Mark Hughes is confident that Sam Allardyce will prove to be a catalyst for Blackburn Rovers, his former club, as he prepares for Manchester City’s final Uefa Cup group A game in Spain this evening.
With Blackburn having dismissed Paul Ince, Hughes’s former Manchester United team-mate, on Tuesday, Hughes feels that the force of the former Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle United manager’s personality will help to revive the club that the Welshman left to manage City during the summer.
“Sam, as we all know, is an experienced Premier League manager, he’s had success at a similar-sized club in the past,” Hughes said. “They’re maybe lacking a bit of confidence at the moment but he’s a big personality and I’m sure he’ll go in there and try to address things very quickly. I am sorry for what has happened at Blackburn and for Paul as he was an ex-team-mate of mine.”
City are top of group A, one point above Twente, and have only to match the Dutch side’s result away to Paris Saint-Germain to stay there and secure an easier draw for the first knockout round. Hughes is likely to rest several key players for this evening’s match before an important run of games in which his team travel to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday before they face Hull City and Blackburn during the Christmas period.
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Richard Dunne, the City captain, has remained in Manchester after his wife gave birth and Jô, the Brazil forward, also missed the trip because of illness, while Benjani Mwaruwari has a hamstring problem and Daniel Sturridge an Achilles injury.
With one win in the past eight Barclays Premier League games and his team above Sunderland, who are in eighteenth place in the table, on goal difference, Hughes acknowledged that his team’s league form needs improvement. He may gamble on his fringe players to secure top spot in the group to keep his players fresh for the festive period.
“We have a mind on the amount of games that we’ve got coming up,” he said. “It’s an intense period for all players in the Premier League and we’re in a situation where we’ve already qualified.
“A number of the players that have been shining lights for us, I haven’t on many occasions been able to give them a break and I will look, if I can, to make sure that if there’s a possibility to protect some of the players, then I will do.”
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