Mark Hughes insists he still has backing of the Stoke board despite poor run
The Potters reached a nadir in the past two weeks with a 7-2 defeat at Manchester City followed by a tight home loss to fellow strugglers Bournemouth
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Your support makes all the difference.Stoke manager Mark Hughes has stressed that he still has the full support of the club’s hierarchy after a difficult start to the season that has seen them slump to 17th in the Premier League, only separated from the drop-zone on goal difference.
The Potters reached a nadir in the past two weeks with a 7-2 defeat at Manchester City followed by a tight home loss to fellow strugglers Bournemouth seeing them slump to within a whisker of the relegation spots.
“We accept in those seven, eight days between the City and Bournemouth games, we’ve underperformed”, Hughes said on Friday morning. “But the chairman knows the quality of the players that he has, the quality of staff that he has and in my time here he allows me to get on with my job, put things in place and get things right, and that’s what will happen again.”
Hughes, the fourth-longest serving manager in the division, also suggested experience was vital to remaining composed during disappointing periods.
“Experience is invaluable, not only from myself and my coaching group but the players as well within the group.
A lot of the players have experienced weeks where we’ve underperformed and they understand that you need to do certain things well to get out of those situations, that’s what we’re working on.
From our point of view, it’s not about that pressure from the outside; it’s what we put on ourselves. We’ve got high standards here; we expect to perform well every game we play.”
Evidence of this mental toughness ensures that the Welshman does not see Stoke struggling in a relegation battle this season.
“I’d be more concerned if I felt we didn’t have the potential in the group to have a good finish to the season – that’s our intention.
We were 13th last year; we fully anticipate that we’ll be better than that this year. At the moment, we’re just above the positions that no one wants to be in but we don’t anticipate that’s going to last very long.”
Hughes will be hoping for a more positive showing when his team face Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday, although he will be without the sidelined Bruno Martins Indi and Peter Crouch.
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