TO HULL AND BACK
Hernandez hails boss Silva for resurrecting ‘almost dead’ Tigers and breathing life into survival bid
HULL Robertson 53, Ranocchia 85 WEST HAM Carroll 18 2 1
MARCO SILVA took over Hull when they were “almost dead”.
Bottom of the table, with boss Mike Phelan axed there was a seemingly impossible task ahead, not aided when star player Robert Snodgrass later departed.
Three months on and Silva has a revival brewing.
It took a tactical switch at half time, from ponderous back five to traditional back four, releasing the ball quicker up field, and adding better deliveries into the box, to initiate a comeback against West Ham.
The big picture is 14 points in 10 games points since Silva arrived. City’s first 20 matches brought just 13.
As a manager, Silva has not lost a home game for three years and 39 matches, including his time at Sporting Lisbon and Olympiacos.
Hailed as the “real deal” by his fellow Portuguese Jose Mourinho, he has overseen 13 points collected from five home games at the KCOM Stadium.
Tigers Striker Abel Hernandez said: “We were almost dead in the league at one point. He has changed everything about the club in a positive way.
“We’re focused on getting the points we need to stay in the Premier League.”
Hernandez, who played under Steve Bruce and Phelan, added: “There is not much comparison to my last two managers because he has had a totally different coaching path to English managers.
“He is very good tactically and sets his teams up well to make sure we know what we are doing. I can talk to him one to one. “He has belief in us. I’m fully confident in him.” Suspended Tom Huddlestone says the “tactical planning” is huge under Silva. He said: “It’s been nice to be reintroduced to technical game plans. “There have been managers who run you for the sake of it but this has been tactically intense.” Silva (above) is going places whether at Hull or elsewhere. Andrea Ranocchia headed the late winner from substitute Kamil Grosicki’s corner. Andy Carroll had put West Ham ahead, but the Tigers were level through a superb team effort, a sweeping passing move finished by Andy Robertson.
Robertson said: “The manager gave us a deserved rollicking at half time. We changed formation and gave them problems down the wings.”
For the Hammers it is four straight defeats and no win in six.
But Carroll insisted the players were “100 per cent” behind boss Slaven Bilic and when asked of West Ham could go down he replied: “No chance.”