Hughes criticises Krkic, Imbula

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes says he could have substituted "four or five" of his players during Saturday''s 2-0 FA Cup third-round defeat to Wolves.

Bojan Krkic and Giannelli Imbula were hauled off at half-time at the bet365 Stadium, but an angry Hughes says he felt more of his starting eleven under-performed in the opening half against the Championship club.

"I took two off," the Potters' boss said.

"I could have taken four or five off. We needed a bit more mettle in the middle of the park.

"We need to pick up and get our act together next week now. You can read into Bojan and Imbula. They weren't making an impact and we needed to change things."

Hughes admits he gave a players a bit of a rocket at the interval, and says he expects much more when they return to action in the Premier League against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light next weekend.

"I was certainly angry. We are a lot better than that. I picked a team that should have had enough quality to take the game away from them," he said.

"Sometimes you've got to put a shift in, anticipate things, get on the front foot and we didn't have enough of that.

"We are disappointed because it's a competition we wanted to progress in, but we will have to wait for next year.

"We emphasised all week what we wanted to do and sometimes it doesn't happen. That was clearly the case first half.

"It wasn't a performance I recognised. We need to get it out of our system and get back on track."

Photo (Getty Images/ Michael Regani)

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