Happy Football Manager 2024 release day, everybody!
To celebrate a magnificent Monday that even Garfield might enjoy, here’s the second chapter of my FM24 series, where my aim is to lead Millwall into the Premier League within three seasons. If you missed the series introduction, you can catch up with Part 1 right here.
Today’s chapter will recap the first half of the 2023/2024 Championship season. Can the Millwall firewall hold firm, or will I need to make some tactical tweaks to ignite a play-off challenge?
By the way, if you’re wondering how a 33-year-old nobody wound up managing a Championship club, please let Mr Berylson explain why he gave me the job…
AUGUST TO SEPTEMBER 2023: A DECENT START
Truth be told, I was worried when the ‘firewall’ collapsed in our very first match – going 3-0 down at Middlesbrough after just 33 minutes! Aidomo Emakhu did at least pull one back, which was a sign of further goals to come from the Irish teenager. But that was followed a few days later by another early blow…
…as captain Shaun Hutchinson did his hip in. The Geordie centre-back would be nearly 33 when he returned, and would probably need a Zimmer frame for the rest of his career [hey, you’re a few months older than him, Chris!]. Hutch’s regular partner Jake Cooper was under real pressure to step up and lead the Lions in his absence.
We also took another battering on the road against Wayne Rooney’s Birmingham City™. The Wagatha Christie Fan Club had 69% possession, 29 shots, 3.64 xG, and hit our woodwork SIX times… but only won 2-1! Chew on that, Wayne.
Thankfully, our home form was much more solid, taking 10 points and four clean sheets from our first four league games at The Den. Mind you, we did ride our luck a couple of times – especially against Bristol City, for whom Nahki Wells scored a hat-trick… of offside goals. Meanwhile, Tom Bradshaw scored a penalty before Matija Šarkić saved one at the other end to give us a big win over Dirty Leeds.
It had been a solid start to the season for Šarkić, whose cat-like reflexes in goal won us some crucial early points. I wish I could say the same about backup keeper Bartosz Białkowski, who had a horrible mix-up with defender Ryan Leonard in the EFL Cup against Barnsley.
18-year-old winger Romain Esse equalised with a 25-yard scorcher (his first ever senior goal), but it wasn’t enough. Barnsley won 4-2 on penalties.
September ended with a stunning demolition job of Swansea, where we raced into a 3-0 lead before Bradshaw’s second-half double completed a five-star performance. That left us just outside the play-off spots after the first nine matches.
So far, so good, eh?
OCTOBER TO NOVEMBER 2023: THE COLLAPSE
Oh baby, then it fell apart.
Three scrappy draws, then outclassed at The Den by league leaders Blackburn… and then Šarkić left his gloves in the dressing room at Vicarage Road. At least we made Miles Jacobson a happy man… or a less grumpy man, anyway.
That was followed by a home game against promotion-chasing Southampton. At full-time, Russell Martin was celebrating converting a 94% pass success rate and 67% possession into one measly penalty. I was celebrating a hard-earned draw, and a rare goal for misfiring superstar Zian Flemming.
The hard work continued with a couple of late smash-and-grabs, beating Sheffield Wednesday with a George Saville free-kick (sorry, Jenna) and Coventry with a Kevin Nisbet penalty (his only goal so far this season). Sadly, we couldn’t create anything at Portman Road, where Ipswich rolled their tractor over our backsides in the second half.
Our top-six challenge was crumbling – the gap between us and the play-offs having now stretched to eight points. What the hell was going on?
For the first four months of the season, I was pretty much switching between these two tactics, lining up in either a standard 4-3-3 (my go-to formation in recent times) or the 4-2-3-1 (which was Gary Rowett’s preferred formation). I also played with various roles and instructions, but by and large, the aim was to soak up pressure and then strike with direct counter-attacks.
On the defensive side, we were doing fine – 20 goals conceded in just 18 league games, and the 2nd-lowest opposition conversion rate in the league. We weren’t giving up too many easy opportunities, and even when we did, Šarkić was usually on hand to bail his defenders out.
It was at the other end where we had issues. We had the 3rd-lowest shots per game and the 4th-lowest ‘expected goals’ per 90 minutes, which showed how much we were struggling to create chances consistently. Bradshaw had scored 6 goals in the league, but the lone striker was often left far too isolated. This was a real problem, especially with Flemming and our other inside-forwards being so ineffective out wide.
We had a solid team, sure… but we were also a counter-attacking team who couldn’t really counter-attack. It was time to try something else.
