Wilfried Bony offers Swansea something extra, says Laudrup

Wilfried Bony can boost Swansea City's strike power by offering "something extra" from set-piece ploys, says manager Michael Laudrup.

Bony, the club's record £12m signing made his debut in their 1-0 pre-season win over Den Haag on Saturday, where Wayne Routledge scored the winner.

"He's [Bony] a goal-scorer, you can see how strong he is," said Laudrup.

"He's good in the air. That's given us something extra as well to see if we can score some set-pieces as well."

Striker Bony, who has signed a four-year contract, scored 31 goals in 30 league appearances for Vitesse Arnhem last season.

West Ham also made an offer for the 24-year-old Ivory Coast international but Swansea won the race for his signature with a higher bid.

Bony was Swansea's seventh permanent signing ahead of the 2013-14 campaign in which the south Wales club will play in the Europa League.

And Laudrup says like fellow senior signings Jonjo Shelvey,Alejandro Pozuelo,Jose Canas and Jordi Amat, Bony needs to become more accustomed to playing alongside the club's established talent.

"We still have some games and he will have to know his team-mates some more, like the rest of them," Laudrup said.

"Like Jordi, like Canas, Alex and Jonjo as well."

However, Laudrup is excited by having greater depth at his disposal, having said Swansea would have to strengthen for the forthcoming campaign.

After watching the win over Den Haag and the 10-0 friendly win over third-tier Dutch opponents Haaglandia, Laudrup said: "After only training for 10 days the team looked good.

"We have to improve, still, in a lot of aspects.

"But I'm very pleased… not only in these games, but in training as well.

"The level is really good because there's a lot of competition in the team as well.

"I have so many possibilities and that's great for a manager."

The Swans now return home to continue their pre-season preparations with a friendly at Championship new boys Yeovil on Friday, 19 July.