Mark Hughes: Stoke must address defence after Crystal Palace loss
Sunday 18 September 2016 18:18, UK
Mark Hughes says Stoke must resolve their defensive issues after losing 4-1 to Crystal Palace on Sunday.
The Potters have endured a difficult start to the season, picking up just one point from their first five games.
They have also conceded 14 goals, with their 4-1 defeat to Palace coming a week after a 4-0 home loss to Tottenham.
"We have to stop shipping goals, it's unlike us," Stoke boss Hughes told Sky Sports. "We are not a team that allows opposition four-goal headstarts and we have to address that very quickly.
"On the day Palace created more problems than we were able to cope with.
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"We have made changes to the back four and made changes today, so we have not had a settled back four. I have to nail that down and stick with it. That will help us. We need that platform to enable us to build."
Stoke made a terrible start at Selhurst Park as they conceded twice in the opening 15 minutes.
"It's very difficult to come back from that in Premier League games," added Hughes. "That was the opposite to the start we hoped for, as the away side you know the home side will come out from the off, you have to be ready for it and deal with whatever they throw at you. We didn't."
Hughes had targeted an improvement on the ninth-placed finishes the Potters have secured for the past three years, but is concerned doing so will soon prove beyond them.
"We have ambitions this season and, if this run continues any longer, we won't be able to achieve them," he added.
"We need to turn this round very quickly. We haven't really got going yet. We've been ninth in the Premier League in the last three years, and we spoke about being better than that.
"We're giving ourselves too much to do. Confidence is damaged after the last few results, and you can see that in some of the players' play. A number of them are lacking form. Collectively we need to be better. We can't keep conceding easy goals like the first two."
