Marvin sticks to his five-a-day quota to get Millwall chance
8:00am Friday 11th January 2013 in Sport By Marc Iles
MARVIN Sordell will be pitched into battle against Millwall – provided he sticks to his five a day!
Dougie Freedman has pledged that the England Under-21 international will be involved against the Lions after his impressive performance against Sunderland last weekend in the FA Cup.
But the Wanderers boss reiterated his warning to the 21-year-old, and indeed the rest of his squad, about the dangers of crossing cyber-swords with fans on the social network sites so close to a match day. Freedman has issued guidelines to his entire squad about appropriate online behaviour and did not, as many national stories claim, confiscate Sordell’s phone earlier this week.
But with Sordell’s online interests now a matter of national attention, the manager does think he is scaling down his activity.
“He has got a Tweet problem that can get him into trouble – but he assures me he is doing his very best to deal with it. He is down to five Tweets a day,” Freedman smirked.
“However, it is how young people and society communicate these days.
“So, I have got to work with it and that’s what we are trying to do.
“We’ve told him there are people on there who are not genuine fans and who will try to wind him up. “So, we are trying to educate Marvin. But I thought he did very well against Sunderland last weekend so he will be involved against Millwall.”
Although the abuse Sordell suffered whilst warming up against Millwall earlier this season was nothing to do with Twitter – the whole matter has become entwined because it has been played out so publicly on the site.
Police and both football clubs have since taken the appropriate actions but Freedman has not sought to take any special precautions with Sordell strictly because of his history with tomorrow’s opponents.
“I have spoken to him over the last three or four weeks, but not just over the Millwall Tweeting,” he said at yesterday’s Euxton press conference. “I believe there will be people out there pretending to be our fans, but will really be Millwall fans, or those of our rivals and things like that.
“He’s doing his best to limit his contact on Twitter and that’s not just because we are playing Millwall but it has happened over three or four weeks.”
Freedman is looking for Sordell to carry with him the positives of last week’s performance, just as he is several others who showed up well in the 2-2 draw against Sunderland.
And the manager is looking for the same application as his side showed against the Black Cats as Wanderers look to avenge their 2-1 defeat at The Den earlier this season – which proved to be Owen Coyle’s last game in charge.
“I was very pleased with a lot of what I saw last weekend,” Freedman said. “I think right up to the 60th minute we dominated possession and controlled the game against Sunderland.
“We made a few opportunities and we took them – which was very pleasing indeed.
“When they went two up front they put us under the cosh a bit but the lads stuck at it. We rode our luck at times but who wouldn’t against their quality? I think there were a lot of positives to take out of it for me.”
Wanderers have yet another opportunity to get something going in the league and will be looking to make it three wins out of four at the Reebok.
Freedman believes there have been positive signs, and has urged Whites fans to stick with the team. “We are going to have to be patient here because new managers can't just come in, click their fingers and all of a sudden we’re top of the league,” he said.
“I want to build the foundations, forget about the past and move forward.
“I think a few of these games have shown we're not too far away from the future but there’s still a lot of hard work to do.”
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