Leadership can enable Hull City to avoid the drop

For the club, maybe even for head coach Grant McCann, it could be a pivotal weekend. Two clubs in their own crises meet at the KCOM Stadium knowing the loser will go into the season’s final eight matches – assuming the coronavirus allows the campaign to finish – in the Championship relegation zone.

With two points from the last 33 available, momentum is snowballing away from the Tigers. Charlton Athletic’s form is not quite so bad – they have won three of their last eight matches, losing the rest – but boardroom squabbling is further handicapping them.

On the back of last week’s 5-1 defeat to Stoke City which had away fans chanting, “This is embarrassing,” Hull need a response. Above all, they need leaders.

“In football you almost create leaders as it goes on and I feel here we’ve got good leaders,” argues McCann.

“Eric (Lichaj), the captain, is at the training ground every day; Jordy de Wijs is a good leader, even though he hasn’t been fit and available. George Long speaks a lot, Jackson Irvine speaks a lot, Callum Elder is a senior international. These boys have all been there and done it.

“We have got people with a good number of games behind them, so hopefully they can bring that to the younger players who are sampling the Championship for the first time or haven’t played many games and are wondering where their next performance is going to come from. That’s when you need a changing room behind you and some of the older boys to take the weight off the manager’s and the coaches’ shoulders.

“Hopefully, this week has seen a bit of that.”

Some of the seniors have not always been able to influence matters on the pitch. Lichaj’s season ended in February, de Wijs has played twice since mid-January, Elder started one out of eight post-Christmas games.

“It’s difficult,” concedes McCann. “They’re always on the training ground trying to help and I’m sure they’d do anything to play a part of it. Eric Lichaj may not play again this season, Tom Eaves may not, Herbie Kane possibly, James Scott gets injured a minute into a training session (preparing for his Hull debut) – these boys would give anything to play and our boys need to realise they’re in a privileged position, in a good place fit, strong and ready to go and they need to perform.

“Just seeing Angus (back in training after treatment for early-stage bowel cancer) training like a machine every day trying to force his way back, he can be an inspiration to anybody.”

Mollycoddling is not McCann’s style, any more than moping over injuries is.

“It is what it is,” is virtually his catchphrase. Players have not been left to get on with it after Stoke, but there is an expectation they take responsibility.

“We’ve had various different meetings in the early part of the week and it’s been positive, it really has,” says McCann.

“We all know we’ve been disappointing in recent weeks but do we have to keep thinking about that or do we go, bang, this is the next one? Let’s see if we can get back to a bit of positive play, a positive approach to the game, and take the result.

“The players are in the changing room every day so I’m sure they’ll have had a good chat, which they do anyway. Now they need to stand up and be counted.

“I’ve got great belief in this group and what we’re doing.

“We’ve been hit from pillar to post over recent weeks but you can’t cry over spilt milk, it is what it is. We approach the next game in hopefully better shape in terms of maybe two or three (unnamed injured players) coming back into the fold and we look forward to it.

“I see some of the top managers (mentioning no Mourinhos) complaining about two or three injuries but they should maybe take a walk into Hull City and see the nine or 10 we’ve got. We just get on with it.”

There are bridges to be built by players who ought to be hurting from having their professionalism questioned this week.

“You’re always going to be questioned on everything when you lose games but it’s our job to make sure we can prove people wrong and get back to where we can do,” shrugs McCann.

“We’ll have to try and get the fans on our side on Saturday and create an atmosphere with what we do on the football pitch. Hopefully the fans can get behind us, like they have done all season.

“I get their frustrations. I’m a big football fan and I supported teams when I was younger.

“But what I can say to them is the group are all trying every single day to improve what we’re doing so stick behind us and cheer us on to a good win.

“People say you don’t really learn when you win but you definitely do when you lose – your learn a lot about yourself, your staff, your players and how to bring people together. We’re definitely learning but we want to get over this learning bit and back to the winning bit.”