Hull City v Rotherham United: New York the blueprint as Tigers look to stand up

The number-crunchers revealed recently the Tigers have had more touches in their own defensive third than any other Championship side. Patient, calculated football might be popular in coaching circles but does not go down so well on the terraces without wins to back it up.

Hull travel to Rotherham on Tuesday having lost eight of 14 matches since the start of December, and with coach Andy Dawson calling on his players to stand up and be counted after Saturday's disappointing defeat at home to Swansea City.

The match before that sequence, though, showed how good Hull’s approach can be, blowing the Millers aside 4-1 at the MKM Stadium. Unsurprisingly, the memories were strong in Dawson's mind after preparing his players for the return.

"That's the way we play, that's our style," he said when presented with the statistic about touches in Hull's defensive third. "We try to bring teams onto us and hopefully we can break lines and take their numbers out of the game.

"That's been massive for us over the last 18 months. We've achieved a lot, we've come on massively.

"If we keep performing – take Saturday out of it – to the levels we have, getting better and better, gelling the team, building confidence in the attacking players, working hard to get clean sheets as a unit, we'll have a really positive end to the season.

"Some of the football we're producing is top class and enjoyable to watch. We control games in terms of possession.

"We have to win, we know that. We keep getting better and better at how we do it and it's our job as coaches to keep improving us individually and as a collective."

Being more ruthless is an area the play-off-wannabes have to improve on – they are fifth in the division for possession, but only 13th for goals. Dawson says they need to play more like they did in November.

"We were fantastic from minute one," he said of the MKM Stadium game. "It's always nice to get an early goal because that breeds confidence, builds momentum and puts a little bit of negativity into them.

“Every time we went forward we really hurt them and that's what we've got to keep improving on.

"Opportunities will come, can we be clinical? We were that night and probably the only disappointment was we didn't keep a clean sheet.

"If we can replicate that performance we'll all be happy."

But to get the chance, they will need to show their mettle.

The league table suggests bottom-placed Rotherham are likely to be relegated this season, but not without a fight.

In November the Millers were a soft touch away from home but this game is in South Yorkshire under the direction of a manager, Leam Richardson, who has reinforced them after the uncertainty of Wayne Carlisle's caretaker management.

"We've watched a lot of Rotherham games, they're a really good team, a physically strong team, they will test you, so physically and mentally you have to be prepared for every single second of the game," said Dawson. "They're strong at set plays.

"We know what we're going to come up against.

"Leam's a very good manager. There's been an uplift in terms of performance.

"We know whenever you come to Rotherham you have to be ready mentally, physically and prepare to fight and scrap. You know it's going to be a long 90 minutes.

"We have to stand up to a man, show what we've got about us individually and collectively and if you don't, you know what's coming at you against Rotherham.

"We expect a much better performance than we produced on Saturday and there's no better game to come into."

Lewie Coyle is an injury doubt but after a good transfer window, Dawson is comfortable the squad has depth in all positions.

"Lewie left the ground on Saturday night with his ice bucket," he said. "Fingers crossed he's not too bad, whether he'll be fit and available for Rotherham is probably doubtful.

"Cyrus (Christie) trained at the back end of last week and we're in a fairly good position with everybody coming back. There's a few (right-back) options – Matty Jacob, Cyrus, we'll see how Coyley is, Reags (Regan Slater).

"Over the last 18 months the squad's got stronger and better.

"Our attacking options are all different types depending on the type of game or the way the game's going.

"Aza (Aaron Connolly)'s another one that's worked extremely hard and he came on the other day. Noah (Ohio) came on last week, there's Billy (Sharp) – we've got options."

Hull are waiting to see if Jean Michael Seri returns in time from the celebrations after being part of Ivory Coast's dramatic African Cup of Nations win on home soil to play at Huddersfield Town on Saturday.

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