DANNY Graham has made a decent start to pre-season with Blackburn Rovers, with two goals in his two games so far.

But that is not all he will offer Owen Coyle this season.

He came to the club on loan at the beginning of the year and started scoring but it was his link-up play, his hold-up play and his ability to bring people into play which were massively valuable as well.

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That was something lacking a bit in the way that Jordan Rhodes played when he was at Ewood Park.

It added a different dimension. But at the same time you also need the players around you to be able to give you that service.

If Danny is getting that service, as he is at the moment in pre-season, he is a valuable asset to Rovers.

Striker is obviously a key area for any team, and confidence is a key thing for any striker. If you do not have confidence you do not want to shoot — you take the extra touch and you lose the option to get a shot at goal.

When you do shoot, you are lifting your head too early to strike the ball and you are mishitting them all over the shop.

Every striker is different and I was lucky, when I won the league with Blackburn, that we had two very different strikers in the famous SAS — Shearer and Sutton.

Everything Alan Shearer hit, he hit clean and very precise, whereas Chris Sutton bobbled everything past the goalkeeper.

What set Alan apart was his confidence. Anything he wanted to do, he told you he was the best.

He told you when he crossed the ball into the box that he was better than the wingers.

When he scored goals he told you that he was better than any of the strikers.

That confidence is hard to sustain, so the level Alan did it at was phenomenal.

It looks as though Danny Graham has got his confidence back since moving to Blackburn and he is also able to run the channels, like Shearer did so well.

It helps you when your team-mates know when you are making those runs and when to put the ball into those areas.

That is done on the training pitch — and when it comes together on a football pitch, it looks dead easy.