Ryan Leonard’s accomplished displays could see Millwall shift transfer focus
Ryan Leonard’s assured displays in Millwall’s back three could see the South London club switch their transfer focus before Monday’s deadline.
The midfielder has slotted into the defence alongside Jake Cooper and Shaun Hutchinson for the last two Championship matches – with the Lions keeping successive clean sheets.
Millwall have bid for Hibernian centre-back Ryan Porteous and Derby’s George Evans in this window. The deadline for deals is 11pm on Monday.
But Rowett has hailed the flexibility of Leonard, who helped keep Ismaila Sarr, Troy Deeney and Andre Gray quiet in Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Watford.
“What we’ve seen with Ryan is that as an attacking midfielder he can break things up and drive to the edge of the box to good effect this season.
“He’s also able to chip in with goals and we saw that last season against Hull. He has got the ability to score goals and add goals to the team in a more powerful and forceful way.
“But he’s flexible. I knew he was flexible – I’d seen him play right centre-back at Sheffield United and he has played right-back for us. Physically he can do a bit of everything.
“He’s quite fortunate – he has got good size, good spring, quick, aggressive and he understands the game quite well.
“If you judge him on the last two games then he can play at centre-half in a three no problem. Just like any centre-half he will make mistakes or get something wrong – that’s any centre-back, because of the nature of the job.
“Whether I want to see him stay there? I’m pretty open-minded. I don’t necessarily see him there long term but short term it could give us an opportunity to look at other areas of the field to strengthen – maybe an attacking midfielder is an option if Lenny stays in that position.
“The longer he stays there and the better he does the more useful as a player he is. He has been a really good player this season. He had his injury problems last season but he has proven his worth – whatever position he has played.”
