Man City 1-3 Fulham: Boos Rain Down on The Blues

Manchester City lamentable form spread to home premiership action Sunday with a crushing defeat to a mid table Fulham side at Eastlands.

City have the distinction of being the first side to concede two goals on their home ground to journeyman quality American midfielder Clint Dempsey, and also allowed Andy Johnson what seemed like acres of space to stimulate the Cottagers attack.

City’s road form under Hughes is worse than any season under Stuart Pearce or Kevin Keagan. In fact City’s road form this season bears little difference from the 2000-2001 season when the club was relegated under Joe Royle who had after all played for City not United, like Hughes.

Tactically Hughes setup has been simple and unconvincing. His handling of star players has been abysmal.

For all of Hughes success in handling the likes of Benni McCarthy, and Brad Freidel at Blackburn, his rapport with players of international superstar caliber like Robinho and to a lesser extent Elano have proven his limitations as a manager particularly for a club as ambitious as City.

This is not to say Hughes is a bad manager. His record with both Wales and Blackburn speaks for itself and proves he has few equals when managing a certain type of squad. But he appears at this point to be the absolute wrong fit for Manchester City.

With a UEFA Cup match this Thursday, Hughes fate could be sealed if the Blues do not erase a two goal deficit and overcome Hamburg. A performance like Sunday’s and Hamburg can name their scoreline.