Stoke City vs Swansea City - Hughes willing Bony to open Stoke account against Swansea
Posted Monday, October 31, 2016 by PA
Mark Hughes hopes playing against his former club can inspire Wilfried Bony to break his Stoke duck.
The striker joined Stoke on a season-long loan from Manchester City but has so far failed to score in seven games.
On Monday night he comes up against Swansea, the club for whom he averaged a goal every other game between January 2013 and 2015.
Bony is one of two former Swans players in the Stoke side along with midfielder Joe Allen, who in contrast has proved unexpectedly prolific, netting four times in his last four games.
Hughes said: "There's plenty of examples in the past where former players have come back and haunted their former clubs, so we hope that's going to happen again.
"They're both playing well at the moment. Joe obviously is getting the headlines because of his goal exploits. He's playing exceptionally well and we're really pleased with what he's doing.
"Wilf is playing well enough as well. We're hopeful that he's going to get off the mark. We feel he's close to that. His work's good, his link-up play is good, he just needs to get on the end of something in the box.
"Once he does that he could well be a little bit like myself. I was quite a streaky striker, I'd go on little runs where I'd score four or five and then not score for five or six and then get back on track again.
"I think that comes from maybe playing with your back to goal. Sometimes you're involved in the early part of moves and you don't benefit directly but your team-mates do by running beyond.
"We've seen Joe doing that and our wide guys as well. It's working at the moment, but for Wilf's benefit really we want him off the mark."
Bob Bradley has only been in English football a few short weeks, but the Swansea manager is fully braced for a "cold, wet, windy night in Stoke".
Ever since it was suggested in 2010 that Lionel Messi might not fancy a blustery night in the Potteries, the testing conditions at the bet365 Stadium have regularly been used as a yardstick to determine whether foreign arrivals can hack it in the Premier League.
Be it a Tuesday or Wednesday night - or in Swansea's case a Monday - the micro-climate at Stoke is supposed to send shivers down the spine of any individual who might not be familiar with the vagaries of English football.
But Bradley, the former United States boss who knows a thing or two about the cold having been born and raised in New Jersey, prefers to take a reasoned approach to facing Hughes' revitalised Potters.
"Yes, I am familiar with that expression," Bradley said when asked about contending with unpleasant weather in the Potteries. "Halloween too!
"First to the famous line, I think you still go there expecting that it might be cold, might be windy. I don't think those things have changed.
"But at the same time, Mark Hughes' teams still have a definite way of going about it.
"So, football-wise, they have some talented players and a sense, with their system, how guys move, how they find chances.
"So for us, you have to go understanding it might be cold and windy but still be ready for the football challenges this Stoke team puts at you."
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