‘So much to love about City, but we must be patient’

‘INTELLIGENT MANAGER’: Liam Rosenior. Pictures courtesy of Hull City

Last night’s thrilling comeback win at Middlesbrough kept Hull City’s promotion dream alive as they head into the crucial festive period. Sam Hawcroft looks back at the season so far and assesses their chances

The expectation ahead of this season was the greatest it had been since the early days of the Allam era before it all ended in tears. So, how has it shaped up so far – and what will be the verdict come May?

The opening match on August 12 certainly flattered to deceive, although it was against a Sheffield Wednesday side who would end up rooted to the bottom of the Championship as well as become the not-so-proud owners of the league’s “worst-ever start to a season” record.

For, after that 4-2 victory (which did not reflect the Tigers’ comprehensive mauling of the Owls), fans had to wait more than two months for another win at the MKM Stadium – yet on the road, City have been significantly more successful.

The highlight – a 1-0 win at the league leaders, Leicester, in September – was followed by a 3-1 thumping of Stoke and a comfortable 2-0 at Birmingham. However, City only just got away with a 2-2 draw at Millwall and were nowhere near the races in a disappointing 3-0 reverse at Ipswich.

So, although we’ve crept into the top six on occasion, we’ve been inconsistent and hard to predict. My heart – and my various betting accounts – say we can make the play-offs, but my head says we are more likely to finish just outside. But that’s fine. And this is why…

In Jaden Philogene, we are in possession of one of the most exciting talents this club has seen in quite a long while, and he’s already shown in spades that he can torment defences and change games. Numerous commentators have mistakenly said he’s “on loan” from Aston Villa, presumably because they can’t conceive of the idea that Hull City could have the clout to buy such a player – and, to be fair, he’s been so mercurial that many Tigers fans struggle to believe he’s ours, too.

It’s a huge blow to be without the injured Philogene at the moment, which has taken the sting out of our attacking play. But at least the dependable Regan Slater is back, and Ozan Tufan showed last night he knows where the goal is, just when we needed him. It was also great to see Ruben Vinagre perform so brilliantly down the left. Hopefully, we will find out over the next few weeks that the team is not built around Philogene.

Hot on Philogene’s heels is his fellow England U21 starlet, Liam Delap, another phenomenal player whose goals have helped propel us up the table. If we’ve managed to sign Philogene, can we convince Manchester City to part with Delap once his season-long loan is up? He’d leave a huge hole in Liam Rosenior’s side were he to return across the Pennines.

Much has been said and written about Rosienor’s ambitious devotion to playing out from the back, and I feel the jury’s still out on that. Rosenior has said on quite a few occasions that players need to know when to pass their way out of danger and when to just hoof it out, and he’s conceded that they’ve not always got it right. It’s a fairly risky system that relies on quality players sticking to the plan, knowing their role and working together.

There had been quite a few harbingers of doom in the matches leading up to the Tigers’ trip to West Brom on November 4, when the usually solid Jean Michaël Seri served up a goalscoring opportunity on a plate to Jed Wallace. Keeper Ryan Allsop has been known to deliver a short pass into the path of an opposition player more than once, while sliced defensive passes under pressure have flashed in front of open goals and given us all palpitations.

Playing out from the back encourages the opposition to press higher up the field, so you can exploit the gaps they leave, but you also lay yourself more open to horrendous defensive errors. However, deft passing play, when it comes off, is far nicer to watch than constantly lumping it forward – though those impatient sorts in the stands who scream “GERRIT FORRARD!!” would no doubt disagree.

What we can surely agree on is that it’s the complete antithesis to the “anti-football” served up by Huddersfield Town, for instance. One fan on Twitter argued that he’d rather mutilate his nether regions than watch that sort of negativity week in, week out – which works for me as a reason to keep the faith in Rosenior’s style of play.

‘EXCITING TALENT’: Jaden Philogene

That said, our passing play is lovely, but too often it’s just passing play with no end result – it fizzles out in the final third. We’re often so shot-shy that it brings to mind one of the few Little Britain sketches that hasn’t been cancelled these days. “Look into the goal, the goal, not around the goal, not around the goal, look into the goal…”

Will another striker be on Rosenior’s shopping list come January? You would have thought so, if we’re to mount a serious top-six challenge.

A familiar cry from Rosenior – and his players – is “patience”, but this is a quality that seems to be in short supply in general these days. People don’t seem to realise that an immediate regime change does not necessarily mean an immediate transformation in fortunes – and when the rot’s set in, as it had done under the Allam regime, things are inevitably going to take even longer to put right.

This has always been the way with any organisation, be it a government, company or sports team. What’s changed from years gone by is people’s attention spans – their ability to accept and understand that systemic changes take time to implement, and that the road may have more than a few bumps along the way.

Intense fan pressure on club owners for instant success is due, I think, in part to the X-Factor generation we live in now, and also because football has done its level best in the past three decades to turn itself into a business whose consumers – not supporters – vote with their feet if they don’t get a return on their (usually fairly significant) investment.

Rosenior has been in the job a little over a year. While there have been mutterings from a vocal minority about his style of play, and there are even a few unhinged types on social media who don’t think he’s up to the job, we must be realistic.

No, we’re not good enough to be promoted back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, in Rosenior’s first season proper. We should, though, expect to flirt with the play-offs, and, as I say, finish eighth or ninth – which would be a huge improvement on last season’s 15th. It’s become a bit of a cliché, but I do feel we should trust in “the plan”. He’s just a bit more experienced in this sort of thing than we are, after all.

Hopefully there will be no knee-jerk reactions from owner Acun Ilicali, either. He’s known to follow social media and listen to what fans are saying – which is, on the one hand, a great thing (if only Assem and Ehab Allam had taken on board the strength of fans’ feelings on the Hull Tigers issue!); but on the other, Acun must beware the vocal minority, those empty vessels who make the most noise. Which is also, as it happens, great advice for anyone in a position of power.

There’s so much to love about this club now – not least our articulate, intelligent and thoughtful manager, and his crop of exciting young players who are right behind him. Just chill out, and give him, and them, time and space to build.