Mark Hughes was a disaster at Southampton, but Wesley Hoedt’s recent comments about his preparation for one particular game last season are damning, to say the very least.

Hoedt spoke to Dutch outlet Voetbal International in an exclusive interview and lifted the lid on his shortcomings at St Mary’s.

He was loaned out to Celta Vigo for the second half of last season and joined Belgian outfit Royal Antwerp in the summer transfer window on another temporary deal.

Hoedt was an important player for Hughes, though, and played in all but one – his last, a 2-2 draw against Manchester United – of the Welshman’s Premier League games in charge of Southampton.

However, this seemingly does not mean that the defender held his former boss in high esteem.

Former Lazio star Hoedt has revealed that on the day before Southampton travelled to Manchester City for a 6-1 defeat at the Etihad Stadium, Hughes instructed them to ‘play like Liverpool’, abandoning the previous tactical structure.

Hoedt said:

I played twice at that Etihad Stadium. Once, a very good match, [which finished] 2-1 in the ninetieth-minute. [We were] wiped out a second time 6-1. How they walked over us then was not normal. We always played with three in the back, but the day before the game, we were told that we had to play like Liverpool: 4-3-3 and with high pressure. Without training, that was not the right choice…

Read Southampton’s verdict

Essentially, Mark Hughes told Saints to learn to play like a team with world-class players who had benefitted from three years of tactical instruction from one of the best managers in the world… 24 hours before facing one of the best-ever Premier League teams.

Is it surprising? No. Is it awful? Absolutely. Hughes is probably the worst manager in the club’s history, and comments such as Hoedt’s only go some way in reflecting that opinion.

Saints would have lost to City anyway in November 2018. But they went 3-0 down within 18 minutes and were humiliated, much of which now seems to owe to the frankly bemusing demands of Hughes…

Was Hughes Southampton's worst-ever boss?