Mike Dodds' every word ahead of Sunderland vs Millwall

How is everyone?

Yeah, we've got a couple of niggles which we've had to be a little cautious with today and we'll see how they are tomorrow. In terms of the group, they're okay. We're fully prepared for the weekend. Obviously we've got tomorrow to do a little bit extra in terms of preparation. We know the game on Saturday is going to be a completely different type of game and we've got to be prepared for that.

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You’ve spoken about trying to get Dennis Cirkin and Corry Evans a little bit of game time before the end of the season, is this weekend too soon?

It definitely will be too soon for Dennis. I had a conversation with Dennis and he’s part-trained with the group. Dennis is really keen to be back amongst the squad and try and get involved in some of the games. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to be the voice of reason for him because he’s had a significant amount of time off. We would want to try and get him on the pitch before the summer but I think we’re just going to have to take it week-by-week with Dennis.

Corry had a week where he had a little bit of a flare up with his groin so he had a couple of days where it just kind of took him off his feet a little bit, but he’s been training this week with the group so if not this weekend then definitely the following weekend, providing everything goes alright for Corry.

You spoke after Leeds and West Brom about the areas you were pleased with, particularly out of possession, have you been able to work on the other areas to your satisfaction?

We won’t know until the game unfolds on Saturday but I’ve been happy for a number of weeks, not just those two games. I think the two games [against Leeds and West Brom] just highlighted our progress out of possession, which I’ve been really pleased with. But I was pleased with previous games before that, without naming particular games.

I think my disappointment with those games were when we did get the ball into positive areas of the pitch I thought we didn’t execute and in those types of games when you come up against two of the stronger teams in the league, in terms of their position in the league, you can’t turn down those opportunities. I don’t want to over-emphasise the in possession stuff because I felt against Bristol City, in particular in the first half, I felt our in possession stuff was outstanding. The game should have been out of sight. So, I don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill but those two games I’m always really critical of myself first as a coach, and then I’ll be critical of the group.

I just felt the game at Leeds was there for the taking for us if we were a little bit better with the ball. Having watched the West Brom game back we were really professional. It would have been easy when a team goes down to 10-men to abandon the principles and I don’t think they did, but at the same time I just want us to be a little bit more free-flowing when you have a man advantage and that didn’t quite happen for us.

There’s lots of positives around the group. It’s taken us a while to change the direction of the group and I feel like we’re going in the right direction now.

You must be pleased with the clean sheets of late?

That was one of the things we spoke about as a group when I took over. There were a number of areas I felt we needed to focus on; set pieces, for the last five or six games I’ve felt our defensive set-up from set pieces has been really, really good and that’s going to have to be the case on Saturday because they are such a threat from set pieces but I think in our previous games our defending from set pieces has been better and obviously we scored from a set piece at the weekend. I wanted us to be harder to play against and it’s probably taken us a little bit longer than I would have liked, but saying that we only conceded one goal against Leicester and there was one goal against Norwich and they’re teams who are in the top six. So, there were signs of us being better out of possession.

I would have liked to have seen the group score more goals but having some of our attacking options [missing] for the first part of this period that I’ve taken over was always going to be difficult. But there’s signs of what I think the group is capable of. I think there is some more positivity around the clean sheets and if you’re a team who can keep clean sheets as your foundations you give yourself a really strong platform to be successful. That’s something we’ll be looking to build upon in the next three games.

Neil Harris has returned to Millwall and plays what seems an old fashioned 4-4-2 which seems to be working well?

I’ve got a lot of admiration for the job he’s done in a short period of time. They wanted to go in a slightly different direction; they went from Gary to Joe – I don’t know Joe but he has a similar kind of background to myself and it didn’t quite work out for him.  

I do genuinely think, sometimes, you have good fits and bad fits whether it be head coaches or managers at certain football clubs and I think Millwall probably highlight that in terms of going from someone who is well-respected in the game in terms of a coach in Joe Edwards and then appointing Neil after Joe who will be very different in terms of the way they’ll approach the game. But Neil has done extremely well in terms of getting the absolutely maximum out of what he’s got at his disposal.

