The City chief, who celebrated his 46th birthday today, admitted that at the start of the season he would have taken just one defeat in the opening ten games but he was critical of his side’s creativity as they failed to find the target for the first time this campaign.
“Before the season started we would have taken fourth place and one defeat at the start of November but we are a little frustrated with the number of draws that we have had,” declared the manager.
“But that is how the Premier League is shaping up with lots of teams dropping points. What we have to do is make sure that when we don’t play that well, as we didn’t today, we still pick up points.
If that continues then we will be fine but what we have to do is improve on what we have produced at Birmingham. We were disappointed because we know that we can do much better.
...Mark Hughes
“Possibly this was an opportunity missed but no team is going to allow us to dictate to them and that was the case here. We have done well in the other drawn games. This was probably the one where we didn’t hit the heights . But we have still got something out of it.
“We failed to get any momentum in our play and it was all a little bitty. The game as a whole suffered as a consequence.”
Hughes lost both Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor to ankle injuries before a ball was kicked and that meant another new look back four with Vincent Kompany alongside Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge returned at left back.
“We were missing key personnel and making changes that doesn’t help but that is not an excuse. We are pleased we are picking up points but today I wasn’t happy with the attacking threat. We are better than we produced,” continued the boss
“Liverpool, Spurs and Villa have all dropped points recently and some people and that is the way things are shaping up. We have had four draws three of them have been away from home and at places where other top sides have struggled to win and where, in fairness, City have found it difficult in the past.”
Hughes hailed Shay Given’s performance after the Irish international saved a second half penalty awarded against skipper Nigel de Jong for hand ball
“Shay was terrific today. He has to be the most consistent goalkeeper in the Premier League,” declared the manager.
“Despite the criticism of our defence from some quarters we have a decent goals against record and it was great for Shay to keep a clean sheet today. He deserved it.”
