Iwan Roberts on keeping Norwich City players fit for run-in

You’ve got to be fully focused, you've got to be at it. You've got to be fully prepared for what's in front of you and nine times out of 10 players are.

Rotherham are fighting for their lives, even though I do think there's an air of resignation about them, but you still have to score the goals and if you look at the standard of goals Norwich scored – they were absolutely brilliant.

Josh Sargent scored for the seventh consecutive game at Carrow Road. And Gabriel Sara? Wow.

Armed force - Gabriel Sara and Marcelino Nunez (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

People have been speaking about young Jonathan Rowe and big teams watching him - would he go in the January transfer window? He didn't, he stayed, he got injured, unfortunately for him and the club. But people will be watching Gabriel Sara as well - and I think they were before that stunning goal on Saturday.

The fellow seems to score so many spectacular goals and he's got a magnificent left foot. But what I like about him is his attitude. He's not one of those that strolls about and just does things every now and then when he gets the ball; he's a grafter and I don't think you always get that when you sign foreign players, especially players from South America, especially when they're that talented with the ball.

I’ve seen a lot of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall at Leicester - only Leif Davis (14) at Ipswich and Georginio Rutter (13) at Leeds have got more assists than him. Dewsbury-Hall has got 10 goals in the Championship, playing for the team that's been the best team in the division up to now. They've been top of the league for 99pc of the season.

He's played in the Premier League – and Sara is only just behind him in terms of statistics, with 11 assists and nine goals. So I think that goes to show the level of performance that Gabriel Sara has turned in on a weekly basis for the club.

Like it or not, good Brazilian players turn heads. It's as simple as that. I don't know what the club paid for him – something like £6m plus add-ons, it wasn’t stupid money, but he'll go for a lot more if he is to go. And I wouldn't be surprised if there would be a few Premier League clubs sniffing about come the summer, whether the club go up or whether they miss out.

He’s just a very, very technically gifted footballer, but he has got that other gritty side to his game. He doesn't mind doing the dirty work, doesn't mind getting his tackles in, doesn't mind putting himself about a bit. And to be fair, he’s had five yellow cards all season – that’s not bad with nine games to go.

He's started every game, only missed a handful of minutes. I can imagine he's one of the first names on the team sheet. He's just a very, very good footballer.

You want him wrapped up in cotton wool, although having lost Jonny Rowe, Shane Duffy, Onel Hernandez  and now Dimi Giannoulis to injury, I think you wrap a lot of them up.

Probably the busiest room up at Colney is the physio’s room at the minute, and it's not what you want when you are coming towards the final furlong of the season, nine games left - you need as many bodies fit and available as you can because, especially with the Easter programme coming up with a game on Good Friday and the game on Easter Monday.

Luckily, the international break is almost upon us. It's going to be two weeks before the next game, after Stoke away. Maybe that two weeks will help certain players get back for the Plymouth at home game after the international break, but this international break is probably coming at the right time because it's not a good place to be when you've got so many key players out, especially down one side of the pitch. That left-hand side has been decimated.

For Norwich to get into those play-offs and they’re in pole position at the minute in a decent run apart from away from home, you've got to keep Sargent, Sara, McLean, Hanley nice and healthy. Angus Gunn is vitally important, and Grant Hanley is a rock in defence, he's like a new signing, because he's been out for so long with that Achilles injury.

You have Sara, Nunez, McLean, Sargent – the spine of the team is so important and if those can stay fit and strong and healthy then you've got a chance.

But one door closes and another one opens for other people to come in and grab their opportunity and that's what you want. David Wagner gave Ken Aboh another little run-out at the end of the Rotherham game and had Finley Welch on the bench again. It’s great for them personally.

The injury problems are a pain, but what they do is give others an opportunity. How many managers do you see whinging and moaning about injuries and then have two less subs on the bench. Why don't you give a young lad an opportunity, someone from the Academy? 

Give them the chance of the match day experience, of being involved at first team level with the whole build up and having a pre-match at wherever they are, travelling on the bus to Carrow Road, going out and experiencing the environment, looking around, just being a part of the squad in and around the dressing room, seeing what goes on.

I think it's vital experience for them and probably they wouldn't have had it if everybody was fit, so maybe there is a little silver lining to a negative situation and it is the time to give them that little taster.

They're not going to get it if it's 1-0 or 2-1 if it's a tight game, when there's so much at stake. If you're going to play a lad, do it when you are 4-0 or 5-0 up, not when you are 6-0 down against Arsenal.

Then you are throwing them into the lion’s den. It's an experience they're not going to enjoy, even though it’s your debut, which is a special moment. What a bad way for those young Sheffield United lads to be given their debut.

So it's good for the kids to be involved at Norwich and it hopefully makes them hungrier for a little bit more of it and what it also does, it gives the young lads’ team-mates something to think about – ‘I'm not far behind them and if I work a little bit harder, maybe, that could be me next time’.

Cracking up?

It's been tough for Stoke fans (Image: PA Images)

There is pressure for both teams, but the pressure of facing relegation is far more for me, especially for a team like Stoke who have spent many a season in the Premier League, finishing in the top 10, getting into Europe, reaching the FA Cup final in 2011 under Tony Pulis.

For them to be sitting where they are now, fighting relegation – that’s pressure. It doesn't matter who your owners are, how much wealth they've got. You can only spend a certain amount now because of Financial Fair Play and it just goes to show, you have to get things right in your dressing room, on the pitch, the recruitment side of it, because at the start of the season a lot of pundits were tipping Stoke for good things.

They had got rid of a lot of dead wood. I think they've brought 14 or 15 new players in, and I get that maybe that's why they had a bit of a sticky start because it's hard to gel so many new players into a dressing room. You've only had a six-week period to work with them, I get that.

But for them to be staring at relegation, I don't know what impact that would have on Stoke City Football Club. Give me the pressure of trying to finish in that top six any day of the week.

It’s the 19th best home record facing the 19th worst away record - it's such a hard one to call.

There is the incentive that you want to finish on a high ahead of an international break.

It is a decent game for Norwich – if they can get the first goal there, because I can’t see there being a massive crowd, but I think there will be a good few from Norwich making their way there.

Hornets' nest

Tom Cleverley (Image: PA Images)

Tom Cleverley has been named interim manager at my old club Watford – a job title that my old team-mate Malky Mackay had there after Aidy Boothroyd left, before being made permanent boss when Brendan Rodgers left.

Malky did well there, then went to Cardiff and got them promoted to the Premier League and had a really good time there until other things happened.

Tom Cleverly has been at Watford for a good few years now so he knows the owners, he knows how they work.

I think it's an opportunity that he had to take really, because if you turn it down, you might never get it again.

He's got that nine games as a long interview, if you like – go and do the best you can. I think it’s his if he does well.

Raising the roof

Callum O'Dowda (Image: PA Images)

I was at Cardiff on Saturday where there was an extraordinary ending to the game against Ipswich, who were leading 1-0 when the game went into time added on.

There were 3,200 Ipswich fans made that long journey – Cardiff were by far the better team in the first half. The electronic board goes up - eight minutes. Ryan Wintle scored on 95, and the celebrations go on for a little while, which adds on to the eight minutes of injury time. And you are you looking at what's your watch.

The ref is looking at his watch and then from a corner, Callum O’Dowda smashed it into the roof of the net.

The place has gone off. I've not heard the Cardiff City Stadium like that for a while. Ipswich have done it so many times this season, they're relentless, they don't give in. For once, it was roles reversed. As a former Norwich player, as a former Leicester player, I was up there cheering!