Sparky's tricky plan

With a delicate scheduling issue of Schalke 04 in the UEFA Cup on Thursday and the derby against Man Utd on Sunday, Mark Hughes is dealing with a number of complex problems. The derby is unquestionably a priority for City but with long-term plans of building a trophy room, Mark Hughes knows that a draw will go a long way in qualifying for the next round. With the club firmly intent on airlifting in a number of new top-flight players with the January transfer window, this makes tomorrows match intriguing from a tactical perspective.

With the trip to Germany, Mark Hughes noted:

"Ideally we would like to get qualification in the bag as quickly as possible. If you pick up a point somewhere on your travels and win your home games then it is often good enough to get you through to the knockout stages.

"We will go to Germany looking for a positive result and that is how we approach every game. There is no reason why we cannot go to Schalke and cause them problems.

"We had a perfect start to a big week with the win over Arsenal but what we have to guard against is tomorrow night's game impacting negatively at the weekend.

"I have had experience of that before but the good thing is that there is not a great deal of travelling, we will have two full days training and will be in good shape for the derby."