Stoke boss Mark Hughes urges Marko Arnautovic to shoot more
Sunday 27 December 2015 14:26, UK
Stoke manager Mark Hughes hopes Marko Arnautovic will start scoring on a regular basis after he fired home the second goal in their 2-0 win over Manchester United.
Hughes has been urging the Austria international Arnautovic to shoot more often and his decision to do so on Boxing Day proved fruitful as he fired in from 25 yards after Bojan Krkic's free-kick bounced off the wall and into his path.
The strike took Arnautovic's goal tally to six for the season, but with the 26-year-old having only managed five league goals in his previous two years at the Britannia Stadium, Hughes hopes he will continue to impress in front of goal.
"We tell him until we are blue in the face to shoot more, to be perfectly honest, because he has great power," Hughes told Stoke Player.
"Maybe that (goal) will encourage him. He had a number of chances. He could have scored more. In terms of clear-cut chances, we were well ahead of United and deserved the win."
Stoke now face Everton on Monday - 1-0 victors at Newcastle on Boxing Day after Tom Cleverley scored with the last kick of the game in stoppage time - but must first assess three players who picked up slight injuries.
Xherdan Shaqiri, Geoff Cameron and Glenn Whelan came off with slight injuries against United but all three could be fit for the trip to Goodison Park.
"Xherdan will be okay and Geoff had a little bit of tightness, but we are hopeful that he will be okay in time for the game on Monday," Hughes added.
"Glenn felt his calf a bit at half-time so we took him off. It was the right thing to do."
As for the game itself, Hughes admits they will approach the match in confidence on the back of that win over Louis van Gaal's expensively-assembled side.
"We are playing well so it's a game we look forward to," Hughes added. "There's a demand on Everton to go forward and be progressive and have a go so that may well play into our hands, hopefully."
