Mark Hughes backing Wilfried Bony despite Stoke striker's struggles
Monday 31 October 2016 19:03, UK
Mark Hughes hopes a meeting with former club Swansea will inspire striker Wilfried Bony to break his goalscoring duck for Stoke.
Bony is on loan at the bet365 Stadium from Manchester City but he is yet to score in seven appearances for Hughes' men.
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The Ivory Coast international played 70 games in two seasons with the Swans, scoring 35 goals, and Hughes is confident Bony has goals in him, just needing to get the first one out of the way.
He will be joined in the Stoke side by another former Swansea player in midfielder Joe Allen, who has been in surprising form in front of goal with four 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.
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"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.
"He's a powerful guy. He's very difficult to get the ball off. You can see that he's a little bit frustrated at the moment because he feels he should be bringing goals to the team, but we appreciate the work he's putting in.
"He had an opportunity last weekend. If he was playing with confidence and had scored more goals, maybe that one would have been taken. That can happen when you haven't scored for a while."
