Mark Hughes made clear his frustrations at Stoke City’s shoddy start to the new campaign to his underperforming players in the Selhurst Park dressing room on Sunday – but the club’s manager of three years is under no immediate danger of the sack.
Stoke lost 4-1 against Crystal Palace, the third time in four league games that they have been breached four times, and continue to prop up the division with one point from five winless fixtures. Hughes’s side have yet even to take the lead in a league match this term and are already saddled with a goal difference of -11, with the manager berating the team’s woeful performance as unacceptable in the aftermath of their latest defeat.
“He was very angry,” the captain, Ryan Shawcross, said. “It was not a nice dressing room to be in when you’ve let in four and he has told us in no uncertain terms that it is not on. When you lost in the manner we did, you can’t say anything back. It’s been like that since the start of the season.
“It’s difficult to understand why we are losing and confidence throughout the team is not great. We need to have a long, hard look at ourselves and come out fighting. It’s the same team that got ninth last year and the two years before that.
“The losses affect your life at home and you are desperate for a win. We have got to stick together and, hopefully, come through it. We have to work hard get a bit of luck and keep some clean sheets.
“We’ll get some more stick after the loss to Palace, which we deserve, but at the end of the season I’m certain we will be a lot higher than we are now. You have difficult periods and you come through it. Let’s get some wins on the board, aim for the magic 40 points and go from there.
“The Premier League is all about small margins and we have to remind ourselves that football has a strange way of changing just like that. You can soon go out and win five in a row, too.”
Stoke have made a habit of starting campaigns slowly under Hughes, who has been fined £8,000 after accepting a Football Association misconduct charge, having been sent to the stands in the 4-0 home defeat by Tottenham Hotspur.
Stoke secured only three draws from their first six league fixtures last term but still recovered to finish ninth for the third year in succession under his stewardship. The springboard for that revival was a run of five wins from their subsequent seven fixtures. After Wednesday’s League Cup tie at home to Hull City they confront their former manager Tony Pulis and West Bromwich Albion on Saturday and then travel to Manchester United but their fixtures up to the early December trip to Arsenal actually appear appealing.
Hughes retains the support of the club’s board and will be given time to instigate the recovery. “He’s our manager and he’s got our support,” the Stoke chairman, Peter Coates, said. “We are obviously disappointed with the start we’ve made but we’ve only played five games. Mark has been around the block: we’ve finished ninth three times and that tells you he’s got experience, and he knows what it takes to get results in the Premier League.
“He’s been a manager for some time and he’s got two experienced coaches [Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki] alongside him. While these results obviously can’t go on forever, we’re convinced that things will change.”
