Mark Hughes has admitted that Manchester City are not getting their money’s worth from misfiring Brazilian Robinho.
The £32 million (US$46 million) striker was substituted with 25 minutes left following another woeful away performance in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Premier League strugglers Portsmouth.
Robinho has been sensational in home matches since joining City from Real Madrid, but has repeatedly failed to recapture that scintillating form on the road.
Saturday’s loss was City’s seventh away defeat in the league and Hughes admitted the frustrating inconsistency was simply down to the likes of Robinho and fellow Brazilian Elano not performing to their best week in, week out.
“It was very disappointing from our point of view,” Hughes said. “The Premier League is the hardest in the world and you need an amount of players performing at the top of their ability. If you don’t hit a certain level as a team you get beaten. The opposition try and stop the threat of world class players and Robinho and Elano struggled to stamp their ability on the game.”
David Nugent wasted four gilt-edged opportunities before Glen Johnson opened the scoring 20 minutes from time.
City defended poorly throughout and were made to pay as Johnson waltzed into the penalty area before seeing his powerful right foot shot beaten away by goalkeeper Shay Given.
Johnson was quicker to react to the rebound than the visitors’ static back line and hammered his follow-up shot past the stranded Given and into the roof of the net.
City’s hopes of a fightback were dashed five minutes later when Hermann Hreidarsson notched for the second successive game with a bullet header from Jermaine Pennant’s corner.
The match also saw Portsmouth goalkeeper David James set a new Premier League appearance record of 536 games.
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