Hughes backs Robinho to get even better
Manchester City manager Mark Hughes insists the best is yet to come from record signing Robinho.
The £32.5m Brazilian bagged his first City hat-trick to give the Blues a 3-0 win over Stoke at Eastlands.
Robinho’s treble took him to six for the season and brought his side their first Premier League win for a month.
But Hughes is content the 24-year-old former Real Madrid star will improve for quite a while yet.
“The more he plays in the Premier League the stronger he will get,” said Hughes.
“It is a high energy, high intensity league and playing every week will make him stronger and more influential, if that is possible.
“You can see in his play he really enjoys the test he gets in the Premier League and we have been really pleased with everything he has produced so far.”
City were certainly pleased with Robinho’s efforts yesterday.
After putting the hosts in front during the opening period, he struck again two minutes after the restart to effectively kill off Stoke before completing his trio of goals 17 minutes from time when he stroked home Daniel Sturridge’s pass.
“The main objective is for the team to do well but personally, I want to score more than 30 goals,” said Robinho.
“I am very happy but not completely happy because I still have a lot to learn.
“I will be truly happy at the end when we finish what I hope will be a good season.”
Hughes wants Robinho’s arrival to be the catalyst for a blue revolution in the Premier League.
The City boss has given the former Real Madrid a freedom he has not had before. And the former Wales chief feels Robinho is relishing the responsibility.
“Robinho is key to what we are trying to do here and maybe in the past he has not had that feeling,” said Hughes.
“He is responding in a really positive way.
“The crowd adore what he is producing and rightly so. He has a really close relationship with everyone here, which shows what an impact he has made here in a very short space of time.”
Stoke boss Tony Pulis was disappointed that his charges, having got themselves into half a dozen decent positions during the first-half, were unable to take their chances when it mattered.
“Their second goal killed us,” he said.
“I felt we were unlucky to be behind at half-time but their keeper made a few great saves and Ricardo Fuller should have done better.
“Once we conceded again, we were chasing the game and they have so much quality they could hit us on the break.”
