CITY manager Mark Hughes insists it is vital the Blues win their two home games if they are to progress from the UEFA Cup group stages - and is quietly confident they can do that.
It is on the road his side have hit problems and they go into the clash with Steve McClaren's FC Twente on the back of successive defeats by Bolton and Middlesbrough in the Premier League.
Ahead of the game Hughes said: "When we play in front of our own fans, there is a freedom in our play. There is a positive attitude in everything we try to do.
"It is important to win our first game, given the make-up of the competition. If you win your home matches it gives you an opportunity to qualify from the group.
"If we can pick up even a point from the two away games, I think that will be enough."
City's other home game is against Paris St Germain (December 3) while the Blues must travel to Schalke (November 27) and Racing Santander (December 18).
Hughes could have more attacking options against an FC Twente side that won their first game, against Santander.
Benjani scored for the reserves this week following a long-standing thigh injury while Darius Vassell also had a run-out after being sidelined with a knee problem.
Hughes is looking for Benjani to kick on and said: "I like his attitude. He comes into training with a smile on his face and I have been impressed with his work-rate.
Impact
"It is frustrating he has not been able to make an impact for us but touch wood we hope he is back now.
"He scored a goal in his comeback in the reserves, which will help him. We are really pleased he is back."
Skipper Richard Dunne is doubtful after suffering fluid on the knee following the defeat by Bolton.
Hughes, meanwhile believes McClaren deserves credit for re-launching his career abroad.
McClaren, 47, has got off to a good start in Holland following the bitter disappointment of having only 18 games in charge of the national side.
The end came last November when England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 after the defeat by Croatia at Wembley.
McClaren moved to FC Twente in June and they are currently sixth in the table but only two points behind the leaders.
Hughes, who cut his teeth during his four-year spell with Wales, has a lot of admiration for his managerial counterpart.
He said: "There may be some friendly banter from our fans but Steve has moved on and the England team has moved on.
"Steve has always been one, you feel, who always had his career path mapped out. I think there was always going to be a time when he wanted to ply his trade in a different country.
"That is what he is doing now and he should be applauded for that. He wants to develop as a coach and as a manager. He is obviously enjoying the experience at the moment because results are going for him."
Will City beat Twente? Have your say.
Hughes eyes home comforts
November 05, 2008
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Sparky,please hold back on forcasting,it's like the kiss of death.
Good to see he is already saying one point from two games away should be enough if we win two at home. Given our limitations away from home even that is a tall order!
There is no homeform and awayform. If you are fit you can play everywhere. We do nont miss strikers, we miss defensive midfielders. You cannot play both Robinho and Elano there if you not play five in that position. They did not take the defensive work against Bolton and Boro. R can have a free role like Geovanni but than you can have only one on top or have extremly worksame three midfielders.
NOT A CHANCE.THE GUY IS DESPARETE.
Have to agree as we are unlikely to get anything at Schalke & Racing just turned over top side Valencia 4-2 away so need the maximum from the home games.
re Richard Dunne!!!!!
We need to face up to the fact that this man is a complete liability,
He would not get in any othe premier league side and would struggle to
compete in the championship. He has been a good servant in terms off commitment
i agree but does not posses any quality what so ever!!!!! this is fact and fans of
other teams get some real comedy from his errors. This situation needs addressing and soon
it cant go on, look at the mistakes, in europe at home against the danish side he gave them
their goal, he lost us the game at newcastle, the game at boro he was awful, mistakes against bolton,
another own goal. being city fans we generally settle for players that "TRY HARD"... this must stop
i am a passionate city fan and have been for 24 years and i will try hard, the fact is i am not
good enough to be a premier league footballer. how can you be linked with players like aguerro and
have players like dunne wearing the arm band!!!! micah should be captain simple as that.
i know he has not been at his best but how can he learn ANYTHING off dunne! plus he has been played
out of position. A comanding entre back is needed, Metzelder and Cannavarro are both out of contract
therefore realistic targets.
Joe Hart is the next player I would like to rant about. People say he is a top class keeper?
Can anyone tell me ONE game that he has won us? top class keepers ie James Chech van der sar
win teams games, hart looses us games never has he won us a game?
i think he will come good in time but not ready for the responsibility just yet!!!!! we need an
experienced keeper who will win us games... command the area, shout at defenders and has experience at
the top level.
Michael johnson is my next attack!!!!! Can anyone tell me what exactly he does appart from have
the worst shot ever and give the ball away countless times. he runs and thats about it?... sell him
useless and some people were compariong him to gerrard and even colin bell? wake up
in urgent need of a left back (bridge ) - keeper (jaaskalinen or given) centre half (metzelder
or cannavaro) a striker (defoe) defensive midfielder (frings).
Dunne should never play again he is an insult to the premier league.
We will draw 1-1 tomorrow.
CTID.
I am normally quite positive, but I think we will struggle on Thursday and will be lucky to get a draw. Hughesy needs to get the balance right within the team, I would play Hamman and Kompany as proper holding players with no license to get forward and then as I said the other day, let SWP, Ireland, Robby and whoever plays up top have the freedom to attack. Too many times recently the CF has been isolated and with no real pace right up top it makes it hard to stretch teams, so we have to pass our way through them, which as results have shown works very well when it works but is easily countered by aggressive play from the opposition. Anyway I hope I am wrong with the prediction and that we win and then gives us confidence to get a good result against Spurs
Will City beat Twente? Have your say.
Yes.
Will City beat Twente,well it depends on wich City turn up for the game tomorrow.
