Analysing Luke Cundle’s ‘Lampard-esque’ runs and standout conversion rate &#8211; and what they offer Millwall in the run-

LUKE Cundle has a knack for arriving at the right place at the right time.

His four goals this season have all come from Frank Lampard-esque runs where he's ghosted into the opposition's box without warning and applied the finishing touches to a move.

Think of his goal against Sheffield United.

Camiel Neghli sent in a corner, and Cundle was positioned on the edge of the box, giving the winger the option of playing in short.

Neghli opts to send it in towards the back post, Cooper heads it back into the crowd of bodies, and the Blades clear.

Cundle is well-placed to pick the ball, and he chooses to play it back to Neghli, who has run over from the corner flag.

He then immediately darts forward, hoping to get it back from Neghli, who instead chooses to drive inside and have a crack.

Neghli's effort is blocked, but Cundle continued his run and look where it ended up taking him - unmarked on the far edge of the box. He is nigh-invisible to Sheffield United's defenders, who were first preoccupied with Neghli, then the threat of the ball being looped in towards the Lions' big bodies.

Casper nods it back in the direction of Jake Cooper, whose gravity draws in all defenders around him, distracting them as Cundle cleverly darts where the ball might end up if one of his team-mates can get a head on it.

Mihailo Ivanovic flicks it on, and seemingly from out of nowhere, Cundle lands on it, takes a touch and then shows great composure to bury the ball into the back of the net.

It was a fantastic, intelligent bit of movement that capitalised on a complete lack of defensive awareness.

Cundle is not the most physically imposing player at five-foot-eight, and perhaps that is why teams often lose track of him.

His last three goals have come off the bench, and he has also done well to exploit tiring legs.

He was introduced with five minutes left against Preston North End, with Millwall only up 1-0 despite having the better of the 90 minutes.

The Lilywhites were pushing hard for an equaliser, and there was space to attack in transition.

A minute into added-time, Preston sent the ball forward, and Cooper won his aerial duel, flicking it onto Camiel Neghli, who immediately fired it out wide for Femi Azeez.

As he has done all season to great effect, Azeez drove at his man as a tiring North End back four jogged back into position, while Cundle was positioned between the centre-backs.

Azeez twisted and turned and tied his marker up in knots as Cundle made sure to stay out of the eyesight of his marker, while Ivanovic occupied the back-post defender.

In American football, there is a passing concept called rub routes, in which two receivers' routes overlap, forcing defenders to either navigate around each other or risk a collision.

Ivanovic and Cundle do a version of that here, with Ivanovic darting towards the front post and Cundle slipping around to the back, entirely disorientating the exhausted Preston pair.

It works a charm. When Azeez finally stops torturing Andrew Hughes and puts the ball in, Cundle has a step on his marker.

Odeluga Offiah pitifully attempts to clear the ball at the front post but misses, and Cundle has an easy tap-in at the back post.

Of course, Cundle benefited enormously from Azeez's threatening dribble and Ivanovic's dart across the box, but it was another clever run that tricked the defence and earned him an important goal.

To really drive the point home, I'll look at one more goal, his improvised finish against Blackburn Rovers.

Brought on at half-time with Ivanovic to help fix what had been a pretty poor first-half showing, Neil had shifted to an uber-aggressive 3-5-2, with Neghli and Azeez as wing-backs, Cundle, Barry Bannan and Billy Mitchell as the midfield three, then Ivanovic and Josh Coburn up front.

It had worked very well, immediately shifting the momentum in Millwall's favour.

Playing alongside Mitchell and Bannan allowed Cundle to get forward with more regularity, and that is exactly how Millwall found the opener.

Cundle was not the only one 'unlocked' by the new system. Crama had already been instructed to get forward more in the first half when it was apparent the game plan was not working, and the switch to a three meant he had less defensive responsibilities, meaning he could bomb down the right flank and support Azeez.

That is how the move started, with Crama receiving the ball from Cooper, then brushing past Todd Cantwell.

As he has often done this season, he galloped so far down the pitch that he drew over several defenders, while Cundle reacted quicker than his marker and set off towards the box.

Crama eventually hits a 'proverbial' wall of defenders, laying it off to Azeez, but look at how much space Cundle is in.

When Azeez gets the ball, Cundle is completely open on the edge of the box. He lost his marker, and no one else picked him, partially because Crama's gravity has six Blackburn players defending three Millwall players on the right-hand channel of the box/right flank.

Cundle continues his run as Azeez takes a touch, then calmly curls the ball in. Again, look at how much space Cundle is in!

He slightly overshoots the cross, but adjusts cleverly to flick the ball in while facing away from the goal (some commentators called it an overhead kick; I would not go as far, but it certainly resembled it).

Had it not been for Andrew Kitchen's baffling decision to send off Zak Sturge five minutes later (the red card was later rescinded...), that could have been another decisive Cundle goal. Instead, Millwall lost 2-1.

Regardless, it was the latest strike from a midfielder who has been in good form since returning from a fluke shoulder injury suffered in November, scoring three goals in 136 minutes since the New Year.

That earned him his first start since November in the 1-1 draw away at Ipswich Town last weekend.

Here is what Alex Neil, exclusively speaking to NewsAtDen, said when asked why he picked Cundle.

"I think Luke's been really unfortunate not to play," Neil said. "He's done well. He came on at Hull and helped us when the game wasn't going in our favour at the time. He came on at Preston and scored the second goal. He then came on against Blackburn and scored. Him scoring was certainly a factor in it.

"Luke can play as an eight, or he can play as a ten. He can do a little bit of both. If Casper was available, I think I'd have probably played him [Cundle] one up.

"I just felt that we carry more of a threat with two forwards, and obviously, Macca [Langstaff] is a forward; he's just probably a little bit different from Mika [Ivanovic]. That's why I chose to go that way.

"I think we probably lacked a little bit of physical presence at times in the middle of the pitch. That's why I didn't play Baz [Bannan]. Dan Neil is six feet; [Azor] Matusiwa is a strong lad as well. That was the thinking behind that."

He is a slightly different profile from what Millwall have in the squad. A smaller, energetic midfielder, who does a lot of good work picking up the ball in pockets, then driving forward, and of course chips in with goals through late runs into the box.

Cundle has the second-highest goals per 90 (0.37) in the squad behind Coburn, the third-highest expected goals (xG) per 90 (0.36), behind Coburn and Ivanovic, and a frankly bonkers conversion rate (shots to goals) of 30.77 per cent. The next highest in the squad is Coburn on 17.65 per cent.

Of course, that rate is unsustainable and will come down, but it is not as if Cundle is scoring freak screamers.

His goals come down to intelligence, hard work, composure and good finishing. That is it.

He also works really well alongside players with gravity like Crama, Azeez, and Coburn - the sorts of players that drag defenders over with their physical dominance, allowing Cundle to sneak into the box and exploit the gaps.

Neil will have plenty of options to pick from as Millwall head into the run-in. If he opts for a ten, Langstaff, Bannan, Neghli and Smallbone (if he is fit) have played there, while he may even go back to a traditional 4-4-2, pairing Coburn and Ivanovic, as he has done in the second half of their past two games.