Hull City's defensive familiarity brings contentment as Tigers keep it clean at the back

The former Tigers full-back inherited the team with the worst defensive record in the Football League, but since he took over they have been the joint seventh-best in the Championship in that regard.

Hull have kept nine clean sheets in those 21 league games.

The Hull of Shota Arveladze and caretaker Andy Dawson looked in danger of relegation, one point above the relegation zone having leaked 35 goals in their opening 18 Championship matches.

The way Rosenior addressed their problems has been a textbook case of building from the back with a lot of the work seemingly done on the Cottingham training pitches.

Because whilst under owner Acun Ilicali a huge number of signings have been thrown at the squad further up the field to not enough effect – as 10 draws under Rosenior shows – the defensive improvement has largely been built on a back four from the League One title-winning season of 2020-21.

August addition Cyrus Christie was first-choice right-back under Rosenior until Febuary’s season-ending injury but now the preferred options are promotion winners Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Sean McLoughlin and Jacob Greaves.

Not that it is all about those four, as centre-back Jones will tell you, but it certainly helps that they know each other's games well.

"I’ve always said I like playing with Sean and the whole back four have got a good relationship now, especially with Karl (Darlow, a goalkeeper signed on loan from Newcastle United in January) behind us," said Jones, pictured.

"We just need to keep doing our jobs and keep clean sheets.

"(The defensive work) starts not just with us, it starts from the front. We're a lot harder to play through from start to finish.

"Being solid and compact, we're a lot harder to break down and that's why we're conceding fewer goals."

One way Hull defend is by keeping the ball, a focus of Rosenior's strategy. They totally dominated it in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with relegation-threatened Rotherham United.

It suggests if the Tigers can just find some cutting edge, they have the makings of a good team, rather than one languishing in 17th.

"It's stage by stage," commented Rosenior. "When I first came here, our defensive record was the worst in all four divisions. We've stabilised the team and we're in every game.

"In fact, other than West Brom in this run (of nine matches), it's been more than that. We had double the shots on target of Burnley.

"It's easy to say one win in nine but the performances deserve so many more points. It's not like I'm thinking, 'Where's the next point going to come from?'

"But it's frustrating because we should have so many more points."

Jones added: "It's just that bit of composure, that bit of quality, just trying to find the back of the net and even the final passes, final crosses, just that extra bit of quality to try and put teams to bed and end games.”