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Mark Hughes hailed Carlos Tevez after the Argentina international opened his goal account for the Blues in the Carling Cup win over Palace.

The striker’s second half effort from close range put the tie to bed and led to wild scenes as he celebrated with the 1758 City fans huddled around the half way line at Selhurst Park.

Boss Hughes now hopes it will be the first of many for the player who is still to reach peak fitness after a disrupted pre-season.

“I was hoping that by playing Carlos that it would be an opportunity for him to get off the mark and was delighted that he did so,” declared the manager.

“He is working nicely with Emmanuel Adebayor. Carlos is a quality player with great intelligence. He makes the right runs time and time again. The other thing that is impressive is his protection of the ball. At times against Palace that aspect of his game was great.

“He draws people to him and then knows exactly when to release people into space. He has proved in a short space of time what we already knew; that he is an outstanding player.

“Even at his level though confidence is an important thing and the goal will have helped that and the ninety minutes will have enabled him to get up to speed.”

Hughes was pleased too with new central defender Joleon Lescott who made his debut in the 2-0 win. The Boss said:

“Joleon did well on his debut. It was only late yesterday that it was confirmed that he could play tonight and he only had one light training session with the group.

“It was important for him to get a taste of it as soon as possible and he came through with flying colours.

“Palace are a young and energetic side and they made things difficult for us in the first half but we always created chances and we were a bit a aggrieved at one or two of the offside decisions that went against.

“Once we got our noses in front we could have scored three or four more. On the night it was important to get the job done and that is what we did in a professional manner.

“There are plenty of examples in this Cup where teams try and rest players and go into ties with weakened sides but I was never going to do that. I was conscious that we have made a good start and wanted to keep that momentum going and allow the new guys to gel and we got that out of the game too.”

I think Hughes sees alot of himself in Tevez's style of play, and also they share a mutual hate for Fergie!

When you see the movement & speed of thought from Tevez, Robbie, Adebayor it makes you realise what a difference in standard in pure football terms there is between these guys & even top players such as Bellamy.

Tevez football intelligence is on a different planet to Bellers & even though ability wise Bellamy's quicker, probably a better finisher & a great asset to the squad, the pure football standard drops when he replaces Tevez. Bellamy may still be a better choice for certain games than Tev or Robbie but it will be a slightly different way of playing when he's in the team. Simpler. RSC on the other hand is right on their wavelength & will fit in perfectly.

The interesting thing will be to see whether players like Bellamy & the young players actually improve that aspect of their game through playing with these blokes. SWP is showing signs of moving up a level already & Bellamy seems a pretty sharp character so it's possible he'll get there.

Some of the football we played v Palace, bearing in mind how athletic & keen to close down they were, was as good as anything I've ever seen from a City team, even the best ones. It's close to unstoppable. Only the finish is letting it down.

I read a very similair article on the official site earlier today

Hughes also knows Tevez likes to feel loved and appreciated, with his emotional Latino temperament, to get the best from him. Taggart ignored him for 2 years because he's a daft cunt, but there is method in Hughes' statement and I expect to see him praising Tevez lots this season.

How poor was that defending though? Tevez is barely 5'6" in heels and he gets a header from a corner, 4 yards from goal without leaving the ground. Must have thought it was fucking Christmas.

Slim wrote:How poor was that defending though? Tevez is barely 5'6" in heels and he gets a header from a corner, 4 yards from goal without leaving the ground. Must have thought it was fucking Christmas.

he nuts quite a few in though does Carlos

Wooders wrote:

Slim wrote:How poor was that defending though? Tevez is barely 5'6" in heels and he gets a header from a corner, 4 yards from goal without leaving the ground. Must have thought it was fucking Christmas.

he nuts quite a few in though does Carlos

Distraction caused by the threat of Lescott at the near post. Many of Cahill's goals were similar; Lescott attracting defenders & Cahill sneaking in for a tap in. Tevez was always dangerous at set pieces for the rags too so it's a perfect combination & will go up another level when RSC gets fit.