Match Day Thread Millwall FC v Sunderland AFC - Saturday 23rd November 2024 - KO 15:00

Sunderland visit the Den to face Millwall in the Championship.
Last time out Sunderland drew with Coventry and Millwall drew at Stoke.
Sunderland made a few changes bringing back Roberts and Mundle with Isidor starting up front. The Black Cats played well in the first half and scored 2 fantastic goals but Coventry came back strongly in the second half to rescue a point in the 2-2 draw.
Ballard and Hume played both games for Northern Ireland in the Nations league. Jobe played both games for England U21s to qualify for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals.
Aleksic played 84 minutes in centre midfield for Serbia U21s on Tuesday, Hjelde played at centre back for Norway U21s and Mepham was on the bench for Wales.
Hume, Roberts and Jobe are all suspended for this game with Mundle and Browne added to the injured list.
Huggins, Seelt, Samed, Poveda & Abdullahi remain injured.
Millwall are unbeaten in their past seven Championship games, with five wins, leaving them in eighth place.
Millwall manager Neil Harris says the international break will be a good chance for them to rest and prepare for their next Championship game, against leaders Sunderland.
The Lions had Romain Esse (England Elite squad), Mihailo Ivanovic (Serbia) and George Saville (Northern Ireland) away on international duty but Harris says the rest of the squad were to get some time off.
Former Black Cats, George Honeyman and Duncan Watmore could feature for the Lions.
Regis le Bris:
"It was a good first half. We started well with our strength and our quality at home.
"We created many opportunities to score with two fantastic goals. The second half was totally different because we were not able to keep the ball under pressure.
"I can be disappointed and I think the players are disappointed too.
"We need to solve other problems that it wasn't possible to do today. We needed to win that game."
Press Conference:

Neil Harris
"Good luck to the ones representing their country, we're very proud of them, for the rest of the lads it'll be a fine balance between recuperation and game time so when we get around to Sunderland we're at it."
“For us, it's about discipline, being as organised and structured as we can be and then finding a way to score at the other end. I'm very proud of the players."

Match Appointments
Referee: JOHN BUSBY
Assistant Referees: Mark Russell & Robert Hyde
Fourth Official: Paul Howard

Team Lineups:
Sunderland AFC: (4-3-3) Patterson, Cirkin, Alese, Mepham, Ballard, O’Nien, Neil, Rigg, Aleksic, Mayenda, Isidor.

Subs: Moore, Hjelde, Johnson, Ba, Jones, Aouchiche, Rusyn, Connolly, Watson.
Injured: Huggins, Seelt, Samed, Abdullahi, Poveda, Browne, Mundle.
Suspended: Jobe, Roberts, Hume

Millwall: (4-2-3-1) Jensen, Leonard, Tanganga, Cooper, McNamara, De Norre, Wintle, Esse, Cowburn, Azeez, Bradshaw.
Subs: Emakhu, Honeyman, Huchinson, Ivanovic, Langstaff, Roberts, Saville, Wallace, Watmore.
Injured: Mitchell


Betting Odds:
Sunderland 2/1 Millwall 29/20 Draw 2/1

Prutton Predicts: 1-0

My two pence:
A disappointing result against Coventry plus the injuries and yellow cards made it a bad day at the office despite still being top of the league.
Hopefully the injuries to Mundle and Browne are not as bad as rumoured but Regis has had enough time during the break to work out how to fill the gaps. Away to Millwall is never easy and will be a new experience for Regis and some of the players.
This is going to be a tough physical battle and we need to be big and strong at the back and clever up front to break down their well organised defence.
I’m going for a 1-0 away win.

Live Stream:
https://www.safc.com/live
Available to overseas fans only

Ha’way the Lads

 

Great, thanks RTB lad

 

Nice one @RTB

I fancy us for another draw, which wouldn’t be a bad result given the circumstances

Ha’way the lads

 

We have a habit of going away with patched up squads and getting a result, West Brom, both seasons, Birmingham, norwich, Preston first season no reason we can’t do it again, expecting them to come at us similar to Luton and Preston, hopefully we can weather the storms and be clinical when we create our own chances, 2-1 to the lads Wilson and Neil, honeyman or watmore for them because it’s safc

 

Both players were on their bench last game, I’m hoping they are again

 

Me too and anyone else with any tiny link to safc

 

They are very happy to sit back then nick one goal, don't think we are falling for that, 0 0 or the lads to win 1-0, mind if they still have that enormous ch they will be a threat at set pieces

 

Great post as always mate, I can't listen to what the falk anymore far too many errrrrm and buts for me.

 

It’s either gonna be a 1-0 win or 1-1/0-0

I really think a win

 

Been thinking about the lineup and decided that I think we should start Aouchiche and Ba. My thought process is that we should try to keep the shape and system as consistent as possible. I like both as players and think they both have qualities that can help us, both also have major flaws though. Also, if there wasn't an international break I would've started Aleksic, however he's only going to have 2 training sessions at the most before Saturday and I just don't think that's enough time to prepare for a debut in a hostile environment.

I think O'Nien is the best option at right back and then it's between Ballard and Alese at centre back, I would go with Ballard however Alese has been training for the last week or so whereas Ballard has been away so Alese may get the nod.

Don't think Isidor can play wide in our system and we need his speed up front. In for a hard game against Cooper and we need him to win his fair share of duels against him.

Patterson back in if he's fit although i'm more than comfortable with Moore if he needs to play.

So I'd go with;

Watson Isidor Ba
Aouchiche Neil Rigg
Cirkin Mepham Ballard O'Nien
Patterson

Midfield is in for a hard game. I would have Rigg dropping into the midfield 2 with Aouchiche joining Isidor in our 442 out of possession shape.

Millwall are good. Harris has them creating a lot of chances and remaining solid at the back. Set pieces concern me here, Cooper wins pretty much everything.

1-1, Rigg.

 

Jake Cooper I presume. Aye, he’ll be playing

 

He is enormous, hope we mark him properly

 

According to something I listened to this morning from one of their supporters, they do not create a lot and try and take the pressure then break, we wont get sucked in (I hope)

 

Not sure that supporter is watching their games then! 4th for xG, 8th for shots on target, 4th for 'big chances created', 5th for accurate crosses. They will let us have the ball but create a load of chances when they go forward.

 

They sit back and dont need the ball, wait for the break, XG means **** all, look at boro, you dont get promoted on XG. Our biggest issue is the number of players we have suspended/injured

 

Thats not the argument here, you said one of their fans said they don't create much i'm giving you a metric that shows that they do.

You are correct you don't get promoted on xG, it's a seriously flawed metric and there's much better ways of measuring attacking threat, however, the teams that top xG charts (specifically open play xG) nearly always finish in the top 6 of the championship.

 

XG is a pile of **** man, the sooner people realise that the better, it was one of their fans saying they sit back and hope to break, not someone looking at XG, do you get promoted on XG?

 

Better tell that to the people running our club and the majority of clubs across the world then.

I quite literally said they will give us possession but when they attack they create chances, it was you who said they don't create much. That's the point I'm arguing against.

You don't get promoted on xG, I said that in my last post. It's just a metric that measures chance quality. It's extremely flawed.

Not sure what you're arguing against here, all I said was that the Millwall fan was wrong, not you.

 

The Millwall fan watches them, think I will trust him