He is when he doesn't score.
Not realy like, he's not the best on the ball and his array of passing is nowt to be envious of but he offers a bit of bite in the middle (a lot more than Guthrie has shown recently) and he always offers top support for Carroll. I don't think it's any coincidence that when Nolan plays Carroll seems x10 the player he does when he's not.
His presence on the pitch (both vocaly and physicaly) seems cliche but it cannot go unoticed, he definatly is the type of charicter that can boost a team low on morale. Obviosly there are a lot of cracks there that are papered over when he gets on the scoresheet, but they aren't as bad as people tend to make out when he doesn't.
Perhaps he is indeed missed in some way...but I equally don't accept this common idea that hes some massive inspirational influence to the team. That's overrated somewhat. Some people seem to think hes like some motivational raconteur when hes around.