Mark Hughes will go into the home match against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday facing the sack if Stoke City show no sign of improvement and suffer a sixth defeat in seven games.

Although the Stoke board remains behind Hughes for now and continues to place emphasis on performances as well as results when assessing his position, the failure to deliver on both fronts against a struggling West Brom will almost certainly lead to the manager being dismissed.

Stoke hope there will be no need to go down that path and retain the belief Hughes is still capable of turning a disappointing season around, yet there is also an acceptance the run of results cannot be allowed to continue. Stoke, who are one place and one point above the teams in the relegation zone, have lost 10 out of 18 league matches and another defeat against West Brom would leave them spending Christmas in the bottom three.

The major complication for Stoke if they do decide to make a change after West Brom is that the managerial landscape is so barren, leaving them with no obvious alternative to Hughes. Sam Allardyce, Alan Pardew and David Moyes would all have been contenders for the Stoke post had they not returned to management in the Premier League over the past couple of months. Hughes, however, cannot rely on a lack of contenders to keep him in a job.

There is a feeling that collectively the players are badly underachieving and one of the biggest concerns is the team’s defensive record. Stoke have conceded 39 goals, averaging more than two per game, and they look particularly loose and ragged after falling behind.

Confidence among the players is clearly low, although the board firmly believes Hughes still has the backing of those in the dressing room. Senior figures at the club also have some sympathy for Hughes because of the poor refereeing decisions that have gone against Stoke in recent weeks, including the penalty Manuel Lanzini controversially won during West Ham United’s 3-0 victory at the Bet365 Stadium on Saturday. Lanzini was subsequently given a two-match ban for diving.

Stoke supporters will take more convincing that Hughes deserves to be cut some slack. Unrest has been festering since last season, when Stoke ended up 13th after three successive top-10 finishes, and it is easy to imagine the 54-year-old facing a considerable backlash from supporters if West Brom win.

With West Brom without a victory in all competitions in 17 matches and lying second bottom in the table, the game is a critical one for both clubs.

Stoke fully expect to climb clear and funds will be made available next month to strengthen the squad to make that task easier. The key question is whether Hughes will still be around when that money is spent.