Norwich City are missing Jovon Makama – and who wouldn't be?
He’s another, different option up front - when he returns to fitness he obviously might not start for a while, but when he does, might it solve a number 10 problem for me and push Mo Toure back a little, to play just behind him?
With Makama, it’s his presence, his goals, his work rate.
At the moment, as he tries to get over this foot injury – and they can be complicated at times - there'll be no one more disappointed than him.
He doesn't want to miss the most of pre-season and the first six, seven, eight games of the league season, whatever it turns out to be.
Had Philippe Clement been able to bring him on at Stoke on Tuesday, with some of those poor crosses that were put in he might be getting on the end of one or two. And that could be the difference between coming home empty-handed and coming home with a point or all three.
You’ve got Toure, you’ve got Mathias Kvistgaarden, but Makama is a very different type of player. He's six foot tall and I think he probably would have enjoyed that physical battle at Stoke more than Toure did.
We have the long international break coming up - that might come at a good time for him, because it gives him a couple of weeks where there's going to be no football. If he's not far from being fit, maybe they can arrange a game behind closed doors for him to get his fitness back.
He had such an influence on this team that they were bound to miss him, someone who's come in and scored as many goals as he did and had the impact that he did.
He offers a little bit more as a centre forward. He's that link between a centre forward and your midfielders. At Stoke the balls they were playing up for Toure, they weren’t quite sticking or coming off him.
Makama is more than capable whoever he's playing against. When he's got his back to goal, he isn’t afraid of that ball being played up to him. And as a player, as a team-mate, you know when that ball is going to be played up to him eight times out of 10, he's going to make it stick.
Two of two Citys
First and foremost, when you've had a bad day at the office, like City did at Millwall the previous Saturday, when no one turned up, the manager wants a response, the supporters want a response, and to be fair, that's exactly what they got at home to Burnley.
Two-nil up after five minutes, 3-0 up after 20 minutes, the game's done and dusted, really. Centre forwards have to anticipate, they have to gamble, if you like. For the first goal, no one expects the centre half to make the mistake that he does - the ball goes under his foot - apart from Toure, and he's on to it for the opener. And they never looked back.
Really good performance, convincing, four good goals. Once again, disappointed to have conceded one in the manner they did, although it was a good strike, but against one of the fancied teams, who have had equally as bad a start as Norwich have had, it was a great response to that embarrassing performance at The Den.
And then you get Stoke away, when City were just not up to scratch against a side that hadn't got a point. Before Tuesday night, they'd won one point in their previous nine games. They'd had an absolutely horrendous spell.
They hadn't won a game since April 3, when they beat Sheffield Wednesday at home, hadn't kept a clean sheet since then.
And Norwich have now lost three out of their first our – Philippe Clement had lost three of his previous 13 Championship games!
It was a poor goal to give away. I don't like to single people out, but Pelle Mattsson lost possession in midfield, and Stoke had numbers in forward areas. I saw quite a bit of Ethan Galbraith last year at Swansea. I think he's a good player, he's technically really good and I know he's got a good strike on him. But let's be honest, if it doesn't nick Jack Stacey's foot, I think Vladan Kovacevic saves his shot quite comfortably.
City huffed and puffed, created a couple of good chances in the first half, both of which fell to Andre Brooks. The keeper made one really good save from the first one, but Toure's got to pass the ball to Brooks four or five seconds earlier. If he does that, he takes the ball in, he can adjust his body to get it onto his favoured left foot, and you fancy him to score.
The keeper produced another good save after that one.
It was no surprise Anis Ben Slimane got taken off at the break, he didn’t impact the game whatsoever.
Now Clement has got a decision to make. Is it round holes and square pegs with him? I think he has got better options in that number 10 role, whether it's Paris Maghoma when he’s fit, Oscar Schwartau or even Mathias Kvistgaarden. I just don't think Slimane's the answer, to be honest.
If Schwartau played there then you have Papa Diallo to go on the left.
Slimane did really well in the second half of last season and scored four in five games early in the year, but he's not shown any of that form. I just think he’s too passive, too pedestrian, too slow.
And I think Kenny McLean tends to drop a little bit too deep too often, in my opinion. You might as well play with three at the back at times because he just drops in between the two centre-halves. I want him a little bit further forward. I know he's vital to the way the manager wants to play, but I just think sometimes he slows things down for the sake of slowing things down.
