It would be very easy to get all upset at Mark Hughes after today's 1-3 home defeat. Easy, but wrong. Because tactically Hughes got it right. Hang on you are saying, how can he have got it right but City lost 1-3. Read on...

As I noted earlier today when I saw the starting lineup I considered it rather interesting and wondered at the formation. My preference for 4-2-3-1 is known but it made sense that given the personnel deployed that City would go to a 4-1-4-1 which they did with De Jong sitting in front of the back four. Once the game started it became apparent what Hughes had in mind with both Zabaleta and Ireland falling back to De Jong to make a tight midfield triangle.

This effectively blocked Fulham from going through the middle of the park, while long balls over the top could be sniffed out by a combination of Onuoha speed, Dunne guile and Given positioning. This meant that Fulham would have to attack down the wings where the Cottagers had Dempsey and a right winger so non de script I don't even recall his name. You'd bet money on Dempsey not beating you from the wing, even though the American has improved greatly this year and with Zamora and Johnson neutralized this had all the hallmarks of Fulham extending their woeful away form.

Nick a goal somewhere along the line and you have the makings of a 1-0 victory maybe with a second scored towards the end of the game. And it worked. Ireland got the goal and City were winning 1-0 at half time. Now yes it was turgid and boring stuff, but sometimes such a result must be ground out.

But City lost you say. And you are correct, but not because of the tactics. Instead defensive errors from Zabaleta, Dunne, etc., allowed irony of irony, Dempsey to get a couple and the returning Dickson Etuhu the other. This is the tiredness that Hughes referred to after the match "Tired minds sometimes make mistakes on the field." If the players had not made these mental errors City would have won the game. Bored silly we would have been but 3 points would have been in the bag.

Now most City fans would rather have seen Petrov, Elano and Robinho all in the starting lineup and a Keegan-esque attacking philosophy. And yes truth be told so would I. But Hughes had a plan today and if the players had executed correctly the team would have won.

I've said it all along, I'll complain when Hughes gets it wrong (see Vassell, Darius) but I'll support the manager if the fundamental decisions are the correct ones regardless of the result.