Millwall: Neil Harris makes Mihailo Ivanovic plea | OneFootball

The teenager made his first league start for the club in midweek.

Millwall boss Neil Harris has insisted on the need for patience after multi-million pound summer signing Mihailo Ivanovic's first Championship start for the club.

It's been a week of firsts for the 19-year-old Serbian forward. He was given the honour of starting his first Championship game for Millwall on Wednesday evening against Wayne Rooney's Plymouth Argyle after netting his inaugural goal for the club on Saturday against Derby County - a goal which Neil Harris predicted would come against the Rams.

The Lions ended up winning the game 1-0 thanks to a goal from Romain Esse in the 13th minute.

Ivanovic, who Millwall signed for a club record fee of £2.5 million in the last transfer window, replaced fellow summer addition Macaulay Langstaff in the starting XI after he missed a couple of good chances against Derby, and has largely not found the form that attracted the eye of the Lions to the ex-Notts County captain.

The physical and finishing abilities displayed by the teenager at the weekend when he scored his goal was enough to convince Harris to bump Langstaff down to the bench in favour of Ivanovic. But, despite inserting him into the lineup, the boss has insisted that they need to be patient with Ivanovic.

Neil Harris stresses need for patience with Mihailo Ivanovic

The young striker wasn't as effective on Wednesday night as he was on Saturday. He played 78 minutes before being hooked off for Langstaff.

He didn't manage to get any shots away, only had 16 total touches and only won one of his four aerial duels.

Nobody expected the teenager to immediately hit the ground running, and the Millwall boss said that he thinks the Plymouth game will have been a learning curve for the Serb striker.

"He did okay," said Harris of Ivanovic's maiden league start for the Lions, via the South London Press. "He grew into the game – much better second half.

"I keep saying we have got to be really patient with the young lads – really patient. Romain’s level of performance tonight is because he has been around the first-team group for 15 months now and worked with me for eight months.

"Romain is immense with the ball and immense without the ball – that’s where we need to get Miha and Dan Kelly to, ultimately where we want to try and get Aidomo (Emakhu) and Adam Mayor to as well. Alfie Massey I would put in that group too – promising young players coming through.

"Miha I thought grew into it. It will have been brilliant for him to get his first 75 minutes from the starting whistle – a positive for him. I think he’ll have been extremely thankful to have George Honeyman alongside him – it helped him massively. He will have learned a hell of a lot tonight."

Millwall need to use rotation to bed in Ivanovic

With Josh Coburn and Tom Bradshaw both out injured, the only options Harris has at the number nine position are the ones that he used in midweek.

Losing Zian Flemming on Deadline Day, when he joined Burnley on a season-long loan with an obligation to buy at the end of it, left Millwall without a very recently central goalscoring option in their ranks. Now, with half of their previous options out, they're down to the bones even more.

But, like Harris said, Ivanovic needs bedding in. They can't just chuck him into the deep end straight away. He needs time to develop into the player that Millwall hope he can be. Getting the rotation right between him and Langstaff will be key to that.