Boro’s manager gamble & popular Millwall – EFL weekend preview

Football seems to be a common occurrence in today’s society, much like Black Friday.

Thankfully, Saturday is still the standard day for us to get our daily fix, at least for the moment, and this weekend offers us yet another opportunity to enjoy the EFL’s unpredictable world.

A new manager is making his Middlesbrough debut, and another boss is facing pressure at West Brom and Millwall, who are all set to do anything to sabotage the situation.

Kim Hellberg may have spent a few sleepless nights planning his next step up the managerial ladder because life is full of choices.

Middlesbrough helped him leave Stockholm and move to Teesside after he had already been courted by Swansea and had ties to Norwich.

Is it a game? Given that he lacks any previous English football experience, it’s possible, but how did you acquire that experience in the first place? He is not going to be overawed because he is a Hammarby native who has more than 24 000 home fans on average.

The 37-year-old is in at the bottom of the standings on Saturday against in-form Derby (15:00 GMT), having watched Coventry’s 4-2 home defeat on Tuesday.

He told BBC Radio Tees, “I’m proud to be here, and I’m proud to work very hard for 15 years as a coach to get here. Going from the lowest division in Sweden to England is a big step,” he said.

With the Rams’ six victories in their previous seven games propelling them to eighth place, some going given that they only won one of their opening 10 games, the Rams have already moved up to eighth place.

When a manager is replaced, everyone in football is always in the spotlight. Isn’t that a lovely industry, isn’t it?

As they prepare to face Swansea (15:00 GMT), who recently traded Alan Sheehan for Vitor Matos, Ryan Mason has felt the need to mention that when head coaches start arguing about their fixture schedule. It never feels like a good idea.

According to Mason, “We’ve had to play away from home twice on Wednesday and Saturday, and both times against a team that played at home on Wednesday,” in the past six weeks.

“I anticipated that we would have the advantage this time, but somehow we have to play against a team that has played 24 hours before us at home.”

For some reason, I’ve looked at the schedules and fixture lists of every other team, and we’re getting the worst of them.

No-one likes us, but “we don’t care,” is a well-known saying in The Den’s crowds. Could Millwall be the season’s feelgood tale?

With “an injury list as long as my arm” and a budget more expensive than Selfridges, boss Alex Neil might be able to restore them to their elusive fourth-place status.

We’ve won four out of five at home, and we’ve been fourth in the table since the start of the season, and that’s just going on. “The lads deserve a lot of credit for that,” Neil said on BBC Radio London.

When Southampton enter SE16 (15:00 GMT), Millwall’s credentials will get a lot of work.

Michael Duff received a lot of admiration for leading Cheltenham to League Two promotion and Barnsley to the League One play-off final.

The former Burnley defender’s star was waning and he may have been wondering when his next opportunity might arise, 21 months later and after unsuccessful stints at Swansea and Huddersfield.

He and Wycombe both made the most of their September friendship, which fortunately they found each other in September.

The Chairboys have only lost one of their nine league games since Duff’s appointment, and no other team has collected more than 14 points in their final six games, which places them just four points short of the top six.

They could finish first in League Two on Saturday in their second full year in the EFL.

They will need to defeat Walsall (15:00 GMT) and hope Swindon slips up at Chesterfield to achieve this, which Andy Woodman and his team have accomplished so far.

Bromley have the division’s best home record and a four-game winning streak, which has helped them enter the promotion picture thanks to their top scorer from the previous six seasons, Michael Cheek, who already has eight this year.

Already this season’s opening, Cheeek told BBC Radio London. “It’s a huge game,” Cheeek said.

It seems like we continue to improve year on year, with the exception of perhaps too many draws at the start of the season, but it seems like we are now on a winning formula.

Although Walsall have a history of success, there has been much written about the 12-point lead they blew at the top last year. However, Bromley will benefit from their own home defeats, which have been a lot of praise.