Liam Rosenior tells Hull City players: block out the doubters and keep showing me your resilience
Liam Rosenior has told his Hull City players not to let the doubters affect their Championship play-off push.
Tuesday’s 2-1 win at Rotherham United was an example of the “resilience” the Tigers coach sees as so important, and his side will need more on Saturday away to a Huddersfield Town side lifted by caretaker manager Jon Worthington.
Hull had a big away following at the New York Stadium but the 2,166 grew restless when their side was trailing 1-0 for over an hour, with chants of “Liam, sort it out!”
Rosenior was pleased his players stuck to their guns and were rewarded with two goals – Noah Ohio’s winner and an equaliser now rightly given to Jaden Philogene.
“I keep speaking about being positive, don’t let the outside noise affect you, like being 1-0 down away from home and being booed for having possession and scoring a minute later, that’s what it’s about,” said Rosenior.
“I’m trying to build resilience. It means when you have something negative that happens to you in life or on a football pitch, you react positively to it.
“I’ve got a group of players who whether they lose a game at home (as they did last Saturday) or lose a goal in the fourth minute (like on Tuesday), react positively.
“If you watch the clips of Rotherham scoring their first goal, we get the ball out of the net and put it on the spot. When Jaden does a ridiculous skill, I’ve got three players in my team sprinting 40 yards to get the ball out of the net and put it back on the spot to get another one.
“That’s resilience. The players are showing me that whether we win games or lose games.
“When I first came in I got to identify the players who have those characteristics and keep them here.
“I’ve spoken about reactions to goals ever since I came to the club.
“That’s either in you or it isn’t.”
Hull owner Acun Ilicali continues to invest heavily in the transfer market to try to secure a top-six place, but it has not been plain sailing this winter. Eight defeats in 15 games mean they are just short on goal difference, albeit with a game in hand.
“We can’t look at names on paper and say, ‘That’s going to click,'” said Rosenior of his upgraded squad. “That’s not how football works. Over time my job is to do the best team meetings, the best individual meetings, give the best training sessions so that we click and accelerate the process.”
Hull have no fresh injury concerns from Tuesday, but players pushing for inclusion in their second Yorkshire derby of the week.
“We’ve got more sessions into Aaron (Connolly), who needs them, Cyrus (Christie), who’s been out for a while, Adama Traore is sharpening up as well,” said Rosenior.
“The lads who didn’t start (at Rotherham) trained magnificently on Thursday so it gives a lot of selection decisions for the game to come.”
The hope is that African Cup of Nations winner Jean Michael Seri will be in Huddersfield, but only in the stands, after being part of celebrations in the Ivory Coast.
“He’ll be back within the next couple of days,” said Rosenior on Thursday, “hopefully in time to watch the game against Huddersfield and be available on Tuesday (when Hull are at Southampton).”