They’re really well organised, particularly out of possession, they play 4-4-2, they’re a real threat on transitions – a lot of their goals since Neil has come in have been via transitions and as always they’re a threat from set pieces. Results have picked up for them so it’s going to be a difficult game and we’re going to have to manage all of those bits. If we do that, and we’re better with the ball, we give ourselves a chance of doing well in the game.

George Honeyman and Duncan Watmore could face their former club, do you believe in the psychology of former players doing well against their old club?

Yeah, in some cases. I do think when you they play against a former team, players somehow find an extra five or 10 per cent because they want to do well. Both players suit Millwall in terms of I think they’re really industrious, they will leave everything on the pitch, so they are a good fit for that football club.

One thing I do know is, whatever team they do pick, they’re going to be really, really hardworking and really hard to play against and they will embody all of the principles the head coach wants to imprint on the team. We know what’s going to come.

You’ve hit the point in the season where there are players on loan and players heading out of contract, does that impact your team selection? Are you picking teams based on winning the games in front of you or what’s best for the club in the long-term?

I don’t want to sit on the fence with that question, it is a little bit of both. I’ve said in previous weeks this is a massive football club and what I’m not going to do is use these games to experiment but at the same time we do have to build game-on-game, week-on-week, to get us back to where we want to be. So the games are not going to be throwaway games. But there is one eye on the next 12-18 months, so it is a balance.

As a head coach, I want to win every game of football so that will be the first and foremost priority and then from there it’s whether we need to change the shape, whether we can give player ‘x’ an opportunity and then we’ll make a decision from there, but any decision that is made around picking the team is not a five-minute decision. It’s discussed amongst the staff, it's hours and hours of watching the opposition, watching our previous games and things we’ve done well and things we haven’t done particularly well so those decisions are made over a long period of time.

How much of a motivation is it to give the home fans a good send off in these final games of the season?

Definitely, 100 per cent. I was disappointed for the group and for the fans against Bristol because we were more than deserved winners – their goalkeeper was just in unbelievable form. So the last performance I was really happy with and if we replicate that in terms of energy and enthusiasm and things we want to execute in the game, we give ourselves an excellent opportunity.

Like always, whether it’s home or away, we want to try and win every game of football and in particular at home knowing we’ve got a huge following who are going to come and watch the next two games, we want to make sure they go away into the summer with some positivity.

Are there any targets between now and the end of the season? Top-half or just wanting to win all three?

Look, we want to win all three. There have been some discussions around targets internally, whether that be individual, units or a collective group. We have set some targets for the group but ultimately it's trying to win every game of football and I don't think that will change regardless of whether you're playing Leeds at Elland Road or Millwall at the Stadium of Light. Two completely different games but one mentality to take all three points.

Can you give us any idea of what those targets are?

Unit specific - with a back four, keep clean sheets. Front half of the pitch, score and assist, midfield players, connect the front half of the pitch and the back half of the pitch and do their responsibility properly. The second ball game on Saturday is going to be hugely important and I think if they win that battle in midfield they'll give us a really strong opportunity to win the game.

Some unit specific stuff, some individual stuff which I think is private to the individual. In terms of the group, we're looking for maximum points from the next three games. 

You said back four there, could you move away from a back three?

Did I say back four, did I? Slip of the tongue. Potentially.

The back five has served us really well over the last few games. What it does, it allows us to absorb not so much pressure but forward passes which is something that could be really important in this game. Millwall will play a lot of forward passes so a back five will be beneficial to that. A back four allows you to get another attacking option on the pitch.

It's a decision for us as staff to decide whether we go four or five, based on whether we want to absorb their forward passes or put another body on the pitch to put their back four under a bit of pressure.

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What's the latest on Nazariy Rusyn?

It's touch and go at the moment. He's part training and the moment and the reality is, this game and the next game will be a little bit too close. Sheffield Wednesday, potentially, on how his body reacts will be a little bit more realistic.