Macaulay Langstaff is giving Alex Neil a real Millwall FC dilemma | OneFootball

Pre-season performances have given Macaulay Langstaff a chance of changing Alex Neil's mind at Millwall.

As the 2025/26 Championship season approaches, Millwall will be one of a number of teams aiming to challenge for the top six and the play-off places this season, and manager Alex Neil is being given a dilemma by striker Macaulay Langstaff.

Millwall missed out on the top six on the final day of last season after an excellent end to the campaign, with former Sunderland and Norwich City boss Neil really getting to grips with his squad at The Den in the second-half of the campaign.

A big part of that turnaround saw Neil being able to decipher what his absolute best starting XI and squad would be for the run-in, and that often saw Langstaff struggle for minutes due to a lack of robust effectiveness for the Lions.

However, Neil’s first pre-season at the club will mean a clean slate, as ever, for a lot of new players, and Langstaff’s recent hat-trick against Sutton United in a pre-season friendly will give the Scotsman further pause for thought as the former Notts County attacker attempts to reignite his career this season.

Langstaff not giving up on Millwall career

It wouldn’t have been an unreasonable thing to suggest that Langstaff appeared an inevitable departure from The Den this summer, after an underwhelming first season in Bermondsey.

The 28-year-old striker joined Millwall from Notts County last summer, where he had been extremely prolific with a 42-goal National League season being backed up by scoring 28 goals in 46 games in League Two during the 2023/24 campaign, in what was his first season in the EFL.

Langstaff’s jump from the fourth-tier, where he had only ever been for one season, all the way to the second-tier seemed ambitious for both club and player at the time, and he struggled last year, with just one goal in 34 Championship appearances, starting just 14 times.

Langstaff was seemingly not adaptable for a Neil Harris style of play in the first-half of the campaign, but then drifted even further to the fringes when Neil replaced Harris in the dugout in December.

However, rather than push for a move to ensure regular game time at perhaps a lower level this summer, Langstaff has remained put and a hat-trick against Sutton will only strengthen his chance of forcing Neil to reconsider his importance to the squad; admittedly that was in a pre-season friendly against National League opposition.

Millwall have a lot of attacking depth for Langstaff to contend with

Langstaff may well be keeping his name in the mix at The Den, but Millwall will be wanting to challenge for the top six again this season, and that level of ambition matched with an impressive array of attacking depth and quality will make things hard for the former Gateshead marksman.

Serbian striker Mihailo Ivanovic joined last summer and shone, particularly under Neil, establishing himself as one of the most exciting young strikers in the Championship, whilst Josh Coburn has joined on a permanent deal from Middlesbrough following his loan spell last season.

As well as those two, Millwall also boast the likes of Aidomo Emakhu and Kevin Nisbet, with Femi Azeez and Camiel Neghli as versatile wide options, whilst youngsters Ajay Matthews and Zak Lovelace joined the club back in the winter transfer window.

There is a way for Langstaff to still play a part in providing depth as a fox in the box variable for Neil, and pre-season performances such as against Sutton will go a long way to finally showcasing his attributes for Millwall.

He has certainly been able to provide Neil with some questions to answer when this summer could have easily seen him become something of a forgotten man in south London.