If you're a team looking at Norwich now, I'd be going out and telling my two banks of four and a five to sit deep. Because at the minute, they don't look like they've got the quality to open a ‘low block’ out.
I heard Clement’s post-match interview and he said he was happy with the performance, thought they were the better team, had the better opportunities.
But let's not forget, George Hirst had a great chance – it took a great block from Ruairi McConville to stop him. And then there was another one down the left-hand side, Hirst is on the back post and McConville slid in from somewhere and just cleared it out. So they had their chances as well.
Clement threw the possession stat out there, saying they had 72pc of the ball. And I'm like, hold on - you only had 37pc on Saturday against Burnley but you had more shots, had more shots on target, scored four goals.
Second half, realistically, I don't think the Stoke goalkeeper was troubled that much. I'll give them credit, I thought they defended really well.
And do you know what? Obviously, I want Norwich to get promoted, I want them to do really well, but if they're going to lose, there was a part of me pleased that it was a Mark Robins team. I think he's won only one of his previous 13 games as a manager against Norwich. The pressure had been on him - they’re something like the fourth highest spenders in the Championship, and that adds pressure.
Blade runners
Norwich head to Sheffield United this weekend - I saw them on Saturday at Cardiff City in a game they drew 2-2 but really should have lost.
They went behind in the first couple of minutes as they did at home to Bolton in midweek before they won 3-2.
Is there a weakness there? Is that something City can take advantage of? Hopefully they can score as early as they did against Burnley and catch them asleep.
A part of me feels a bit sorry for Chris Wilder. It's as if the club’s owners have sold anything that's valuable. Andre Brooks obviously came here for £8 million. Gustavo Hamer went back to Coventry and they’ve just sold Callum O'Hare to Wrexham for £7 million. So they've lost probably their three most influential players of last season.
However, they haven't lost a game yet, having started with two goalless draws before the 2-2 draw at Cardiff.
Wilder was honest in his assessment, to be fair, and said Cardiff were the better side, which they were. But it was a good point for the Blades.
Midweek against Bolton they went behind twice so they've shown the resilience and courage to come back.
And they've still got an experienced squad with the likes of Patrick Bamford, Kalvin Phillips. Sydie Peck, Sam McCallum, Mark McGuinness, Japhet Tanganga and Tom Cannon, who they paid £10 million for.
And Wilder did a Jose Mourinho against Bolton - when Romelle Donovan got the 90th-minute winner he ran right down the touchline! It’s the Wilder effect - I think that's his strength, isn't it? To get players to go that extra yard for him. To run through brick walls for him.
I don't think Sheffield will be too far away. They’re unbeaten in four and starting to score goals.
Brooks will get a hot reception, even though it’s not his fault that the club accepted an offer for him.
What he’s got to do is play well - he's going to get stick but he's got to take it. It's part and parcel of the game, whatever anybody says. It's not as if we didn't get stick back in the day when it was it was probably more racial, more homophobic.
He's going to have to take it on the chin. The best way to silence them is go and show what a good player they've sold and go and get your third goal for the football club. Because he is a good player, a talent.
Sign of the times
Liam Gibbs moved to Preston on loan on deadline day – the announcement of which was up in lights on the scoreboard during their game against Bristol City!
I'm not too sure the players would have been aware of it, but the supporters will have taken notice, obviously.
The only time I ever looked up was to see the clock and how long time we had left to play.
I thought it was a bit strange, with Preston down on their luck a little bit, losing all four of their games.
I like Hecky (manager Paul Heckingbottom). I think he only had 12 months at Norwich, but he's a good lad.
Maybe they thought it would give everybody a boost, give the crowd a boost.
It’s a good move for Gibbs because he needs to kick-start his career. He needs to play football, and he's still going to be playing in the Championship.
I know Preston are in a bad place at the minute, but it's a good football club and it's a fantastic stadium to play in. And he needs to play now.
He’s 23 years old, it’s no good for him being on the bench, getting 15 or 20 minutes here and there.
It happened to me at Watford. I might get the odd game here and there and I'm thinking’, I need to start playing now, I've got to kick-start my career’.
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