DECEMBER 2023: DESPERATE TIMES…
“Tearful and blue, nothing left to lose, if you dive right in not knowing where you’re heading…”
All I wanted for Christmas was the new Bleach Lab album, a dozen pairs of black socks… and a few wins to get us back in the play-off picture. Santa couldn’t do anything about the last bit, so instead, I sought the help of another funny, hairy old man.
You know things are getting desperate when I bring out Mike Bassett’s good ol’ 4-4-2. Even in the age of positional play and gegenpressing, this is still a great system if you just want to get the ball up the field quickly and directly. No nonsense, no fuss.
Having a quick striker like Emakhu alongside a hard-working pressing forward like Bradshaw or Duncan Watmore would solve the isolation issue and give us more options in attack. The talented Billy Mitchell would dictate play from midfield, and provide defensive cover when Joe Bryan bombed forward to deliver crosses from left-back. Yes, we were sacrificing some defensive stability (as you’ll soon see), albeit for the greater good…
I made the switch to the 4-4-2 after losing at home to Sunderland. The losing streak continued as we shipped a combined NINE goals at Cardiff and Leicester – falling all the way to 15th place. The board were now getting quite concerned, but given that we were now at least creating and converting chances, I wasn’t panicking. Much.
Sure enough, we followed up four straight losses by finishing the year with four straight WINS. After battling past Huddersfield, Stoke and QPR, we raced into a 4-1 lead against Norwich, though our defence crumbled late on and almost threw it away.
Even so, I was relieved to be heading into 2024 with us back in the top half. Though we are seven points adrift of the play-off places, I believe we can shoot right up the table if we can keep on building momentum early in the new year. Don’t write the Lions off yet!
Emakhu leads our scoring charts with nine goals so far, and is the only Millwall outfielder with an average rating above 7.00. His Irish compatriot Danny McNamara has also impressed, though the homegrown right-back has been getting itchy feet about wanting a new contract.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, Danny, but we’re over £1.5million in debt – and we’ve been over our wage budget since tying Mitchell down to a four-year contract in September! You’ll have to wait.
Annoyingly, Flemming wants a new contract too, despite producing almost nothing this half-season – 2 goals, 1 assist, 6.62 average rating. I’ve tried playing him out wide, up front and even in midfield, but it seems that nothing can get this flying Dutchman off the ground! I’m very tempted to sell Zian in January, so we can fund another left-back, another striker, and some new contracts for McNamara and co.
STAFF UPDATE
For the last part of this chapter, I want to write about the additions I’ve made to my backroom staff so far. When I arrived in July, we had an assistant manager, a goalkeeping coach, and a defensive coach. Since I really didn’t want to be helping Andy Marshall train the goalies, I had to look for reinforcements.
We had space to hire five more coaches, though I brought in four. First up, we needed a tactical coach with a typical Millwall attitude – a no-nonsense midfield bruiser who was always up for a scrap.
Duh! Lee Cattermole, of course!
To help out with the more technical side of our game, we brought in Gerald Vanenburg – a former Dutch international who won the European Championship in 1988 (Marco van Basten and all that). The only ‘Total Football’ I’m interested in is from Parquet Courts… but if Gerry can make our counter-attacks more potent, then I guess that’s fine too.
Kelvin Davis came in as a second goalkeeping coach, and Aston Villa’s former sports scientist Jack Sharkey joined as a fitness coach. My coaching staff was now settled… until I had to make one more change just before Christmas. While we were losing all our games and I was losing my marbles…
…I also lost my assistant. After six years at Millwall, Adam Barrett had taken his first managerial gig at Cheltenham, who were rock-bottom of League One.
Good luck, Adam. Hope you don’t have to wait 10 matches to see your first goal!
That left me needing a new right-hand man… and I knew who exactly to turn to.
Former centre-back Paul Robinson is a true Millwall icon – a youth graduate who played over 300 league games for the Lions between 2002 and 2014. Robbo was the assistant manager of our Under-21s team before stepping up to the senior set-up, where I hope he can teach Hutch and Coops to score as many corner goals as he did on my FM11 save!
Paul Robinson should not be confused with our other Paul Robinson – the former Watford, West Brom and Birmingham left-back who’s a pretty solid defensive coach himself. And of course, neither of those Paul Robinsons should be mixed up with this Paul Robinson… or even this Paul Robinson!
After suffering years of Championship heartache, can the Lions push for the play-offs in 2024? Please come back next week, when I’ll round up our January transfer business – and round off my first season as Millwall manager.
Fuller FM 
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