Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has high hopes of first trophy ahead of League Cup semi-final with Liverpool

He won two Premier League titles, four FA Cups and three League Cups as a player, but silverware has eluded Mark Hughes the manager.

Hughes is determined to end that statistic this season as he prepares to face Liverpool with 44 years of Stoke history hanging over the heads of his squad.

There have been near misses, including three semi-finals at Blackburn Rovers, while he was sacked by Manchester City despite leading the club to the last four of the League Cup in 2009.

Mark Hughes has changed perceptions about Stoke

However, Hughes prioritised this competition before the season started and he believes that Stoke can underline their progress over the past two years by securing a place at Wembley next month. He said: “I haven’t been able to make that next step into finals as a manager and I would love to get some silverware against my name. I have been close a few times. I got to a League Cup semi-final at City but got sacked before I could play it.

January transfer window closes in

“I had a fantastic career as a player and that is what my expectation was as a manager. You go a different route and different level with teams who maybe don’t have that potential, but I feel we are a team who can in the future expect to be involved in these games. This club has a group of ex-players who are rightly lauded because of what they did [winning the 1972 League Cup] and we’d love to do the same.”

Stoke are expected to unleash their attacking trident of £12 million record signing Xherdan Shaqiri, Bojan and Marko Arnautovic on Liverpool, after recent victories over Manchester City, Manchester United and Everton.

Marko Arnautovic has been one of a number of impressive performers for Stoke

Hughes insisted that the highly rated trio were going nowhere this month. “There will be speculation but I’m not worried about losing anyone. Any players that will leave will be because we feel it’s best for them and us.”

Stoke’s hopes of winning their home leg were boosted on Monday when Geoff Cameron won an appeal against his dismissal at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday. The midfielder was given a straight red card after a clash with Albion’s Claudio Yacob, but his three-match ban was thrown out by an independent regulatory commission.

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