Stoke Manager Mark Hughes Admits That Leicester Were That 'Little Bit Sharper' in Their 2-0 Defeat

Stoke City lost 2-0 to Leicester on Saturday, in a game which Stoke looked nowhere near their best, and manager Mark Hughes admits that their opponents were that ‘little bit sharper’ than them in the match.?

Stoke remain in the top half of the table in 9th position, but the fans and Hughes will not be happy with how their team performed on Saturday.

??Speaking to ?Sky Sports after the match, Mark Hughes said: “Not a great day from our point of view, we found it difficult to gain a real foothold in the game, we were just a little bit off the pace.

“Leicester were a little bit sharper to the ball, a little bit sharper to the second balls and things bouncing around in the middle of the park. And we found it difficult to gain any momentum to our own play.”

Hughes admits that conceding the first goal was a big moment in the game: “We went behind in the game, unfortunately, and when you do that against Leicester, it plays into their hands. They can play on the counterattack and they are a real threat on the break, as we know.”

Hughes then thought going 2-0 down straight after half time made the game extremely difficult for them: “Clearly at half-time we very much felt we were in the game, we were only 1-0 down. But we shot ourselves in the foot by conceding so early in the second half.

“And at 2-0 we made it really difficult for ourselves. We had more of the play second half, but that was more to do with Leicester just consolidating their position.”

Sitting mid-table and not really having much to play for, some people would think that Stoke lack the motivation to win at the moment, but Hughes has rejected these suggestions: “It should not be difficult (to keep the momentum going), it is about having the mentality to keep going.

“And we have games ahead that will test us, but we will have to be better than we were today. So we will have to be better on Tuesday (at Burnley), a similar type of game we will face with lots of longer balls and physical challenges and we have to be ready for it.”