Friday 12 February 2016 10:38, UK
Sebastian Polter had a tough grounding under Felix Magath at Wolfsburg, bonded with the fans at Union Berlin and is now making the breakthrough at Queens Park Rangers under Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Adam Bate met up with him at the club's Harlington training ground to get the story so far...
There are those at Fulham still recovering from their Felix Magath ordeal. The German drill sergeant, a coach-cum-torturer with a penchant for emptying his players' water bottles, isn't for everyone. And yet, one man among Saturday's opponents relished the experience. But then, QPR striker Sebastian Polter never has been afraid of hard work.
"I had a good manager at Wolfsburg in Felix Magath who made me very strong when I was young," Polter tells Sky Sports. "We always worked hard with him. Some in England know that now! I enjoyed it though." Indeed, it was under Magath that Polter made a spectacular start to life in the Bundesliga.
The young forward caused a stir in coming off the bench to score winning goals in his first two home games against Stuttgart and Cologne. But a subsequent move was a disappointment - "I wasn't so lucky in Mainz" - and it was a loan spell at second-tier side Union Berlin that earned him a summer switch to QPR. It's a move that Polter had craved.
"My wife and two kids are over here and we're enjoying it," he says. "Even when I was a little boy I was always looking to England for the football. That was the most important thing and I always wanted to come and play here. It wasn't any specific team, it was just the style of football that I like. It's up and down and I'm a striker who will fight for every ball. It suits me."
Even so, the challenge of adapting to life in a new league has still been a difficult one for the 24-year-old. "The Championship is very different to the leagues that I've played in before," he adds. "It's more physical here and there are a lot more games. In Germany you just have to worry about position and maybe wait for a counter-attack.
"It's more tactical and it's about knowing those tactics. Do we go high or do we press? Here, it's run, run, run, defend, defend, defend." Fortunately for Polter, that's something of a forte and he's now scored four goals in his last seven games, winning the supporters over with his work rate - just as he did in Berlin.
"I've always had a good rapport with the fans because I talk to them," he says. "The supporters are important. That was especially the case in Berlin. All the family, together with the fans, would go away on a trip in January. There were 500 to 1000 fans with us and you just talk to them."
It sounds straightforward but Polter's time in England has not been without its communication problems. Under Chris Ramsey, he made only two starts and both of them were in the Capital One Cup. He took to Twitter to express his frustration at making a slow start to life at QPR and acknowledges it was a tough start to life in a new country.
"I always worked hard but in the first four months I was not happy," he admits. "The first four months weren't the best for me, everybody knows that. But something has changed. We have a new gaffer and I am on the pitch." While it's taken time for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to turn results around, for Polter the transformation was immediate.
"He believes in me but he's pushing me as well," he explains. "It's not a case of believing in me and letting me do what I want to do. He wants me to work hard in training and in the games. He was a striker himself and he knows what I can do for the team. He has done one-on-one stuff with me and that's important for me."
Hasselbaink wants Polter to become more selfish in front of goal. "He said that to me. Sometimes I will see my team-mates in a better position but I'm a striker so sometimes I have to be more selfish." But with a new partner in Conor Washington, the support is there and with it some renewed optimism.
QPR are unbeaten in five games and while draws continue to be an issue, Polter feels fresh enough to take advantage as others fade. The German is doing without a winter break for the first time but having sat out the start of the campaign, he doesn't need one and is instead eyeing a march up the table. They're currently 11 points off the play-offs.
"We've gone two games without conceding a goal so we have a good defence that's winning us points as well," says Polter. "The most important thing is to be together as a team every game. The training is a little bit harder under the new gaffer and the results will come. We've seen this since we changed it a bit. .
"The first half of the season was not good. Everyone was looking to us and wondering how QPR would do in the Championship. We didn't do so well but now we're doing better and better. The thing I've taken from the Championship is that it's very strange and crazy. It can change quickly. Now we're turning it around, why can't we make it to fifth or sixth place?
"There are so many games and there are a lot of players from different countries who maybe don't know what the Championship is like. By now, maybe they're running on empty a bit and thinking that they need a breather. They're thinking that 30 games is enough for them. I've not been playing 30 games like some of the other guys so I can give it everything.
"Maybe now's the time we can take points off the big clubs as well. You can see that they've been dropping points because they think they're in a comfy position. Maybe they'll lose points here and there. It's important for us to know that. But we just have to work hard and step by step get closer to them. I know if we play as a team we can go higher and higher."
So with a contract at the club until the summer of 2018, what's next for Polter? "I don't look too far ahead," he says. "We just need to keep getting points. Our plan is just to get as many points as we can and my aim is to play as many minutes as I can. Of course, I will play as much as I can for QPR. If we don't go up, then we'll go again next year.
"I will continue to do hard work but that's not enough. You have to do hard work every time." It's the mantra that Polter returns to again and again. In fact, it's almost as if this appetite has been drilled into him. One senses that somewhere, his old boss Felix Magath would surely approve.
