Maxime Biamou is a player who has won the hearts of Coventry City fans during his time at the club. Initially starting looking slightly out of his depth in League Two, Biamou became an integral part of our eventual promotion in the target-man role with his work-rate and physicality facilitating Marc McNulty’s incredible scoring form over the second half of the 2017/18 campaign. The only question mark against Biamou after his first year at the club was, despite some show-stopping finishes, whether he scored consistently enough to be consider more than a supplementary forward rather than being the main man himself.
A serious injury early into his second year at the club has meant we’ve yet to really find out whether Biamou has the ability to become a consistent goalscorer. The Frenchman was slowly brought back into the first-team upon his recovery heading into last season but Mark Robins never seemed to back him with a run of starts in the side. Nonetheless, there were indications that Biamou had discovered some composure in front of goal, with a scoring rate in all competitions last year of just under one in two. Strangely, despite Biamou scoring goals at a higher rate than before, he seemed to have become less effective outside the area. Whether this was down to Biamou still being in the recovery phase from his injury problems, the step up in quality from League Two or the difference between playing as a lone striker versus in a strike pairing is a debate to be had.
Heading into this season, it seems likely that Mark Robins will add strikers to the squad, which puts Maxime Biamou’s status at the club in jeopardy. With three senior strikers in the squad already competing for just one place in the starting XI, it seems likely that one or both of Maxime Biamou or Amadou Bakayoko will be moved on due to the resultant lack of available opportunities for them. I have little doubt personally that Biamou could remain an effective member of the squad even at Championship level, however, as the oldest and arguably least mobile of our current strike options, I wonder whether he is the most likely to be moved on.
Sideways Sammy 