Fifth defeat of Manchester United in the last six games has put Mark Hughes on the back seat and it appears his decision to relegate British record signing 32.5m pound Robinho to the substitute bench. With a record of consecutive seven victories earlier at Eastlands it was surprising to see the way the record was surrendered by City in such a pathetic manner against Fulham.

It was a miserable performance from Manchester City at their home ground as a section of the supporters lost their patience and one could hear chants of anger and displeasure. Though Stephen Ireland with an outstanding strike led the City by the opening first half goal but then Fulham quickly regrouped and took back the control of the game and with Clint Dempsey with two goals in the second half and one long range by Dickson Etuhu resulted in Fulham giving a miserable defeat of 3-1 to City on their home ground.

When Ched Evans replaced the exhausted Bojinov and Mark Hughes left Robinho on the bench to cool his heals the City supporters chanted “We want Robinho”. When Etuhu took Fulham ahead of City the chant from the supporters changed to “You don’t know what you’re doing!” and at that point of time Hughes decision started backfiring. As a result he had to call Robinho but he disappointed the fans. Unfortunately for the Brazilian striker wearing the Nike Mercurial Vapor V football boots, he has not had much success over the second half of the season. Mark Hughes has attributed this drop in form to the fact that defenders have figured Robinho out, but not letting him play certainly does not help matters.

Justifying his team selection Mark Hughes said that the players were overworked and they lacked the energy levels that were required. He said he had no other option as he was just trying to protect the key players from fatigue. It was Robbie’s first break and he had shared majority of the burden in the recent past as resting him would greatly benefit him Hughes added.