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Millwall have endured a testing start to their Championship campaign this season, with Neil Harris' side having picked up two wins, four draws and three defeats so far this term.

Thus far, Harris has largely set his team up in a 4-4-1-1 system which has been centered around the use of long balls and crosses to create scoring chances for the front men, who usually come in the form of Matt Smith and Aiden O'Brien, with the latter of which largely operating as a support striker behind the towering figure of Smith who acts as a traditional target man.

This approach has so far proved to be largely unsuccessful, with the Lions having only scored seven goals collectively this terms, thus putting them amongst the lowest scorers in the Championship this season, whilst from a defensive perspective, they have conceded 12.

One of the best ways for Millwall to improve their chances in front of goal is for Harris to encourage O'Brien to position himself as close to Smith up front, as this will allow the target man to flick on long balls to O'Brien who has the pace to get in behind, whilst the former QPR man can also hold the ball up and bring Millwall's wide men, Connor Mahoney and Jed Wallace into play.

In addition to this, Harris should also ask his wingers, Mahoney and Wallace, to make more penetrating runs infield, as this will help to confuse the opposition defence, thus pulling player's out of position, such as the full-backs who can be dragged infield to open up space out wide for the Millwall full-backs, Shane Ferguson and Mahlon Romeo, to get crosses into Smith in the penalty area.

By doing this, Millwall will make their attacking movements less predictable and thus harder to defend against, as getting more players around Smith in support of the target man will no doubt create more chances for Harris's side, particularly with the ex-Oldham Athletic striker being so dominant in the air.

Lastly, from a defensive point of view, Millwall's central midfielders, Ryan Leonard and Shaun Williams, should look to drop deeper to close the space between them and the Lion's backline as this will help to prevent the opposition's creative midfielders from having the space to play through balls to their forward players, which is a passage of play that data from WhoScored.com shows is a big defensive weakness of Millwall's performances so far this season.

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