ANDREAS VOGLSAMMER has already won over a number of Millwall fans after his impressive debut against Swansea City.
Voglsammer, 30, became the club’s seventh summer recruit when he moved to The Den from Union Berlin. He wasn’t cleared in time to feature in the Lions’ 3-2 win against Coventry City but was named on the bench for their trip to South Wales on Tuesday evening.
The striker was given fifteen minutes off the bench in place of Billy Mitchell, with the highlight coming in the 87th minute when he hit the crossbar with an audacious lobbed effort from outside the box.
Despite being 2-0 down from the very start of the match, Millwall snatched a valuable point in stoppage time by forcing two own-goals, which many supporters believe was helped by Voglsammer’s introduction in the dying stages.
Following the draw, manager Gary Rowett said he thought the former Bayern Munich academy player “did excellently” and “showed great quality” by “throwing himself about and starting to be physical”.
Speaking to NewsAtDen, the Millwall boss highlighted Voglsammer’s key characteristics and explained why he opted to bring him to South Bermondsey this summer.
“He’s a very explosive player,” he explained.
“He’s got good energy and a good ability to press. But most of all, he’s got that ability to play in any of those forward positions and add a bit of extra quality.
“I watched a lot of him at Arminia Bielefeld in the 2. Bundesliga and in the Bundesliga. He was a regular double-figure goalscorer for them in those divisions playing regularly. At Union Berlin, he stepped up but probably had slightly fewer starts.
“So it’s difficult to judge his record but he always gave a good impact late on in games when you want that little bit of explosiveness and someone to go and stretch the opposition, run in behind and be aggressive.
“I think his profile will help. He certainly fits the Championship, but we have to allow him that little bit of time to adjust. He’s come into the group and needs to get used to the Championship, just like Zian [Flemming].
“I think in Vogi and Zian, what we’ve tried to do is to bring in something a little bit different, and I think between those two we’ve got a slightly different technicality which we think will really help improve us in the long-term.
Rowett believes that the similarities between German football and English football will help Voglsammer to hit the ground running at his new club, but has urged for supporters to be patient while he settles in over the coming weeks.
“I think there’s slightly less of a transition for Vogi than for Zian because the Bundesliga is quite aggressive and quick.
“But you have to remember that he’s still coming to a new country, he’s still learning a different way of playing, he’s got new teammates and he’s living in a different area.
“We still have to accept that the transition is never an instant one, but we’ll see. We know about bringing these players in, and what we’ve got to do is give them the time to adapt. Hopefully sooner rather than later they’ll help us to impact games.”