MILLWALL will try to sign a centre-forward this summer – but manager Gary Rowett is demanding more goals from more areas of his side next season.
The Lions had two of the Championship’s top-scorers in 2022-23 in Tom Bradshaw, who scored 17 goals, and Zian Flemming, who finished on 15.
That was over 56 per cent of the total number of league goals of 57.
But there was a drop-off from other areas of the side from previous seasons under Rowett.
Shaun Hutchinson scored six goals in Rowett’s first season, 2019-20, but failed to find the back of the net in the last campaign.
Centre-back Charlie Cresswell, who was on loan from Leeds United, scored four goals in 30 games.
Jake Cooper scored three goals, but elsewhere in the defence there were no goals from Danny McNamara, Murray Wallace or Scott Malone. Wallace scored six goals in all competitions in 2021-22 and Malone scored three that season and six in the campaign before that.
In front of the defence, George Saville scored two goals in 2022-23 while regular midfield partner Billy Mitchell has yet to add to his solitary goal for the club. Those two play in deeper roles but Saville scored 10 times in 2017-18 in a midfield two with Shaun Williams, the latter who could be relied on for an average of two goals a season from play in his four seasons with the Lions after they returned to the second tier in 2017.
Rowett pointed out that Bradshaw and Flemming wouldn’t have hit their numbers without the work and sacrifice of their team-mates, but he knows it’s an area where there is room for big improvement.
“We’re a team that are looking for goals from everywhere,” Rowett said. “We probably started the season thinking we weren’t going to have a player on seventeen and fifteen but the reality is we did. That needs a lot of support from other players, a lot of unselfish play from other players.
“But of course to improve, and I spoke about it all season, we need goals from everywhere. We need goals from the centre-backs. I think only Cressy and Coops were regular goal-scorers. Therefore I think some players didn’t have the seasons they had previously. Murray didn’t get the same amount of goals as normal. Hutchy scored six goals the first season yet hasn’t replicated that since.
“It’s not a criticism of any player, it’s the reality that we need to step up in those areas – we scored more goals last year than previously – and if we do then it’s an opportunity to improve that further.”
Image: Millwall FC
