Millwall 3 - West Bromwich Albion 0

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Ratings submitted so far: 13

Brendan Clegg:

Well that was an absolutely hideous performance and a result we fully deserved. No excuses, we were terrible and I’d go as far to say that it was as bad as anything over the last 4-5 years.

The starting 11 wasn’t massively surprising to me. I thought we’d make changes and with the players available I didn’t think it looked terrible.

It was only after about 10 minutes had gone and people were holding to positions and shape that you could see that as well as the personnel changes we’d adjusted the system to go 4-4-2 with Wallace up alongside Heggeboe and Price on the left with MJ right.

It left us short in the middle and was a horrible mismatch against our differing styles to combat the gusty wind.

Millwall were not afraid to go long and win the 50/50s with the extra man - they pretty much won them all with Billy Mitchell running the show as the spare.

We tried to keep it on the deck but didn’t have enough players in the middle to play through their press.

It was ropey before they scored a very soft goal… just bad in blocking and defending a cross - an absolute gift.

But it continued to be awful. Price was lost, Millwall stepped high knowing Wallace and Heggeboe would not run in behind, our fullbacks had no options.

The fact we persisted this way to half time was worrying as even with the players on the pitch we could have dropped Price back in the middle, put MJ left and Jed right to get a hold of the game before the break. We didn’t though, and it was a painful watch. I think our only touch in their box was late on when Wallace charged the goalie down… if that stat didn’t scream change it then what would.

Amazingly, to me anyway, we came out the same.

And left it the same.

And then they scored a second while we were navel-gazing. It was a decent hit but we defended poorly and, harshly, a top keeper saves those as it was absolutely not in the top corner.

Maja and SIJ were the obvious subs but cane on too late. They scored a deserved 3rd on the break after more awful defending.

Mowatt, Diakite and Bostock got some minutes but it was a pointless and painful watch.

In my opinion Mason got this very wrong - changing too much from game to game with too many players not in their strongest positions. He was then way way too slow to react… a bit of a theme, and it didn’t necessarily needs subs to adjust things even if a few were red lining.

A bit worrying because this was a proper walloping against a really poor team who had themselves just taken a hiding. Let’s hope Dike, Bany, Grant and Taylor are back properly after the break and Maja is trusted to start. We need options.

• Griffiths - 6 conceded 3, I might be harsh about the second but he’s a big lad.
• Campbell - 5 Suffering now and needs a break. Committed but not confident on the ball.
• Phillips - 6 Can’t with happy with 2 of the goals
• Mepham - 6 as Phillips
• Styles - 5 Lacked composure. 1 break in the first half was a good opportunity to cross. The official Albion account said it was a good ball. It wasn’t, he walloped it when there were players to pick out.
• MJ - 5 no impact until the last 10
• Collyer - 5 out-muscled
• Molumby - 5 Isn’t near good enough to play in a Price - 4 lost in a 4 on the left. Has nosedived since we lost Fellows as there are no crosses and no space. Loses it cheaply even when scoring.
• Wallace - 5 ran hard and tried but ineffective
• Heggeboe - 5 easily marshalled abs missed a good chance in the air

• Maja - 5 wild and sloppy
• SIJ - 5 it was already over
• Diakite - 6 won a few contests and was aggressive
• Mowatt- 6 controlled the ball better
• Bostock - 7 bright, uncomplicated, aggressive

Form isn’t great. Need to see a big improvement after the break.