BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
Billy Mitchell has added more risk to his game in a bid to take his Millwall displays to the next level.
The 24-year-old, who came through the Lions’ youth ranks, has made 166 first-team appearances in a defensive midfield role.
But one of the criticisms aimed at Mitchell by the fanbase has been that his passing tends to be sideways rather than penetrative.
Yet recently he has won plaudits for more expansive play, including a line-splitting pass to Casper De Norre for Josh Coburn’s winning goal at Sheffield United earlier this month.
“If I’m honest I probably would’ve agreed with some of the fans’ comments (about being safety-first),” Mitchell told the South London Press.
“The hidden component to that is sometimes confidence.
“Where I’ve been out for such a long time, you don’t see things as quickly. You might be physically fit but the mind needs to work at the right pace in the Championship – it is a very frantic and fast-paced game.
“You need to land on the ball and see those passes. When you are coming back from a long time out, you want to keep the ball and sometimes that is the first pass you see.
“It isn’t always the most penetrating pass but the longer you play, the better positions I get into, the more time I buy myself. That allows you that extra split second to get your head up and look forward.
“Also it is just that I’ve accepted if I want to be a more influential player then I am sometimes going to give the ball away more.
“Before I used to judge my performances on the mistakes I made, rather than the good things I did. If I went through a game and didn’t necessarily create anything but I made no mistakes, then I’d be quite comfortable.
“It gets to a point where that is only going to take you so far – it’s quite a defensive mentality. Whereas the pass at Sheffield United, or the bits I did earlier in my career that are better, is when you take a little bit of risk. Granted as a holding midfield player there is only so much risk you can take with the ball – but fortune favours the brave.
“I have to accept I trust the players in front of me that they are going to hold the ball up or do something with it. Maybe less forward passes come off but when they do they lead to creating a chance or a goal – so it is worth it.”
A quad injury sustained in pre-season kept Mitchell out until the start of December.
He has made 22 appearances since then but looks set to miss the final two matches due to a calf problem which saw him sit out Monday’s 3-1 win over Norwich City.
“It’s been a very mixed bag,” said Mitchell. “It was a very frustrating start, with the injuries. I wasn’t wholly pleased with how I played last season. There were some good bits and some not so good bits.
“I was really keen to come back this pre-season and hit the ground running. And then I got hit with the quad injury, then another one, and it killed all my momentum. That was quite tough to deal with.
“We had Chopper (Neil Harris) in at the start of the season, so I felt like I had a good chance of playing.
“I thought I did okay when I came back under him but I was mostly coming on off the bench. It’s quite hard to do for me, anyway, because I’m not like Aidomo (Emakhu) and one of the most impactful players.
“I’m normally coming on to see out the game. If you do then you have done your job and if you don’t there is no real upside to it.”
Mitchell says the structure put in place by Harris’ successor Alex Neil has helped simplify his role.
He said: “I would just say I have a very clear role in the team.
“I know that I am sitting just off that left side of central midfield. And typically playing slightly deeper than Casper – picking up one of the opposition’s central attacking players or screening the back four.
“When I get the ball I know exactly where my forward pass is going to be. Because of the kind of structure that he has built, We’re going to have maybe a left winger, a right winger, who has rolled inside, and a 10 on the left side of the pitch. It just makes my decision-making so much easier and quicker. It is much easier to find those forward passes – because I haven’t got to consider what options are ahead of me and they are all in the right positions.
“From a defensive point of view I just know what I’ve got to do. I know what my job is and where I’ve got to land on the pitch.
“It kind of takes some of the thinking away. Then my job is just to turn up physically and be able to at least run and do those things from a physical point of view.
“Game by game we have had a good base and structure to work off – and taken it from there. Once we get into the final third he (Neil) says: ‘Just go and express yourselves’.
“When you are feeling good you don’t care who you are playing against – or what is on the line or at stake. You just go out and play football. You just see the chance to get on the ball.”
Mitchell removed himself off social media a couple of years ago.
“There are always going to be people who back you and negative stuff,” he said. “I just found you could have 100 positive comments and you can read one negative one and it would stick in my mind because I want to be liked – everyone wants to be liked or seen as doing well.
“But also I found I could spend a lot of time being distracted on social media and not being present with my family and friends. I felt it was better to get rid of it and I feel much better for it – much more level in my emotions as well.
“Your head can get filled with a lot of stuff and it’s not helpful. You want to stay as level as possible.”
