They’ve got some players that can hurt you, as the majority of teams do at this level.
“It’s another game for us at The Den where we’ve got to try to impose ourselves and stop the opposition doing what they’re good it.
“And we have to ensure that we’re better on the ball than we have been in the last couple of games.
“We’ve certainly got to cut out the schoolboy defensive errors that have cost us. We’ve let six goals in in six games league and cup [before Wednesday]. It’s not a disaster and a lot of other clubs would be happy with that, but with my standards and our normal defensive solidity, that’s not acceptable.
“We’ve got to get back to that clean-sheet mentality, standing strong at difficult times which served us in such good stead last season.
“We need to use the ball better than the last couple of times on the road, get back to being that really powerful, aggressive Millwall team.”
Possible Millwall starting XI
4-4-2: Archer; McLaughlin, Webster, Cooper, Meredith; J Wallace, Tunnicliffe, Williams, O’Brien; Gregory, Morison.
Match odds
Millwall 11/10 Draw 9/4 Swansea 5/2
Last meetings
2010-11 Championship: Swansea 1-1 Millwall; Millwall 0-2 Swansea.
Image: Millwall FC