‘A breath of fresh air’: Greaves praises new boss as Tigers chase first home win of Rosenior era
‘NEW IDEAS’: Liam Rosenior. Picture credit: Hull City
By Simon Bristow
New Hull City manager Liam Rosenior is “a breath of fresh air” who has brought “new ideas” the club “probably needed”, Vice-Captain Jacob Greaves has said as the Tigers look to record the first home win of his tenure against Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
A win against the Terriers could catapult City into play-off contention and get “a monkey off our back”, Greaves said, in reference to the Tigers’ failure to win at the MKM Stadium since Rosenior took charge on November 3.
Greaves had the rare experience of watching from the sidelines last Saturday as the manager made eight changes for the visit of top-flight Fulham for an FA Cup Third Round tie, which although resulted in a 2-0 loss was nonetheless a game the Hull-born defender believed City could have won.
Asked how life has been under Rosenior at a press conference today, Greaves said: “Really positive. He’s brought in some new ideas, been kind of like a breath of fresh air which the lads have all really took to, and I think it’s something that the club probably needed, in terms of him coming in with ideas of how he wants to take this football club up.
“And I just think with the recent performances you can kind of see how much the lads are enjoying it. He made eight changes for the Fulham side and we didn’t really look in any bother against a top Premier League side, which is credit to him really, and all the lads are buzzing and it’s a really good place to be in.”
Saturday’s visitors have had a rapid reversal of fortune, having reach the play-off final last season to now finding themselves second-bottom of the league. City are 16th and just six points off the play-off places.
‘THREE POINTS ARE ALL THAT MATTER’: Jacob Greaves. Picture credit: Hull City
Greaves said of Huddersfield: “They’ve got a lot of experienced players so it’s a little bit weird to see them down there. But now we’ve climbed into a healthier position and they are still down there, it’s still going to be a big fight.
“I think the way we’ve been playing at home of late has not been great, I can’t really put my finger on as to why, the away form has been excellent, I’ve got to say, so hopefully it will be a great chance on Saturday to kind of turn the tables a little bit because the fans have been turning out in numbers.
“We just want to get three points for the fans because that’s all that matters at the end of the day.”
He added: “We’ve got a little bit of a monkey on our back with the media and the fans not really having too much to cheer about, about our home form, but that’s completely normal when they’re coming every week to watch us, paying money and we’re not winning games at home, it’s kind of going to be a little bit sour.
“But hopefully we can get that win, which has been coming I’ve got to say. I think we’ve been excellent in a lot of our games under the new gaffer; now hopefully we can get our first proper home win under him.”
Greaves, a central defender who has been deployed mostly at left-back, has helped his side’s cause by netting three times so far this campaign.
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A crowd of more than 18,000 is expected for the Yorkshire derby, which Rosenior said could be settled by “fine margins”.
He told reporters: “Things are looking good, we need to keep our feet on the floor and keep working really, really hard.”
Speaking of the Fulham game, he said: “I’m always disappointed to lose a game of football, don’t get me wrong, but it was funny - Ian Holloway came in on Monday, he was doing an interview and I invited him into the meeting room for our team meeting, he was watching training and he was so complimentary of the group. He said you’d never think we’d lost a game, how hard they are working, how positive they are.
“And that’s really nice when you hear someone like that, who’s been in the game, who understands the game, speaking about the energy around the place at the moment. So that’s a positive sign for me. I thought our performance, and I’ve watched that game five times, I thought our performance was top.”
Asked about the competition in the Championship, and Huddersfield being near the bottom so soon after a play-off final, Rosenior said: “It just shows the level is so close, the standard is so high, and it’s really about, I think now, the finer details and small margins, and that’s why for us my biggest job is to try and turn those small details and margins in our favour.
“Every club in this league has got good players. Every club in this league has got really, really good coaches and managers as well, so we cannot get complacent that we’ve won two games in a row in the league, we have to just keep pushing and keep our performance levels high.”