MILLWALL boss Gary Rowett knows his players have to be wary of their opponents Middlesbrough potentially getting a ‘new manager bounce’ at The Riverside Stadium on Saturday.
Boro are playing their first game under Chris Wilder after the former Sheffield United manager took over from Neil Warnock on Teesside at the start of the international break.
It is the second time this season the Lions will face a side with a manager taking charge of his first game. Steve Cooper had replaced Chris Hughton when Millwall went to The City Ground to face Nottingham Forest in September.
Forest immediately improved and stopped a run of four consecutive home defeats in the league from the start of the campaign as they came from behind to draw 1-1.
There have been four managerial changes in the Championship this season. In his first game in charge, former Millwall striker Steve Morison’s Cardiff came from three goals down to earn a 3-3 draw at Stoke to end a club-record run of eight league defeats in a row.
And Joseph Laumann at Barnsley led his team to a first win in 14 matches when they defeated Derby 2-1.
Both of those were caretaker roles. Morison has since been named full-time manager of the Bluebirds and the Tykes have appointed Poya Asbaghi.
Wilder’s Sheffield United team played with a high-energy, attacking style with the novelty of the wide centre-backs in a 3-5-2 system often over-lapping the wing-backs.
“I think you always have to be aware of it,” Rowett said when asked if he and his players are more on guard against a side with a new manager. “It makes it a lot more difficult to prepare for because you would normally watch the previous five or six games and start to see patterns.
“What it does is it means the last five or six games are relatively obsolete.
“Chris played in a quite distinct way at Sheffield United. He might go down that route or he might do something completely different, who knows.
“It’s very difficult work all week on a style of play with the risk they might do something completely different.
“We focus on ourselves, but try to predict one or two things that they might do.
“We have to focus on what we do and accept that there is going to be an energy to the stadium, there’s going to be a desire from the players to prove that they deserve to start.
“You’d expect an improved performance from Middlesbrough. We saw that against Forest but we navigated it pretty well.
“It will be pretty similar but it makes it more unpredictable for us to prepare.”
Image: Millwall FC