Millwall Analysis: A Comedy of Errors staged at The Den &#8211; how Lions lost to Pompey

IN William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, cases of mistaken identity leads to all sorts of chaos and mishaps.

Millwall supporters at The Den on Saturday must have been wondering if a team of hapless doppelgängers had shown up instead of the reliable promotion-chasing players they had been familiar with this year.

The Lions players didn't appear to recognise each other, either.

Few could have predicted Portsmouth would repeat their 3-1 win from Fratton Park earlier in the season, earning them the double over the Lions for the first time since 2002-03, when the Den support gave Pompey’s Paul Merson a standing ovation as the visitors won 5-0.

Merson said recently he hoped Millwall went up this season. He said they had a kind enough fixture list coming up, but adding the caveat that anyone can beat anyone in the Championship.

Unfortunately for Alex Neil’s side and the home support in another record attendance, he was quickly proved right by his former side.

Millwall had lost only one of their previous ten games, against leaders Coventry City, so this performance came out of nowhere.

There was no injury crisis, no loss of form. This was a team with players bang in form all over the pitch.

So what happened?

Ominous signs

Millwall didn’t play very well against Wrexham and Sheffield Wednesday in their previous two games but came away with six points after some clinical actions in the final third.

There were two early moments against Portsmouth that hinted at a difficult afternoon.

The first was in the opening minute when Pompey were allowed to go the length of the pitch far too easily.

They went from goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid through centre-back Regan Poole and then a one-two between Gustavo Caballero and John Swift before Jake Cooper knocked the Paraguayan’s cross out for a corner.

Millwall are vulnerable on the left side of their defence. We reported previously that the Lions signed Alfie Doughty to play as a winger, but he is currently the first-choice left-back. Joe Bryan has played only sixteen league games this season as he has struggled with injury. Doughty has been preferred over the less experienced Zak Sturge, who came on for him with nine minutes left against Pompey.

Caballero, meanwhile, was given a man-of-the-match rating of 8.5 by the football statistics website fotmob.com , underlining his influence on the game and result.

Bizarre decisions - fatigue?

Players made bizarre decisions throughout the game. Take this one, for example. Caleb Taylor wins the ball and bounces a pass inside to Billy Mitchell. The midfielder passes back to Tristan Crama who then plays a crazy pass across the defence. Caballero gets on to it before going around Doughty and forcing Anthony Patterson into a save.

Crama has played a lot of minutes this season. He has started every league game (33), playing all but 35 minutes (2,935 out of 2,970) this season. And that is in one of the most demanding positions on the pitch, right-back.

Ideally, Crama needs a rest for one game. He came off in the 81st minute for Ryan Leonard. But as Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday have shown recently, there is no ideal game to take him out. If Neil had rested him against Portsmouth and the side had still lost, one could imagine the criticism that would have come the head coach’s way.

It wasn’t only Crama making poor decisions and passes. It was throughout the side. There always seems to be a match in every season when it feels like ‘a game too far’ for some players. Mitchell played his eighth 90-minute game in a row, which, for someone who has had injury issues, is an intense run.

But, at this point of the season, it’s difficult to look at any game as one that offers the opportunity to rest key players. Perhaps Neil will accept it is necessary. Right now, the Lions are favourites to claim a play-off place. And, if they finish in the top six, it would be an advantage come May if they had managed to squeeze in a break for those players who needed it.

Lack of clinical edge in attack

Millwall weren’t as clinical in attack as they had been recently. Take this example above. Femi Azeez has been released into space down the right. He has Tom Watson with him on the edge of the box and Mihailo Ivanovic inside the box.

But neither player’s movement is good enough. Ivanovic should have immediately peeled away to the back post. Could Watson have found an angle to offer Azeez a cut-back option? Instead, with neither of those options available, Azeez shoots from a difficult angle and it’s saved.

Cooper had a header from a Camiel Neghli cross and got plenty of power on it but not the required direction as it went straight at Schmid. That was Millwall’s best chance of the game.

Millwall only had two successful crosses out of fifteen in the first half. It was a reflection of an attack having an off-day.

Lions self-inflict wound

And it was a reflection of the sluggishness and sloppiness of the overall performance that the Lions gifted the visitors the lead eighteen seconds into the second half.

In the image below, the three Millwall players closest to the ball, Taylor, Cooper and Doughty, either hesitate or stop when Colby Bishop flicks on a clearance. Only one players react in the correct way: Caballero, racing up on Doughty's shoulder. Anthony Patterson saved his first shot but could only palm the ball down for the winger to finish from a tight angle.

The third goal, just three minutes after Casper De Norre had made it 2-1, was whatever is the opposite of the cherry on the cake. It summed up the hosts’ afternoon. It should have been a simple headed clearance by Taylor from a corner. Instead, the ball hit his shoulder, the shot came in and when the ball rebounded Marlon Pack swept home.

Neil admitted afterwards his side didn’t deserve anything from the game as he reflected on the goals they conceded.

“Then the third one, we actually lose a header from the first corner,” Neil said. “We then have to defend the second corner that comes in. We try to head it, it hits our shoulder and the ball lands in the middle of the box. If you’re going to make those errors at this level and don’t do the basics well, you’re going to come up short, and ultimately, that’s what happened.”

So many players had off-days, resulting in a shambolic performance. It was such a frustrating missed opportunity, with several sides around the Lions slipping up. Had they won, Millwall would now be only three points off second-place Middlesbrough.

But this side have shown they should be judged on more than just one 90-minute performance. They will be glad to have another game so quickly, with Birmingham City due in SE16 on Wednesday night.

It all works out in the end for the Bard’s colourful characters. Lions supporters will be hoping that Saturday was just a blip on the way to finishing in the top six in May.