Millwall: Neil Harris drops "Premier League" Japhet Tanganga claim after Leeds win | OneFootball

The former Tottenham defender is good enough to play at the top level, claims his manager.

Millwall boss Neil Harris has described Japhet Tanganga as a "Premier League player" after his win-clinching goal against Leeds United.

A fourth-consecutive 1-0 win was rattled off by the Lions, on Wednesday, against another top-level opposition. In what Harris described as a "classic Den performance,"Millwall were able to come away from their match against Leeds as the victors.

How did they get by the promotion challengers? Well, in a way that the manager's description perfectly encapsulates. They didn't allow the visitors to have too many clear-cut chances, and they were lethal from set-plays.

A first-half free-kick, after it was worked short, unsurprisingly found the head of Millwall's six-foot-six captain, Jake Cooper. His knockdown was met on the full by Tanganga, whose effort seemingly caught Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier by surprise.

He neatly directed his volley, with the outside of his right boot, into the right-hand corner of the goal and gave the Lions a lead they would hold onto for the remaining fifty minutes.

United boss Daniel Farke wasn't happy with the goal as he revealed after the game that two of his players failed to do their jobs, which would have prevented Tanganga from being able to get his shot away.

Neil Harris' Premier League, Japhet Tanganga claim

Tanganga, 25, was on loan with Millall from Tottenham Hotspur last season before joining the club as a free agent in the summer. He had been one of the brighter prospects to come out of Spurs' academy in recent times, but he struggled to really break through into their first team.

Harris, who admits that he was persistent with trying to get the defender to come back to The Den in the summer, believes that he has the ability to still play at the highest level of football in this country.

"That’s why I rung him every day in the summer," said Harris, via the South London Press, after beating Leeds.

"I get on brilliantly with Japh. I just promised him rhythm, games, doing the best we can to keep him fit and a platform to enjoy his football.

"Really, [we wanted to] kickstart and re-start his career again. He’s a Premier League player, we all know that.

"He’s had a really tough four years with injuries and disappointing loans, where it hasn’t quite worked for him and he’s not been looked after in the right manner to keep him fit after a couple of long-term injuries.

"We want him on the pitch every week and he knows his place in the team. I know what he’s excellent at, which is pretty much everything."

Players like Tanganga give Millwall true play-off hopes

Both managers from last night's match were a bit gushing about one another and their teams. Harris said that Leeds were the best team that they had faced this season, while Farke claimed that the Lions could be real contenders.

After 14 games, we have a pretty good sample size to be able to judge the Championship teams off of, and the table doesn't lie. Millwall are fifth in the league, just eight points off the top and six points behind second.

If the Lions are able to convert Farke's belief in them into reality, players like Tanganga, who have the quality and experience of playing at a higher level, will be so important. You could include someone like Romain Esse, who, based off the links between him and Crystal Palace, in that category too.

It'll be some task, given they weren't too far off the bottom three last season, but you certainly can't doubt the start that they've had; a start that has been massively aided by the quality of players in their team.