Adam Barrett explained the thinking behind Millwall’s shift to a back five in their home draw against Barnsley on Saturday.

Millwall had won back to back games against Wycombe and Luton playing 4-4-2 but brought Alex Pearce into the side to revert to a 5-2-3 system.

Barrett explained, ‘We’ve got a lot of fixtures in a short space of time, the squad is going to be vitally important.

‘It’s hard, we want to play with an intensity and a tempo, but it’s difficult to keep asking the lads to go again.

‘We’ve got so many fixtures, [they’re] crammed in and we’ve got to utilise the squad.

Pearce was brought back in to deal with Barnsley’s two up front, while Barrett explained the front three were chosen to stretch the away side’s backline.

He continued, ‘There’s lots of different conversations that go on about changing the formation. But like I say, we’ve got a lot of games, we’re playing against a lot of different systems, a lot of different players.

‘The gaffer will pick the side that he thinks will be best suited to that game.’

Milwall’s substitutions saw the side improve in the second half, Ryan Woods and new signing Kenneth Zohore impacting the game in particular.

Barrett believes those sorts of additions have improved Millwall’s depth and quality since he last took charge of the side, this time last year.

He said, ‘The squad is definitely stronger, there’s no two ways about it. When you look today, we’ve got a strong bench that can impact the game and we’ve got better options.

‘We’re moving in the right direction as a football club. We feel we’re progressing and the biggest thing is we’ve got stronger options on the bench to impact games.’

Kenneth Zohore came closest to scoring with a late header that was superbly turned over by Jack Walton.

Barrett gave his and Rowett’s reasoning to introduce the Dane ahead of Matt Smith and Tom Bradshaw.

‘We’ve got great options and the gaffer felt Kenneth was the best option today’, explained Barrett.

‘He’s got so many good attributes, he’s a big, strong powerful guy. We’re getting him up to speed, but he gives us an option which is great.

‘I thought he was a handful when he came on and he was unlucky. It would have been lovely to see the ball going in the net from his header.

‘But he’s a great addition to the squad, we’re getting him up to match fitness and hopefully he is going to have a big part to play.’