By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
Millwall can be as fired up as they like against West Ham on Saturday, but fire and brimstone motivational speaking will only take you so far against a good football team.
Alex Neil has promised his players will “leave absolutely everything on the pitch” and questioned how West Ham will handle The Den, which is exactly the kind of build-up you’d expect ahead of this fixture.
Speaking to Southwark News, Neil said: “It’ll be interesting to see how West Ham handle The Den and different things like that, and hopefully the atmosphere’s very good.”
He added: “What I will guarantee is our lads will leave absolutely everything on the pitch as they always do. We’ll be ready.”
And I don’t doubt that for a second. But being up for it doesn’t guarantee you beat a good West Ham team.
West Ham Still Have To Handle The Occasion
The Den itself will absolutely be a genuine test for Nuno Espírito Santo’s players, and I don’t think that should be dismissed.
What I do think we can be guilty of, though, is talking about these derbies as if nobody involved has ever seen anything remotely like it before.
Taty Castellanos has played in the Rome derby. Arne Engels has experienced the Glasgow derby, while Tomáš Souček has been involved in the Slavia Prague-Sparta Prague rivalry.
Kyle Walker-Peters has also played in Southampton against Portsmouth, so there are players in this West Ham squad who already understand what a genuinely intense local derby looks and feels like.
They probably don’t need a full history lesson on why West Ham and Millwall dislike each other but I hope they get one anyway.
Matt explained the origins of the rivalry superbly in his piece on the history of the Dockers Derby earlier today, but for the players the message can be much simpler.
Expect noise, expect hostility and expect an opponent absolutely desperate to beat you.
| West Ham v Millwall | Total |
|---|---|
| Games played | 99 |
| West Ham wins | 34 |
| Millwall wins | 38 |
| Draws | 27 |
Nuno Must Make Sure Nobody Is Surprised
Nuno’s biggest job is making sure nobody walks onto the pitch and is taken aback by the occasion.
Having people such as Steve Potts around the coaching set-up should help, because there are people at West Ham who understand exactly what this fixture means.
As Millwall defender Caleb Taylor has already warned, The Den will be “proper intimidating”, and I fully expect it to be exactly that.
Millwall have probably been looking forward to playing West Ham again far more than West Ham have been looking forward to playing Millwall.
That doesn’t make the game unimportant. It just means I think the occasion probably means a little bit more to them.
Millwall boss Alex Neil is complaining of fatigue
Being Up For It Only Gets You So Far
West Ham are going to be everybody’s cup final in the Championship this season, although I accept there is something extra attached to this fixture because of the historical rivalry.
Neil guaranteeing his players will leave everything on the pitch is exactly what I would expect from him. I’d expect the same from West Ham too. But there is a difference between commitment and quality.
You can run harder, tackle harder and whip the crowd into a frenzy, but eventually you still have to deal with West Ham’s attacking players.
Nuno appears to have deliberately protected his strongest attacking unit for the fixture, with his Fulham selection giving a very strong indication of the team he intends to unleash at The Den.
That’s the bit Millwall still have to solve.
The Referee May Have A Big Job
My bigger concern is not that Millwall will simply kick lumps out of West Ham.
It’s whether the atmosphere influences the referee.
You’ll need to be a pretty brave official to make a major decision against Millwall at The Den in a derby against West Ham, particularly if the crowd are right on top of him.
Paul Tierney has been drafted in to referee the game, which probably tells you that everybody already understands this fixture will need careful officiating.
Nobody should be given licence to recklessly charge around injuring players simply because it’s West Ham against Millwall.
Provided Nuno’s preparation is right, though, I still think this is ultimately a game of football.
A feisty one, an emotional one and certainly one with an edge.
But all the noise, fire and brimstone in the world still doesn’t change the fact that Millwall have to beat a very good West Ham team.
Way back the Millwall game used to be a real rivalry but there’s been a gulf in quality for a long time time now and the fixture basically hasn’t happened. We have more quality than most championship sides, Millwall are average and that difference in quality should tell.