Saturday 13 February 2016 19:18, UK
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes praised Giannelli Imbula's performance after the midfielder scored his first goal for the club in a 3-1 win at Bournemouth on Saturday.
The Frenchman - making just his second start for the Potters since joining from Porto for £18.3m in January - opened the scoring after just nine minutes at the Vitality Stadium with a brilliant long-range strike.
And Hughes predicts that that goal will be just the start of things to come from the 23-year-old.
"A great strike from Giannelli Imbula," said Hughes, "who I thought was great all game today. He has only had two games for us, but has shown quality and class on the ball and so is going to be a big player for us.
"It is still early days, but it is a lot easier [to settle in] if you are a quality player. He is one of those players who you feel has time on the ball, which has always been a sign of a quality player.
"And he is a player of real ability and stature who we feel will be with us for many years to come. So we are really pleased with what he has produced in the two games he has played for us and we anticipate he will be exactly what we are looking for.
"It is early days, like I said, but he has shown good intent and is prepared to work really hard for the team as well, which he had to do today."
Overall, Hughes was pleased with how Stoke's players carried out his pre-match instructions of drawing the home team on, before using the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri and Ibrahim Afellay to hit them on the counterattack.
"I thought that right from the off we had a good shape and intensity to our work," he said. "Bournemouth came out quite quickly with a lot of intent and tried to put us under pressure. But I felt quite comfortable with what we talked about before the game in terms of what we wanted to do in the game.
"Obviously we conceded a little bit more of possession today, allowing them to come on to us knowing full well that we had players who were capable on the break of causing them problems.
"And that is how it panned out. We got the first goal, which was obviously important as the Premier League stats back up that if you score first, you have a better opportunity to win the game. We talked about that and wanted to get on the front foot.
"So a great strike and opening goal, and then we came out with good intent in the second half and got two quick ones to back up the opening goal and at 3-0 we were quite comfortable.
"They obviously came back into the game with a great strike from the lad Ritchie. But at that point we were struggling somewhat with injuries and having to make do with centre-forwards at right-back and the like.
"But as I said, there was a real focus and intensity to our work and we were not to be denied today."
Injuries even forced Stoke to use Mame Biram Diouf as a makeshift right-back for large parts of the second half, with the forward's adaptability characterising the visitors' stubborn performance on the south coast, according to Hughes.
"He had a big proud look on his face [when Hughes asked him to play there]! He was on the left wing, down through the middle and then ended up at right-back, but in fairness he has done that job before," said Hughes.
"He did it in the Capital One Cup against Chelsea and did really well, so that was in the back of my mind as I was thinking who could do that job for us. And I thought he was excellent, typifying the approach of the lads today."
Despite recording a first away win in the Premier League since December 28, though, it was not all good news for the Potters, who lost defenders Marc Muniesa and Glen Johnson to injuries after half-time.
"Marc was coming out of defence with the ball, got a bit of a nudge in the back and just felt a bit of pain in his hamstring, but we will have to check," Hughes said. "I do not think it is too serious and hopefully by the time our next game comes around, he will be OK.
"Glen Johnson is a little bit more of a worry. I think one of our players fell on his leg after a corner. He thought it was OK, but then was concerned when he tried to continue, so we had to take him off as well. So a little bit of concern there, but hopefully it is not too serious."
However, even those twin setbacks could not distract from what was a much-needed victory for Hughes' side after four Premier League matches without a win.
"We needed to get back on track," the Welshman acknowledged. "It was important as we had had three defeats, against decent opposition in fairness with the likes of Leicester, Man Utd and Everton. But even so we felt we needed to do better today and certainly we did that."
