Steve Morison on Spygate, Neil Harris on Elland Road - what Millwall have said ahead of Leeds United showdown

Leeds United take on Millwall this weekend in the Championship following the international break - but what have the Lions had to say ahead of the clash in LS11?
Millwall striker Steve Morison.Millwall striker Steve Morison.
Millwall striker Steve Morison.

From Spygate to the reverse fixture at The Den... here's what has been said:

Neil Harris on Elland Road clash...

“The boys are great, they look hungry and sharp and you certainly wouldn’t think the end of the season was nigh-on upon us. They’re in great nick.

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“It’s a good one to look forward to because sometimes you have a couple of weeks off and then don’t know what to expect. But we know what to expect from Leeds, they’re as fit as anyone in the division and play with a real tempo with and without the ball.

“We have to be ready and the players will be ready. We’ve trained to be ready for it.

“What a great challenge, 35-40,00 at Elland Road. Our fans love going there and the atmosphere will be electric. We’re going there to win the game and that’s the clear message to the group. We’re going into these remaining games to get results.”

Steve Morison has his say on Spygate...

“I don’t think it’s right. He tried to smokescreen it a little bit by saying he does more analysis than anyone else.

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"It’s common knowledge everyone does exactly the same stuff. If he had that much info then why did they need to then go and spy as well?

“He hasn’t got any more information than anyone else does. He doesn’t put any more hours in than every other football club does, everyone does the same thing. Everyone in football knows that.

“The media and the fans were like, ‘wow’ about [the presentation] but as Frank Lampard said that is just common practice from every single football club in the league.

“We all have analysts. We have Dan McLoone [Millwall video analyst] here and the people under him. The gaffer watches games, Dave [Livermore] watches games, Adam [Barrett] watches games.

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“All that stuff about him watching more games and knowing more stuff about all the players is a load of nonsense. If he did he wouldn’t need to send someone to the ground to watch someone training.

“If it were right then we’d all be inviting people to come watch our training sessions. But when you’re working on specific things for a specific game – you might have a player injured, you might be working on a certain tactic to target an area of the pitch – if you spy on that it gives you the opportunity to change your game plan and to negate what someone else has worked all week on.”

“All of this about players asking for someone’s line-up on a Saturday, knowing someone’s line-up and knowing someone’s actual specific tactics and what they’re going to do is a completely different thing.

“That stuff goes on all the time. There are a lot of people in football, people talk too much, there are always friends so everyone always has an inkling what the other team is going to be, whether it’s from media reports, from asking someone you know from the other team.

“I’ve never known individual tactics to be leaked.

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“It’s the first time I’ve ever come across someone being so open about how they do it, but I think he was just doing that to make it look like it’s not as bad as it is.”

Jed Wallace on Marcelo Bielsa...

“It’s good to see a foreign manager coming in and sticking with the English players, with a little sprinkling of the likes of [Pablo] Hernandez and such that have been outstanding.

“He’s done well and the group of players have improved so much. I love football and like to think I’m a student of football and it’s refreshing to see, as it is with Norwich, rather than teams going out and spending £50-60million on players.

“It’s good to see them improving players, changing formations and adapting different styles.

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“They had a difficult result last time out against Sheffield United. United did exactly the same as what we’ll look to do, sit in and hit them on the counter-attack. We want to do the same.”

Ryan Tunnicliffe on Leeds...

“We were the better team when we played them at The Den this season and we all remember what happened when we last went there – we beat them 4-3 in an epic game.

“We will be going there with a lot of confidence. Anyone can beat anyone in this league – not many would have tipped us to go to Birmingham and win 2-0.

“The next one is a massive match and not just because of where the two clubs are in the league – but also there is a rivalry as well. It’s a good one for us to go into after having a bit of a rest.

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“Everyone is going to be massively up for it and want to be playing.”

Ryan Leonard...

“We’ll be fighting for the games we’ve got left, the fans don’t need to worry about that, we’ll be fighting for every last inch.”

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