Hughes happy as Sobhi makes speedy Stoke start

New Stoke City Ramadan Sobhi wasted no time in making an impact for The Potters and Mark Hughes is already encouraged by the Egyptian youngster’s potential.

Sobhi signed from Egyptian Champions Al Ahly last month and stepped in for Mark Arnautovic against Hamburger SV just two days after meeting up with his new team-mates.

Stoke turned in a lively performance despite losing 1-0 at the Volksparkstadion, with Egyptian international Sobhi a particularly bright light in his 60 minutes.

Captain Ryan Shawcross twice had chances to score for the Potters, but Michael Gregoritsch’s 54th minute goal sealed it for the Germans.

(KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Hughes though, was positive in defeat – highlighting Sobhi for the way he performed after such a short period of time with Stoke.

“I thought he did okay in fairness because he’s only had one training session with us,” Hughes said.

“He hasn’t trained with the group for three weeks because he’s been waiting for visas so it’s difficult to play the game we wanted from him.

“I thought he did fine considering the stage. He’s still a young player with a lot of potential and we saw glimpses of that.

“I’m pleased I was able to give him more time than I thought initially because obviously the plan was that Marko [Arnautovic] would travel but that enabled me to give more time to Ramadan and I’m sure he enjoyed it.

“You can see in the short space of time that he’s been with us that senior players will continue to give him the ball because they can see there’s a good player there.

“That’s a good start that has enabled him to integrate into the group and the more he’s with us the better he will become.”