Millwall manager Gary Rowett has spoken about Lions’ striker Matt Smith, saying he has a 'unique skill-set' which goes beyond his aerial game.
Big Matt Smith joined Millwall in the summer for an undisclosed fee from QPR.
The 6’6” striker made over 100 appearances for the West Londoners scoring 23 goals, and Millwall became his third-straight London club having been at Fulham previously.
He’s made 13 league appearances so far this season scoring four goals, but since Rowett’s appointment last month he’s only played 18 minutes of football.
Quoted by News at Den, Rowett spoke about the striker and how he’s a big fan of the big man:
“I think Matt has a unique skill-set - he’s a good footballer and he’s had a great career,” began Rowett. “He’s very underrated in terms of his hold-up play and his link-play, not just in the air but on the floor as well.
“What you’ll find is Matt will suit certain games and certain games will suit Bradders [Tom Bradshaw] or Jon Dadi [Bodvarsson]. What we’ve got is three very good strikers and three very different strikers.”
Smith has only made two substitute appearances for Rowett so far and, in his last against Charlton, scored an injury-time header to give the Lions a 2-1 win at The Den.
“If Matt’s coming off the bench he can change a game like he did Saturday,” explained Rowett. “If Matt starts then it might be the energy coming off the bench that changes the game for us in a different way.
“Until I’ve worked with all the strikers for a period it’s difficult to know which ones are going to start and which ones aren’t going to start.
“We’ve had really good impacts from the bench so far and it’s really important to have substitutes that can go and win you the game - the last ten minutes in some ways are often more important than the first 80.”
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In his fourth Championship job in five years, Rowett has taken six points from his opening three games at Millwall, placing them in 15th for this international break.
In less than two weeks time his side will travel into South Wales to face Swansea City, in what’ll arguably be their toughest assignment yet under Rowett.
The verdict
The 45-year-old Rowett has made a fine start to life at Millwall but there’s still plenty of the season to go, and plenty of work left to do if he’s to secure his side’s Championship status beyond this season.
That should be the end goal for Millwall this season, and they certainly have the players to do that. Smith is one of a pool of strikers at the club who’ve got good Championship pedigree, and his aerial presence gives the team a whole different dimension.
Expect him to play a key role for Millwall this season, and expect to see him chip in with the odd-important goal for Rowett too.