Roeder: ‘I had known Shola Ameobi for quite a long time before I was involved with the first team, and I always saw something in him. What I did see was a striker who needs to play through the middle, and I haven’t played him anywhere else.
‘I said to him before the game, ‘I am not buying a striker to replace you, I am buying a striker to play with you’. If that doesn’t give you confidence, I do not know what would’.
‘But that’s the truth, I am looking at strikers to play with Shola Ameobi. He’s got the shirt at the moment, and they are going to have to fight hard to get it off him. He is learning slowly but surely to be a lot meaner player on the pitch, to stand up to the physical side and not let central defenders dominate him, let them know they have been in a game.
‘He’s a big, strong man, and he has technical ability as well.’
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