It was a but curious that the club’s biggest expenditure of the summer was a striker. Not just a striker, but a sixth striker in the squad, and that wasn’t including any of the kids or other players in the squad who could fill in up top.

When Kozak was signed I know I wondered if he would be Benteke’s understudy until the club were forced to sell. If nothing else he figured to provide as close of a like-for-like replacement for Christian Benteke as they could reasonably find for this season. It is still early to judge, but based on what I’ve seen the club can’t expect to slide Kozak into Benteke’s role and expect it to work.

That doesn’t mean I don’t rate the player, that I am giving up on him, or anything of the sort. When he is in the team, I do think the club needs to set up in a different way. Despite his size and strength, he has not been nearly adept at winning balls in the air and linking up with flick-ons as Benteke. Almost every long punt to Kozak against Hull lead to nothing. All it did was make Curtis Davies look like a £10m player.

The reason looks fairly simple to me, he just isn’t that athletic. As skilled as he is, and as hard as he works, when he leaps he just doesn’t get high enough off the ground. Maybe that’s why he suffers so many head wounds, instead of striking the ball, he strikes a defender’s elbow as he is being out-leapt.

He is strong and skilled enough to hold the ball if we can get it to him, but for me that means he needs a partner up top. Somebody who can get the ball from the midfield, and get it on Kozak’s feet so he can hold the ball while the rest of the team pushes forward. Kozak’s best game was against Manchester City when he had Weimann to partner with in Villa’s 3-5-2. I think a partnership with Gabby might even work better if given the chance.

Hopefully Benteke will be ready to go after this international break and this will be mooted to a degree. There is still a lot of season left, and Kozak will be counted upon. When that happens the club may have to make additional changes.

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