Mark Hughes will travel to Abu Dhabi next month to meet Manchester City's new owners for the first time and spell out his requirements for the January transfer window, emphasising that the team's “frailties” need to be addressed with the addition of some experienced campaigners rather than young superstars.

The Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), headed by Sheikh Mansour, made clear its ambitious targets for City after buying the club five weeks ago, breaking the British transfer record to buy Robinho from Real Madrid for £34.2million. But after Liverpool inflicted City's third defeat in their past four Barclays Premier League matches on Sunday, Hughes stated the importance of addressing the shortcomings of his talented young squad. Roque Santa Cruz, the Blackburn Rovers forward, will be the subject of a renewed third bid, while a left back and an experienced midfield player are among the manager's other priorities.

“In the November break there will be a chance to go over and put our plans and needs to the Abu Dhabi group,” Hughes said. “We hope we will be able to spend in January. We will get better, but we are still a team with obvious frailties and we will work to address them when the window opens. What we need is that consistent level of performance and resoluteness to be able to see games out and take something positive from every game. At the moment we are struggling on that point, but we are a young team in terms of experience and development.”

Encouragingly, ADUG appears to be taking a more pragmatic, sensible approach than appeared to be the case immediately after buying the club. While Dr Sulaiman al-Fahim, who was instrumental in the takeover, made outlandish claims about trying to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the new chairman, is regarded as a more level-headed appointment who will take the manager's advice on football matters.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the club's previous owner, had been eager for Hughes to sign the other Ronaldo, the Brazil forward who is looking for a club after his release by AC Milan. Bruno Mazziotti, Ronaldo's fitness trainer, said yesterday the 32-year-old is ready to resume his career, but City appear unlikely to follow up the interest shown by Thaksin during the summer.