There is no doubt whatsoever that Mark Hughes will be beginning to feel the strain of managing the richest club in the world. Under his leadership, Manchester City have lost three successive Premier League games to make it five defeats in eight league games since the 6-0 drubbing of Portsmouth back in September.
Despite this slump in form though, the club’s chairman has backed Hughes to turn things around by saying that reports suggesting he is about to be replaced are absolute ‘rubbish’. Khaldoon Al Mubarak went on to say that he is ‘personally committed’ to Hughes and that the team are simply going through a ‘learning curve’.
This probably isn’t too far from the truth actually. Man City seem to have the players to pick up decent results, but as of yet, they have failed to do so on a regular basis. Perhaps Hughes still isn’t sure what his best team is – this would certainly affect team performances and consistency.
An example of this is the amount of partners Robinho has had in attack since joining the club. Fellow Brazilian Jo, Ched Evans, Daniel Sturridge and most recently Benjani have all played alongside the former Real Madrid man and this isn’t ideal. Fair enough, Robinho’s personal record of seven goals in nine Premier League games is good – but who is to say how many more he could have scored or set up had he had a consistent partner?
Overall, things don’t quite seem to be clicking into place for Hughes or City. Richard Dunne is making uncharacteristic mistakes, Micah Richards is being played out of position and the away form is simply not good enough. It may only take a couple of positive results for them to get back on track, but for now – Hughes is probably the most under pressure manager in the league.
Unlike a lot of teams however, Hughes does know that he has an unlimited amount of money to spend in January should he want to. Al Mubarak has admitted that the transfer window will be an ‘interesting opportunity’ for Hughes and that ‘player upgrading’ will almost certainly happen.
This is something that will be affecting the players though in my opinion. How are the current crop supposed to focus when they know lots of money could be spent on replacing them in January? It certainly will have some impact on the way they are performing.
Next up for Manchester City is a difficult away trip to Hull City. The football odds won’t be favouring a win for Hughes’ men, but it presents them with an ideal opportunity to get back to winning ways and end the winless away run at the same time.
By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about football betting