On current form you would have to say it's looking very unlikely we will win the game,so for me and it's only because of our current form,i,m going for a score draw.
A must win game.Hughes and his players have put themselves under this pressure by failing to beat
lesser teams.Any loss this month will do irrepairable damage to Hughes' standing at the club.That's life get on with it.
MEN you mished a great opportunity to write thish article in a language the vishitorsh manager would untershtand.
Ish it too late to edit it sho that he may feel properly welcome?
Massive game, we lose tomoz we will have zero to cling to at all.
Look it will probably take Hughes about five years and approx 300-400 million to create a team that will compete in the CL. Any sooner and we and the owners are dreaming. It took Ferguson six years and he's a top manager who had won trophies previously. We all have to be very very patient (including the owners) and let Hughes graft a team together. If we and the owners are patient we will succeed.
My team to play FC Twente.
Hart,Zableta,Kompany,Berti,Ball,Robinho(lw),Hamann,Ireland,Wright-Phillips(rw)Jo and Benjani up front:
Subs:Dunne,Richards,Elano,Schmeical,Sturridge.
Probably pick Dunne and Richards. Dunne is useless and Richards needs a rest.
Why does MH look like a man who's completely demoralised and lacking ideas??? His press conferences are becoming dull and plentiful -i'm sure he wasn't on the box this much when he was blackburn manager - STOP TALKING AND START DOING OTHERWISE HAND IN YOUR NOTICE AND TAKE YOUR SKIPPER WITH YOU!!!
What, exactly, is Mark Hughes talking about? McClaren has his career mapped out? Right, so getting sacked by England cos you are absolutely crap and having to move abroad because no one in your own country would trust you with training cones, nevermind the team, is a career move? Or maybe, England, Belgium, Khazakstan, infinity and beyond is the path of the wally with the brolly. It's a bit worrying that MH admires him. I always thought McClaren was a smug prat. More importantly, it is also worrying that MH thinks our problems are only away from home. Hate to remind you Mark, but Faroe Islands, Midgetland (0-1) and Amonia Nicosia at home were hardly football extravaganzas, sumptuous goal fests or footballing feasts. In fact, with the exception of Petrov, they were mostly more drivel than dribble because, with the exception of Nicosia away, we have seen nothing yet (nor at Blackburn last season) to suggest you know how to set up a side to play a European team and convincingly get a result. McClaren we pretty bad at that too except for one season when he fluked it. So now we have the pair of them against each other, do I look forward to the game feeling inspired? Er, no. With our injuries, MH's tactics of late, the team's complete ineptitude at home in Europe and McClaren in the opposite dug out, this could be a long night for both sides! I do hope, really hope, I am completely wrong and we stuff them out of sight. Can I see it happening? Well I'm not putting money on it.
Bluemoon ..Manchester 100% correct re Dunne..We are getting laughed at thanks to Captain Donkey...what bugs me though is that The MEN and Jimmy Wagg on the City Debate show, will not critise him no matter what.Anyone can see his time is up!!
"If we can pick up even a point from the two away games, I think that will be enough"
There's nothing like having a winning mentality.
And this is NOTHING like having a winning mentality!
Off thread, but the concencus on the right of the page should also contain Berti, Mee and Logan. We know what the other three can do and that is obviously not enough so why not try something different. Surely it can`t be as bad as playing Micah at LB. My defence against Spurs and FC Twente would be Ned, Richards, Kompany and Ball. Midfield would be Zab and Ireland as the holding players with SWP and Garido/Elano covering the wider births, Rob and Jo/Benji.
With regard to the article, it will be a few weeks I fear before MH can count on some home comforts. November in the league is a mountain that looks beyond us at present and our involvement mid week only adds to our problems. If by the end of Nov we are still looking good in Europe, and we are a minimum of three points clear of the drop I for one will be satisfied. Thats not to say that I won`t get on here and have a shout about the way we have played.
Mr Hughes please just go !
Blue Moon - I'll tell you what Johnson does.......Get Injured alot and take an age to recover from them!
Portsmouth Blue, please just be quiet
If my name was Benjani and I had was earning as much as he is (plus the £2million signing on fee he made last January) I would have a permanent smile the size of the Jokers on my face........ when he returns, it's about time he started to perform and get goals!
I have serious worries about Hughes at the minute. If he is not careful he will have a player revolt on his hands. You can't keep telling your team that they won't be hear at Christmas
when they play like they do because of his poor decisions. Likelihood is it will be Hughes going if he's not careful. Have a feeling not all is well between manager and players. Hoping for a win tomorrow, come on Hughes sort it out.
dear mr hughes, i have an idea how we can win all our uefa cup fixtures no problem, get a pen and paper, write on the paper i`m not upto this job i resign, hand it in to our new owners and mention what a good manager jose mourinho is then off you toddle and thanks for nothing.
Team for Thursday: Hart GK..Zaba RB,Richards CB,TBH CB,Berti LB..SWP RW,Kompany CM,Ireland CM,Garrido LM,Robinho FW,Jo FW. In a 442 formation, tempted to pick Benjani from the start, but 45 mins of action for the reserves is probably not the right preparation for now.Would like to see Robinho pairing up with Jo up front in the danger areas and SWP and Garrido playing wide and getting the crosses in for the front two to feed off.This is our best option if Twente have come to defend stubbornly, get behind the fullbacks pulling the ball back.Berti should be given a chance at LB for me,better for the balance of the team and we will never know if he is good enough if Hughes wont try him- he cannot really ruin our defensive record can he? Skipper would be Kompany for the night.