DEFENDER Danny McNamara admits he gets nervous before every game he plays, “even in friendlies”.
McNamara, 25, joined Millwall in the 2020-21 season and has made 137 appearances at full-back.
Having missed out on starting the Lions’ first eight league games, McNamara has earned more playing time after Neil Harris shifted to a more solid style of football. The Millwall boss has come to rely on McNamara’s defensive excellence in tricky away games.
Aside from against Leeds United, in which he replaced the suspended Joe Bryan, all of McNamara’s starts this season have come on the road.
McNamara told NewsAtDen he relishes the opportunity to test himself in challenging environments.
“I always get nervous before games,” McNamara said. “Even in friendlies I get nervous, but I think I’ve played enough games now where they’re good nerves.
“I can control the nerves and it’s exciting. I love going into games, I like playing against tough opponents, good wingers. It’s a challenge for me and it brings the best out of me, so I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
“It’s my game, I love playing against top wingers. I back myself against any winger in this league. I enjoy it. It’s obviously a challenge, but a challenge that I thrive off and it’s good for me.”
McNamara has helped his side keep clean sheets away from home against West Brom and Swansea City, and is a vital part of one of the best defenses in the league.
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The Lions have kept five clean sheets in their last seven matches, and have only conceded six goals in their past thirteen league games.
McNamara attributes Millwall’s defensive form to Harris’ influence in the dressing room.
“We’ve kept a lot of clean sheets,” McNamara said
“I think it’s our mentality as a group. Neil coming in, he’s a massive believer in keeping clean sheets and being resilient and I feel like he’s rubbing off on.”
“I feel like obviously we’ve done that pretty the whole of this season, bar a couple of silly games. We just love it, keeping in our shape and it’s exciting going into games hoping that we keep a clean sheet. Yeah, it’s a task but we’re capable of it.”
The week before the international break was McNamara’s busiest yet. He started two games and came off the bench in a third, playing 198 minutes of football in the span of six days.
Despite the physical strain of playing so many minutes in such a short time, McNamara prefers playing more than once a week.
“I’ve always said that I like playing Saturday and Tuesday or Saturday and Wednesday,” McNamara said. “It just keeps that momentum going.
“If you have a bit of a bad result on a Saturday, you’ve got to wait a week to put it right, whereas if you play Saturday and play on Wednesday, it’s a short gap so if things go wrong on Saturday, you can put it right on Wednesday. I’m a fit lad and I enjoy playing week in, week out.”
McNamara’s fitness will soon be put to the test. Coming out of the international break, the Lions are set to play three games in seven days, including two away trips to Oxford and Portsmouth.
“This international break we’ve had a few days off, which is nice to switch off with the family, spend some quality time with them, but then your focus now this week is to look ahead for the games coming up,” McNamara said.
“We’ve got three games this next week. So it’s going to be a tough week, it’s going to be a busy week. We’re all ready for it and we’ve all got the mentality to go again.”
