In the final nine games of the Championship season, Hull City manager Liam Rosenior and his team are venturing into unknown territory that, should they make it all the way and earn promotion to the Premier League, may leave them inducted into the annals of Tigers legends.
Despite not being in the top six, City has a game in hand over Norwich and has two games this crucial Easter weekend. The first is this afternoon against Stoke City in front of a sold-out MKM Stadium, and on Easter Monday evening, they make the short trip to Elland Road to play leaders Leeds United.
Rosenior has pushed the team to not just take advantage of the opportunity, but also to enjoy the ride. Not since 2015–16 has a City team threatened to finish so high in the football pyramid, and we all know what occurred at the end of that season.
“And that’s why, for myself as a manager this is new for me,” he stated. “I adore it. I have always desired this. My dream job has always been management. Seeing all of the hard work we’ve put in over the last 18 months, and how we’ve grown this club from its current state—including recruitment, team identity, and style—makes me want to be a successful manager without a doubt. All of it for this one time. Let’s relish this moment now that we’ve arrived at it,” the Tigers manager said to Hull Live.
“The worst case scenario would be to repeat the entire process and win the championship the following season. That truly is the worst scenario that can occur.
“Some of those players had aspirations of playing in the Premier League when they were little, and now they have the chance to fulfill those dreams.” I want us to focus on the bright side of things, and I also want the supporters—who were incredible at home against Leicester—to be excited.
“Reflect on our situation from three years ago. Let’s reflect on our situation two years ago. I love this football club and I’m incredibly excited, and I want the fans to be as well. So let’s take stock of where we are right now, enjoy it, and stay together for the next several years to see where it may take us.
“Leave fear behind and let’s play football! We have a higher chance of winning if we can generate that kind of excitement and atmosphere in a stadium both at home and away. I told my players to play fearlessly and not to worry about making mistakes because I won’t change, and maybe that will be sufficient to get us to our desired destination.”
Rosenior says he doesn’t fear failure, and even if the squad do ultimately fall short in their quest for a top-six finish then it won’t be for the want of trying, though the focus, for now, is on what can be achieved in the final month of the season.
He said: “The only way you fail in life is if you don’t give 100 per cent. I don’t believe in failure. Sometimes you reach for the stars, you hit the moon. It’s not about the end result.
“I’ll look back at it (the season), I will analyse everything, trust me, I will at the end of the season. The first person I’ll analyse is my own performance and how I manage the group, how I train the players, the system of play, but we can’t think about failure in this instance.
“All I want for the players to do is go out and give 100 per cent and believe in what we do and if we do that and if it’s good enough, we’ll achieve it. If it’s not good enough, it won’t be for the lack of trying.”
City’s players have got themselves into a terrific position with nine games to go, and Rosenior believes the squad are enjoying their work, and it shows in their performances.
You should be able to see it. Retired from doing what you love, like I have, makes things easy. I adore playing football. You were so focused that you didn’t realize at the time how much you were enjoying it,” he said.
“Don’t words come naturally to you? Proceed and relish it. It’s not the same as attempting to win a football game every week in front of 25,000, 30, or 40,000 people.
However, because of the way we play, you have to be courageous and take the ball in dangerous situations, so you have to enjoy football. I don’t think any of the guys who have been here since League One, like Alfie Jones, Greavesy, Coyley, Macca, or the boys, have ever been asked to take the ball and play the way we’ve asked them to play. It takes a lot of bravery and fearlessness to do that from behind, as well as enjoyment of the game of football.
“The boys are already having fun with it; I observed this in 95% of the Birmingham performance as well as in the Leicester performance. I watched us struggle and fight against Preston, and we were extremely unfortunate not to win against West Brom.
“It’s incredible, isn’t it, that we’ve scored 19 points in the last 10 games—nearly two points per game—and we usually look at blocks of ten. We know we can go much better. We simply need to continue being reliable and working in the manner that we are working. We are in a great situation and in a great position inside the league.”
Leave a Reply