Garrido owners were disappointed to see their budget buy relegated to the Man City bench for last night’s encounter with Boro. As it turned out, with City losing 2-0, it passed without consequence, however today’s words from Hughes aren’t exactly reassuring for Garrido…

The City boss decided to play Richards at left back in order strengthen his back line which he feels has been exposed away from Eastlands.

“We needed to be a little bit more solid defensively. I think away from home at times we’ve left ourselves a little bit exposed,” remarked Hughes.

Regardless of the changes, Hughes still isn’t happy with what he saw.

“We looked like a team that hasn’t really had a settled back four all year….that’s something that’s been a problem for us, so we’re trying to get the right balance of the guys back there that will enable us to have a defensive platform to be able to bring in the attack minded players they have in front of them.”

That sounds ominous for Garrido and his owners. The Spaniard is an attack-minded player and clearly Hughes doesn’t fancy his defensive qualities. For home fixtures, he might well be selected but from this, we can expect a real threat to his starting role away from home. A recall against Bolton at the Reebok this weekend seems fairly remote at this point in time then.