Livewire Lamine Cisse has caught the eye heading into Stoke City’s home game against Southampton
Lamine Cisse joined Stoke City from Bastia in August.(Image: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
Hard-working Lamine Cisse is quickly forcing his way into Mark Robins’ centre-forward thinking after getting a chance to stake his claim down the middle.
A run of injuries opened the door for summer signing Cisse to get his first run out as a striker a fortnight ago and he has impressed with his energy and movement in subsequent starts against Middlesbrough and Birmingham.
Robins believes the 22-year-old can be a goal scorer too and, as Milan Smit comes into the squad too for the first time today for a home match against Southampton (12.30pm), there are suddenly a couple of serious options to lead the line.
“I think Lamine has worked very hard,” said Robins. “He’s shown he’s got an aptitude for that. I think he’s got some good quality. He does some brilliant things as well.
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“I think back to when we played Bristol City and the pass, a first-time pass, that he really injected some pace into and went for a one-two when Divin Mubama scored his hat-trick goal. He also set the ball back for Tomas Rigo to score the goal against Boro. That was a decent piece of play from him.
“He has some opportunities, he gets into good positions. He almost scored against Middlesbrough, he made really good runs at times. Sometimes he gets the ball, sometimes he doesn’t. I think he’s been generally pretty good, a livewire and somebody who can score.”
Smit, also 22, is available to make his debut today while Ben Wilmot and Ben Gibson return from injury and Bosun Lawal is back from suspension.
Robins has been pleased that his side has been able to keep an identity while key players have been sidelined.
“It’s testament to the work that gets done out there,” he said in his pre-match press conference at Clayton Wood. “It’s something you want and hope for and the amount of work that goes on in meetings, on the training pitches and on a match day shows they are taking things on board and the training sessions that we put on help them to get the understanding, which is what it’s all about.”
Stoke have a chance to jump back into the play-off picture today with their early kick-off as rivals for the top six try to put pressure on each other.
Robins said: “There is the motivation. There’s a carrot there for us if we can go and win and you start moving in a positive direction and hanging in there. Let’s see how many points we can pick up over the next few weeks and this is the next one, it’s key.”
Stoke are trying to bring in another signing before the transfer deadline at 7pm on Monday and a winger is believed to be at the top of their agenda.
“I would always like to be doing more business but I think the reality is that this window is really difficult,” said Robins. “There are specific attributes we’re looking for and a specific position we’re looking for. There’s only a limited amount you can do and let’s not forget we’ve brought in two players this window.”
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