I've never been able to 'play in the way I want' and 'be myself' with my team yet insists Rotherham United manager Leam Richardson

The rock-bottom Millers, who have lost their last eight league fixtures on the spin and are 13 matches without a victory in all competitions and are nailed on for League One football next season with 10 games to go, have been beset by availability issues throughout a hugely difficult campaign.

Alongside a congested treatment room, Richardson has had to manage the minutes of a number of players coming back from injury.

Problems with the training ground due to excessive rainfall have also affected training during a wet winter.

Richardson, whose side visit Norwich City on Saturday - the Millers are without an away win at this level since November 2022 - said: “Every manager should be judged after three, four transfer windows and a certain period in the club.

"I have got probably as many frustrations as fans, just as much as them because I have not been able to ‘be myself’ yet and play in the way I want to play.

"There’s a certain imbalance in the squad and there’s the availability. Very rarely have we filled the bench and we’ve had 64 per cent availability within the squad for a large period at this level, which is too much.

"That’s why we have to be 100 per cent - the manager, the staff, the players - to compete at this level as once we drop below it, we have not got the ability to compete at those levels Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Wednesday because it’s a challenge.

"It’s not for the want of trying. We are fixing and mending every time we take the pitch.”

The trip to Carrow Road is likely to come too soon for Sean Morrison, with the likes of Lee Peltier, Tyler Blackett and Grant Hall remaining sidelined.

Sign up to our new Sports Editor’s TeamTalk newsletter available this week