Millwall manager Gary Rowett has suggested that the Lions will make changes to their starting line-up and hand a chance for some fringe players to get minutes against Leicester City on Wednesday.
The Lions take on Leicester aiming to try and make it into the last 16 of the Carabao Cup. It will be a real test for Millwall considering that they are up against a side that have finished in 5th place in the Premier League in the last two seasons.
Rowett’s side have not been helped heading into the game against Leicester by them suffering injury issues to key players such as Danny McNamara, George Evans, Benik Afobe and Sheyi Ojo who are all likely to miss out on the match.
That leaves Millwall’s options against their Premier League opponents limited, but it could be a chance for players on the edges of the squad to impress.
The likes of Conor Mahoney and Ben Thompson, in particular, will be hoping they can lay down a marker to try and get into the side in the league.
Speaking to the News at Den ahead of the game against Leicester, Rowett admitted that he is likely to ring the changes against Leicester and hand starts to some of the Lions’ fringe players. Although he did suggest he would use his bench to try and affect the game later on.
He said: “I won’t go into individuals and say what opportunity they’re going to get because of course I haven’t named the side, I haven’t really thought about the team yet, to be honest.
“We’ve had a lack of preparation time ourselves to prepare for [Saturday’s] game and I think Coventry create different tactical problems for you.
“But there will certainly be an opportunity for some players on Wednesday, that’s natural. Some have earned the right to do it in the last cup game. Some will be fresh and chomping at the bit.
“It will be a good game for us. I’ve got to be careful how many players I throw in from the start that haven’t played because you’re not going to take four or five players off after 60 minutes. We might have to use some as impacts off the bench.
“It will be nice to see some of those players out there.”
The verdict
The Leicester City game probably comes at an unideal time for Millwall really. The Lions have been slowly starting to improve in the Championship after a slow start and they are now unbeaten in their last four matches in the English second tier.
However, Millwall have managed to win just one of their opening eight league matches and that will be frustrating for them especially considering they have drawn five times already.
That means that Rowett is not going to want to risk his most important players picking up injury setbacks against Leicester. It would seem to be the sensible approach to use the game to get minutes into other players at this stage.
There is no reason why Millwall can not still give Leicester a real game, and in truth, their opponents are also likely to make changes considering that they are juggling the Premier League and Europa League at the moment.
The likes of Mahoney, Thompson and others will have to take this chance to show that they can potentially get into Millwall’s strongest side in the Championship moving forwards.