Hughes defends Bridge

Bridge: Criticism

Related links

Teams

• Manchester City

Players

• Wayne Bridge

Also see

• Sky Sports experts
• Transfer Centre
• Fantasy Football
• Sky Sports Twitter

Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has hit back at the criticism dished out to Wayne Bridge over the weekend.

The England full-back was slammed in some quarters for his performance against Burnley.

But Hughes has hit back insisting that the attacks on Bridge are just opportunistic.

"Pundits on Match of the Day or whatever just have an opportunity to nail individuals in the public domain," said Hughes.

"But we are not going to do. We look to analyse our mistakes and make sure, in future, we are better in similar situations.

"I am sure that their process involves looking at incidents in games, but not taking it as a whole.

"That is the role in life that they have decided to follow and that is the way it has to be. But there is a frustration when they don't go into particularly in-depth analysis.

"I would question how many games they actually watch live, from the start to the conclusion of games."

Hughes is fully behind his £12million recruit, insisting he will show his ability.

"Wayne is an experienced player who has won Premier League titles and been part of teams that have been at the top end. He understands what it is all about," said Hughes.

"At times, individuals will make decisions that affect the team and sometimes you have to hold your hand up. But he will be fine."

Hughes was speaking after landing in Abu Dhabi - the home of the club's owner - with his squad as a City XI prepare to take on United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

"We hope to become the club of choice for the people of Abu Dhabi and make them proud of the football we play in the same way we aim to do with our supporters in Manchester," said Hughes.

"Our main focus is to train, play the game and win, but we will go there representing Manchester City, which is a big honour.

"We will make ourselves accessible during the week and we will make sure everybody appreciates how we feel about playing and working for a great club."