‘I believe in my players’: McCann confident City can get back to winning ways

‘WE CAN TURN THIS AROUND’: Grant McCann. Picture credit: Hull City

Hull City boss Grant McCann says he has “full belief” in his players as they head to Stoke on Saturday looking for only their second win of the season.

The Tigers visit the bet365 Stadium on the back of a stinging 3-1 loss at home to Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United last weekend, with a consolation goal from Keane Lewis-Potter being the only highlight on an otherwise forgettable day at the office.

That defeat saw City drop into the bottom three with a points tally of just five from their opening eight games on their return to the Sky Bet Championship.

But looking forward to the Stoke game at an online press conference today, McCann said: “OK, we haven’t started the season too well, but we’ve got full belief in this group of players that, you know, that will change sooner rather than later.”

The response came after McCann was asked for his memories of City’s last visit to Stoke - a 5-1 drubbing in March last year - which he described as “one of them days in football when you want the ground to open up and eat you up”.

But McCann said that result was not relevant as he was working with a different group of players now.

City go into the game with injury concerns about “a couple of important players”. McCann declined to name them but said they would be given every chance to be fit for Saturday.

However, he did say midfielder Greg Docherty and defender Alfie Jones both had a “good chance” of being fit and available for selection.

Keane Lewis-Potter. Premier League Southampton are reportedly interested in the City starlet. Picture credit: Hull City

City have spent the week since losing to the Blades reasserting their principles, McCann said.

“We’ve had a really good week,” he said. “It’s given us the opportunity to reset, to reassess where we are at this present time, to have a look at areas where we need to improve, big time, and to have a look at some of the areas where we believe we are actually doing quite well, so it’s been a good week.

“We’ve revisited the principles that we set and what we are as a team and a football club, and it’s been good to get a lot of work onto the training ground this week in terms of areas where we need to improve.”

One area in particular focus has been defending set-pieces, which the City head coach said had cost them four games this season.

But McCann also said “everything’s not doom and gloom” and it was important to remind the squad of areas in which they were doing well.

He said both full-backs had been “excellent”, and that City had been creating chances, and been “OK” between both penalty areas without being clinical enough in front of goal.

McCann was asked whether media speculation about interest in Lewis-Potter from Premier League Southampton was unsettling, which he dismissed and revealed he had joked with the forward about it this morning.

“No,” he said. “I made a joke with Keane this morning, to be fair. I said ‘You’re off to Southampton, aren’t you, in January?’, and he just started laughing, and I said ‘Listen, as long as you don’t forget me’.”