GARY Rowett doesn’t believe that his side rely too heavily on star forward Zian Flemming despite Saturday’s defeat to Sunderland.
The Dutchman struggled at the Stadium of Light, missing a clear-cut chance in first-half stoppage time while struggling to find space to create a moment of magic to get Millwall in a positive position.
Ultimately, the players around him failed to have a significant impact either, prompting some supporters to point out that the Lions often underperform when Flemming isn’t at his best.
However, Rowett claimed after the defeat that he didn’t think this was the case, albeit that he admitted that the forward players need to do more to help win games in the Championship.
“I think we had that same thing with Jed [Wallace] last year,” he explained.
“When you’ve got good players, good players need to perform. If good players perform, we’re not a team that are going to have six or seven of those types of players.
“I think there were enough moments in the first half. We felt as though the likes of Vogi [Voglsammer] and Danny [McNamara] could get down that side and cause problems, I thought they did. We just couldn’t quite find the finishing touch and the final touch.
“Zi is human. He’s not going to score every week, he’s not going to win us games every week. That’s where other players, certainly in those forward areas, need to step up and add that little bit of brilliance to go and unlock a game, which the first half was.”
Photo: Millwall FC