Starting XI dilemma for Jackett as pre season begins

With England crashing out of the Euros, attention for many football fans will turn to upcoming per season fixtures and the start of the new campaign.

In less then 3 weeks Millwall will kick off their pre season with a tour of Ireland which they start on July 16th against Shelbourne, and the team will be slightly different from last season.

The goalkeeping position will most likely be different from last time out, with Kenny Jackett using 3 goalkeepers last season he’ll want to pick his goalie and stick with him. The most likely player for the number 1 jersey is veteran Maik Taylor, the ex Northern Ireland international was instrumental in the Lions end of season form, including making 2 penalty saves in 2 games and would be the and would be the fans choice.

Then there’s the EIRE international David Forde. This was the first season that Forde has come under any real pressure, injuries at the start of the season saw him replaced, plus high cost mistakes saw Jackett react and bring in Taylor and I would go with Taylor due to his end of season form.

Then there’s the defence. With the signing of left back Scott malone, he would most likely candidate for that position. A good signing for the Lions as he is also known as a forward thinking defender, this means Tony Craig will miss out, a fans favourite who gives his all, but will hopefully be kept as back up for centre back position.

The centre back position will stay the same as last season, with captain Paul “Robbo” Robinson and Shane Lowry as the pairing, and will be hoping the carry on their impressive partnership from last season.

The right back position will be a battle between Jack Smith and one club man Alan Dunne. They both played many games at right back last season but I believe Jackett will pick Smith due to his performances, and he does not get caught out of position as much as Dunne.

Compared to last season there will certainly be changes in midfield, on the right wing it’ll be between James Henry and Liam Feeney. Feeney hit form in the middle of the season and was becoming one of the teams top performers, but his performances dropped rapidly, which saw James Henry come back in with great performances.

Plus something we’ve not seen from Henry before, passion in the way he plays, which was spotted quickly in by the Lions faithful. The centre of midfield will be a three way for two spaces, with Jimmy Abdou and Liam Trotter the most likely due to their partnership last season. But Josh Wright will be pushing them for a spot, coming in on a short term contract, his pin-point passing help open up defences, plus THAT goal against Burnley will live long in the memory; it’ll be interesting to see who Jackett picks.

So far their is only one candidate for left wing with new signing Chris Taylor. Taylor is a left winger who cuts in onto his right, which is where the majority of his goals and assists come from, this will be his first season in the Championship and hopefully he’ll be able to raise his game. There is only one left winger due to Hameur Bouazza leaving for Cyprus but the less said about him the better.

The strike force will have changed from the end of last season with Harry Kane returning to Spurs after a impressive loan spell. The one striker who is guaranteed to start is Andy Keogh, 10 goals in 19 games after signing in January will surely see him play, it’s just about finding a strike partner.

The obvious choice is Darius Henderson, but with his upcoming court case, he might not be an option come the end of August. John Marquis may be available, but he is young and not yet a quality striker, a loan to a League 1/2 club for the season would help him massively.

The one player who could be a good striker is Shaun Batt, he has overcome injuries and is now preparing for his first full pre season in two years, he will be a unknown to championship defenders, a strong tall body with pace, but will be get you 15-20 goals? We shall see.

With this in thought, this would be my team for the season at the moment -

Taylor

Smith-Robinson-Lowry-Malone

Henry-Abdou-Trotter-Taylor

Keogh-Batt

Fixtures give Millwall tough start

The fixtures have come out this week for the football league and the Premier League, and the fixture accumulators have not given Millwall the easiest start of the season by any stretch of the imagination.

The Lions will kick off the season with the exact way they finished it, welcoming the tangerines of Blackpool to The Den, not the easiest game to start of with seeing as Blackpool are the losing play off finalists, after losing 2-1 to West Ham.

It’ll be the second season in a row that the Lions will kick off against the season before play off losing finalists.

This match will go one of two ways, Blackpool will be even more determined to get promoted and provide a usual hard game as usual, or the play off hangover will still be over them and Millwall could see a result go their way. Plus rumours of players such as Thomas Ince and Matty Philips leaving the club, it could be a very different team from the play off final, with all this I could see a Lions win.

