Joe Edwards bemoaned his side’s defending as the Lions were thrashed 4-0 by Ipswich Town on Wednesday night.
Edwards’ side was taken apart by Ipswich, who had one just once in nine games before the contest. Nathan Broadhead, put Town in front before an own goal from Wes Harding and a Kieffer Moore strike saw Millwall 3-0 down at the break.
The Millwall head coach speaking to Sky Sports after the game said “It [errors] have been happening too often to us.
“Starting games well at home isn’t anything to be screaming about – you have to play well for the full game against teams like this. We did – we had a clear plan and we knew what their threats were.
“For 25 minutes, it was a game, but as it is with us at the moment, we make an error, followed by another error. We’re better than that and they’re poor mistakes. But the reality is most errors we make we’re getting punished in the most brutal way.”
A lot has been made of the style that the former Everton assistant coach wants to play and when asked if he had the players to do it he doubled down saying “It’s nothing to do with the type of football tonight, it’s about defending. Since I’ve come in, people have been looking for the narrative of what’s changed: playing style, possession, that sort of stuff. I get that people look for narratives, but at the end of the day, defending is a fundamental part of the game.
“When I’m preparing a team to play Ipswich and knowing full well how good they’ve been this season, there’s nothing from my end where we’re going out to be loose in and around our own box. And that’s exactly what it was.
“We have to perform better, it’s that simple. You talk about personnel, and there are individuals making mistakes at the moment, [but] this is the same group of players which were in a tough spell over December, and we then had four clean sheets in a row over the Christmas period.
“You rack your brains at times because we had a plan, and for 25 minutes, we eradicated Ipswich’s threat. Form of players affects confidence a bit, which you can see. That’s been the story; we get this momentum, and then when one blow goes against us, we unravel a bit, which we speak about and analyse.
“We’re in poor form and making a lot of mistakes and getting punished for it, but the only way to address it is to stand up and face it and be better.”