5 hours Ago By [email protected] (Barry Cooper)
Hull City head coach Ruben Selles has demanded an improvement from his side at the start of the second half of matches after conceding early against Coventry City on Monday night. It's the third time in the four games since City returned from the international break and have conceded inside the opening 10 minutes of the second period and the tenth time this season. City started the half poorly again, and saw Matt Grimes' volley hit Charlie Hughes and wrong-footed goalkeeper Ivor Pandur to give Frank Lampard's side the lead, before Abu Kamara leveled up in the final 10 minutes.
It happened against Luton Town when Lewie Coyle's clearance hit Alfie Jones and spun into the net, giving the Hatters a priceless win, while Moussa Sissoko turned in the only goal at Watford last Tuesday night. Selles has now called on his side to stop being so lackadaisical early in the second period and give themselves a chance of winning games rather than having to fight back from a deficit by being more determined in their defensive play. "I don't know if the word is sloppy," the Spaniard told Hull Live.
"I will need to see it in the dictionary because I know the word, I know the connotation. I think it's not good enough, not only from the players, it's not good enough from us (coaching staff). "As much as we deliver the message to try to play some situations and try to be consistent in how we play, there are also some situations that we need to be bigger in our clearances and not keep ourselves under pressure.
"Not only that being the second half, actually at the end (of the game) we have an action that I think there were three clear situations when we can just make a big, big clearance and then follow the ball just to apply pressure into the opposition half and we didn't manage to do it. Those are the moments that I need to be more clear about what I want from the team, and that starts with me." Unlike the limp display after conceding early against Luton in their last home outing, Selles was at least pleased with the response to the Sky Blues' concession.
"We spoke about it," he said, responding to setbacks early in the second half. "We put some strategies in place, but we need to be more clear as a team with what we do at the beginning of the second half. We need to eradicate those moments, especially the moments that are going against us caused by ourselves, not by the opposition, because I think it was too easy again in that situation, so we need to continue developing and hopefully eradicate those moments early in the second half.
"Then the second thing is, yes, I saw the team that responded well, a team that, even being one nil down, didn't try to rush things, try to do things in the proper way. "The goal came from one of those situations when we were under pressure in possession close to our half, and they both managed to make six or seven passes together to find the spare player, find Nordin (Amrabat), find Abu (Kamara), and finally score. I think everyone was showing how competitive we can be.
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