One position that Millwall must bolster if Joe Edwards is to succeed: View | OneFootball

Since Joe Edwards took over at Millwall, the Lions have won just one game, an emphatic 4-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday, but since then, the side seems to be struggling to adjust to the footballing philosophy of the new boss.

The victory over Wednesday was, disappointingly, followed by a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Coventry in Joe Edwards' first match in charge at the Den, and a subsequent loss away from home at high-flying Ipswich.

On Saturday, Edwards and co were able to avoid a third successive defeat, but were perhaps lucky to come away with a point against a Sunderland side who dominated possession, but lacked a clinical edge.

Since their promotion from League One in 2017, the Lions have been a solid Championship outfit, built on the strong defensive foundations put in place by previous managers Gary Rowett and Neil Harris, but new gaffer Joe Edwards is placing more of an onus on possession-based football.

The missing ingredient Joe Edwards needs at Millwall

In order to instill his expansive football ethos at the Lions, Joe Edwards needs a ball-playing centre half so that his new side are capable of playing out from the back because, as solid as stalwarts Jake Cooper and Shaun Hutchinson are, they arguably lack ball-playing skills.

This is demonstrated by Jake Cooper's relatively low pass accuracy of just 73.7% in the Championship this season, while Hutchinson has a pass accuracy of just 67.8% so in order to successfully play out from the back, the Lions clearly need a centre back with better passing ability, although notably the latter has started just six matches this season.

Wes Harding, who has been a mainstay in defence for the Lions this season, may have better passing accuracy than Cooper or Hutchinson but his figure of 75.6% still leaves a lot to be desired for Joe Edwards.

Ironically, Dan Ballard could have been the ideal centre-half for Joe Edwards as his ball-playing skills are instrumental to Tony Mowbray's expansive style at Sunderland, and the ace was on loan at the Lions in the past.

Ballard has started all 18 Championship matches for the Black Cats this campaign, and has a very impressive pass accuracy of 89.9% which totally dwarfs the equivalent figures on show from Edwards' current backline.

January will be upon us before we know it, and Edwards will want to utilise the transfer window to bring a ball-playing defender through the doors at the Den, in order to get his side playing the way he wants.

Perhaps the Lions should turn to the third-tier to plug this gap as there is an increasing number of League One centre-halves with excellent footballing ability such as Peterborough's duo of Ronnie Edwards and Josh Knight.

Knight could be a particularly good option for the Lions, as he has had a good football education, coming through the youth ranks at former Premier League winners Leicester City, and he has starred for a Peterborough side who sit fifth in the League One table.

Knight's passing accuracy of 87.8% shows that he has the ball-playing skills that Joe Edwards is looking for, and impressively for a centre back, the 26-year-old has even created six chances for the Posh this season.

However, there may be doubts over how defensively astute Knight is as he has won just 55.6% of his attempted tackles in League One this campaign, but he is clearly very good in possession, which is exactly what Edwards wants.