The first away trip will be to Peterborough United. This will be considered one of the easier away trips in the division, with players such as George Boyd and Paul Taylor being transfer listed due to contract talks breaking down, the Posh will have lost most of their goal threat.

But players are being bought in by manger Darren Ferguson, even though the majority are being signed from League Two and Blue Square Premier. The Lions managed to record a 3-0 win the last time they played at London Road and I’d expect the Lions to get the same kind of result.

The South Londoners then face a tougher away trip next with a trip to play newly promoted Sheffield Wednesday.

The Owls will be still on a high following promotion, and previous seasons show that at least one of the promoted teams carry on the last season form onto the start of the next season, plus Dave Jones has already bought in players such as Joe Matlock and one time England international Chris Kirkland, the Lions will be hoping to carry on last seasons away form but I can see this being a struggle to get points from this game.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Lions as they then welcome play off hopefuls Middlesborough to The Den. ‘Boro narrowly missed out on the play offs last season and Tony Mowbray’s team will be determined to go one better and on. A vital move away from the Riverside has already happened with winger Barry Robson off to the sunny side league of the MLS by signing for Vancouver Whitecaps, but by losing a vital player, they also signed a new one, Grant Leadbitter, who was undoubtedly Ipswitchs’ best player last year. This will be another strong test.

Milwall will then travel to the KC stadium and play Hull City ,who have recently been taken over in management by Steve Bruce.

With Hull missing out on the play offs, the Tigers were underachieving by their own standards, but Bruce will be hoping to change that. With rumours such as Emile Heskey signing for the club, Hull will be trying to bring a higher quality of player to the club, and Bruce may be the man to do that due to previous Premier League experience. A unknown game at the moment for the Lions, Hull’s starting XI could be completely different come August.

The Lions start the season with some tough games, yet again in the Championship which games aren’t? All I can say is bring it on! Only two months to go…..

Euro 2012 brings confidence to Forde.

Ireland have just played their first game of this years European championships, losing out 3-1 to Croatia. Millwall's David Forde may be third choice goalie for the Irish, but I bet if you told him 4 years ago that he would be in the squad for a European championships, he would've thought you were crazy.

Forde joined Millwall in the summer of 2008 after being released by Cardiff City and he soon endeared himself to the lions faithful, in only his fifth game for the club he dramatically saved a last minute penalty against Huddersfield to secure the lions first win of the season. This was a good first season for Forde at the den, after saving a Jermaine Beckford penalty in the play off semi final against Leeds, before losing to Scunthorpe in the final, despite this Forde had a good season also by keeping the 2nd highest amount of clean sheets. His strong personality shadowed his play on the pitch, from quiet to loud-mouthed in seconds. Plus being described a having a "Jekyll and Hyde" personality by more then one teammate will endear him more to the Millwall faithful, A passionate mentalist.

Forde went on to play in all competitive games the lions in both of their play off seasons as the lions went back to wembley the following season, this time to win as they beat Swindon Town. Forde went from being relatively unknown to being one of the most reliable goalies out of the two top divisions. Forde was also another brilliant example of Kenny Jackett building a successful team on one of the smallest budgets in the division.

A higher division brought a higher challenge for the whole team, especially Forde as higher quality players would come up against them, little faults began to become apparent in the Ireland internationals play, his kicking was poor and looked to be beat easily from long range. Despite this Forde was still the lions number one as the lions flirted with the play offs in their successful first season back in the championship. This season also saw Forde collect the highest honour in playing football, playing for your country. Forde play and collected his first cap against Northern Ireland in May 2011

The lions second season in the championship saw Forde come under pressure for the first time. Poor performances and injuries saw Steve Mildenhall come in for his first run in the team. Forde brought more mistakes into his game, including errors against West Ham and Brighton cost the lions vital points in their relegation battle, which saw him dropped again. This was the final straw for Kenny Jackett who brought in Maik Taylor on loan. Taylor's great performances saw him signed up on a one-year deal for the upcoming season.

Despite less game time, Forde was picked for the EIRE euro 2012 squad. Despite being considered third choice, this could bring new found confidence to Forde. Good enough to beat Maik Taylor to the number 1 jersey next season? Not for me, but he isn’t a bad second choice.