ALEX Neil explained why he switched shape for his side’s Carabao Cup tie with Crystal Palace on Tuesday, September 16, with Millwall holding the Eagles to a 1-1 draw over the 90 minutes before losing 4-2 on penalties.
The Lions were much changed heading into the match, with 20-year-old French midfielder Derek Mazuo-Sacko making his debut, and Neil opeting to set the Lions up in a 3-4-2-1 formation, rather than the 4-4-2 he had employed for much of the season.
The switch worked well, with Millwall winning duels across the pitch and containing Palace’s dangerous forwards, including ex-Lion Romain Esse, who was replaced at half-time after being marked out of the game by Caleb Taylor, who was making his first Millwall start.
The Eagles got the breakthrough at a set-piece in the second half, but the Lions responded in similar fashion in injury time, with Ryan Leonard heading home Jack Howland’s corner.
Millwall were denied a famous win and a spot in the Fourth Round by two missed penalties in the shoot-out, with Palace converting all of theirs.
Neil explained why he made the change in formation, and why it worked so well.
“We’ve got a lot of inexperience in the middle of the pitch with Derek and Dan [Kelly] playing, who I thought were terrific, both of them,” Neil said. “Derek played the full game, Dan came off early doors. Then I thought Ra’ees was good when he dropped back in there as well.
“But what we did do is we added an extra man in the back line because against Palace, they end up five versus four on your back line, and if you can’t stop the ball getting there well enough because your press is not maybe efficient enough, they’ll hurt you.
“I think matching them up across our back line was definitely the best chance that we were going to have to contain that and make sure we win those duels and make sure we can hit them in transition.
“I thought we did all of that, and I thought we did brilliantly. I thought more and more the game wore on, the better we became at it.”