Danny Higginbotham: Stoke were right to sack Mark Hughes after losing to Coventry in the FA Cup
SunSport analyst believes the Premier League side have to stop shipping goals otherwise they face relegation to the Championship
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WHENEVER A Premier League manager is sacked, I feel it’s important to give a balanced viewpoint on their entire tenure.
Not jump on the bandwagon and say, somewhat simplistically, a boss is completely rubbish once they have been handed their P45.
Now, I have to confess that, growing up, Mark Hughes was one of my Man Utd idols. I loved watching him in the red shirt at Old Trafford. And I have always respected his managerial career since then.
Of course, I have to acknowledge that results have dipped in recent months at Stoke and perhaps it was the right time, for both Hughes and the supporters, that there was a departing of the ways.
They are in the bottom three of the Prem, having lost to numerous teams around them, and the FA Cup third-round defeat to Coventry was ultimately the last straw.
Defensively they have been poor. The amount of goals they have conceded – 34 in 22 PL matches – has been unacceptable.
The fact as well that they conceded goals close to each other against a lot of teams this season made it difficult for them to get back into games: against Man Utd (2 in 9 mins), Chelsea (2 in 5 mins), Man City (3 in 7 mins), Bournemouth (2 in 2 mins), Liverpool (2 in 6 mins), Tottenham (3 in 12 mins), West Ham (2 in 11 mins) and Chelsea (2 in 6 mins).
But you have to say that overall Hughes did an exceptional job when he took over Tony Pulis in May 2013.
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When he replaced his fellow Welshman Pulis, who was magnificent in the Potteries, Hughes was tasked with taking the club to the “next level”.
Well, he achieved that with three successive ninth-place finishes in the Prem.
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Perhaps, of all the clubs outside of the top seven, only Southampton did a better consistent job during that same time frame than Stoke.
You have to say the top-10 placings was very commendable. I mean how higher realistically could Stoke have got? Especially without spending the ear-watering sums that the bigger clubs pay?
He signed a number of talented players during his time at the Bet365 Stadium – Xherdan Shaqiri, Bojan Krkic, Marko Arnautovic, and Joe Allen.
Others didn’t quite work out or hit the ground running. Frenchman Giannelli Imbula, I thought, would be a fantastic signing, but it wasn’t to be.
And Kevin Wimmer has not worked out yet but time will tell since arriving from Tottenham for £18m.
Notably, Hughes lost key characters from the dressing room in 2017 – Phil Bardsley, Glenn Whelan and Jon Walters. Those three would have united the team when things didn’t go to plan and made sure everyone aroind stood up to be counted.
And I believe the loss of Steven Nzonzi to Seville also contributed to their slide down the table.
Remember Hughes tried to change the style of direct and robust play at the club that Pulis had been famous for.
At times, it worked. There was a EFL Cup semi-final appearances and some memorable wins: 6-1 over Liverpool, 2-0 home wins over Man City and Man Utd.
Will Hughes bounce back from this setback? I’m sure he will. He has not become a bad manager overnight.
For the new guy coming in, the objectives are simple: to stabilise results and survival. Stoke need to get back to basics and become hard to beat once again.
Relegation would be a disaster in my opinion.
The Championship is full of bigger clubs who have got stuck and been out of the top flight for years.
If Stoke stop conceding goals then they have a chance.
If not, then they will be back in the Championship for the first time since 2008.