Hughes previews Stoke challenge

As the Blues prepare for Stoke City’s visit to the City of Manchester Stadium on Sunday, Mark Hughes has highlighted one of their main threats...the throw ins of Rory Delap!

“Well he has got an unbelievable throw and you can say what you like about the tactic but it works,” Hughes told mcfc.co.uk.

“If you’ve got that kind of weapon in your armoury you’re going to use it. We’ll highlight it because maybe some of our guys haven’t come across that type of tactic before.

“It’s very difficult to defend in fairness, you’ve got to be really strong, mentally tough as well and demand that everybody does their jobs.

“You have to be dominant in that area and dictate to the opposition rather than let them dictate to you.

“It’s a different problem that we have to cope with but hopefully we’ll be up to that challenge and will cause them problems themselves.”

Joe Hart and his defence will be the ones in the firing line come Sunday and the Manager believes the Blues stopper will have to be on his mettle.

“I think the keeper has a key part to play,” he stated. “Most defences and teams would prefer the keeper to take responsibility come and make the ball his own.

“So we’ll be asking Joe to command his area and obviously he’ll have people in and around him to help him with that as well.”

But it’s not just the Delap throw that City have to be wary of, Stoke’s line-up is packed with big, physical players too and Hughes added: “As we look at the team tactics ahead of the game that’s obviously one thing we will highlight.

“We’ll have to be more resolute after the Newcastle game and we will be because we were all disappointed on Monday.

“It was a real opportunity to get three points on the board and that was the aim before the game. So at the weekend we’ll see a difference in that respect.”

Despite being written off before a ball had even been kicked this season, Tony Pulis’ men are only three points behind City and already have a creditable draw at Anfield under their belt.

And after seeing Stoke claim a moral boosting win over Tottenham last weekend Hughes concluded: “Stoke have had a good start to the season and had a good result at the weekend themselves so they’ll be on a high looking for back-to-back wins.

“We’ll have to be mindful of that and make sure that we’re ready. I sense that we’ll want to put the result from Monday behind us and look ahead to a good home game that we would expect to win.”