KENWYNE JONES has successfully put his days as a defender behind him and Roy Keane is now looking for the £6m striker to live up to his billing - with some suggesting he is Sunderland's answer to Didier Drogba.

Keane would rather not have the comparison and prefers to see his player establish a name for himself in the Premier League in his own way.

Jones has certainly gone the right way about it so far. He scored in the win over Reading ten days ago and has proved a nuisance in his other outings against Manchester United and Middlesbrough.

His performances have not gone unnoticed, with sections of the Sunderland support starting to compare him to Chelsea's Ivorian forward Drogba.

But Keane is unconcerned by the similarities his 22-year-old shows and instead chooses to look to the impact Jones can have at the Stadium of Light.

Michael Chopra is already enjoying life up front alongside the Trinidad & Tobago international, but Keane feels any of the club's strikers would relish the opportunity to play with the target- man.

"I'll be happy if he turns out like Drogba," said the Sunderland boss, who turned to the towering forward after missing out on Mido, who joined Middlesbrough in August.

"But everyone's different and Kenwyne's a different type of player to Drogba. They're the same height and physique but you can't just compare them because of that.

"I think Kenwyne is a player we need at this moment and for the next year or two. The role of the big, strong target-man is changing. Now they're a lot more mobile.

"Kenwyne's a good player.

Chopra, David Connolly, Daryl Murphy will all enjoy playing off him. He brings a lot to the party."

Jones' emergence as a dangerous striker with the potential to become a real success in the Premier League is unusual, given the way he has progressed.

In the first part of his career at Southampton, who he joined from West Connection in his homeland, the man from Point Fortin was tried and tested in a variety of positions.

Jones was even given a crash course in how to defend, after Saints' former manager Paul Sturrock thought it would be beneficial for his team to convert him into a centre-back.

Now, after scoring 19 league goals in 44 starts for Southampton, there is no danger of Keane asking him to fill such a position.

"That was one of my positions.

I was more or less a jack of all trades," said Jones, who also used to play midfield in his schoolboy days. "I tried to fashion myself to be able to play in different positions and I think that helped me a lot during my career.

"Whatever experience I got from that, I knew it would stand me in good stead for the future.

"We had a change of manager at Southampton and we brought in a Brazilian coach who gave me a course in defending in three months. After that I was being used all over the pitch by different managers.

"When I came over I played one reserve game as a defender because we were short. Then one day in training I scored four goals up front in a practice match and that was that."

Despite Jones' versatility, Keane will not be forced into asking him to play central midfield against Blackburn this Saturday in the absence of Dickson Etuhu.

The Nigerian will be suspended for the visit of Rovers after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Middlesbrough.

He is the first player in English football this season to receive five cautions.

Liam Miller, who scored the last-gasp equaliser at the Riverside Stadium, should replace him.