Lewie Coyle says Hull City's tough talking can help them out of downturn in form

Hull City have been having those sort of chats too, albeit with a few key players missing on international duty, and captain Lewie Coyle thinks the characters in the dressing room mean it will work for them too.

He is “itching” to get back out and find out. Fortunately in that respect, Hull and Luton Town have less time than anyone to wait, meeting in the Championship on Friday night.

The reason for "crisis talks" – as we journalists are contractually obliged to refer to them – are obvious. Five defeats out of six, four on the bounce and three games without scoring. The less said about some of the defending at Swansea City in the last game, the better.

In an era when it feels like too many players need to be led by the hand, hearing about them taking responsibility is always welcome.

"We're an honest group and I feel when there's times that stuff needs to be said, it will be said," right-backs Coyle says. "I won't divulge too much information about what goes on behind the walls of the training ground, which is very private and intimate, but we have discussions because we aren't going to settle for average.

"We want to improve every day and be better than we were the previous day.

"Stuff gets said that's never easy to say or listen to but we need that. Nobody takes it personally in this group, which is great. Everyone knows it's for the good of the squad and to kick us up that table."

With the likes of Oscar Estupinan, Jean Michael Seri and Dimitrios Pelkas arriving back late from Central America, Africa and the Mediterranean respectively, the international break may be a mixed blessing but it certainly had its positives for the Tigers.

"Ideally you'd have every individual in the building and you can discuss the things you need to with everyone there,” acknowledges Coyle.

"But the discussions will go on when they come back. They may feel they have stuff to add either vocally or on the training pitch and we're all ears.

"I think we have a very good group in terms of wanting to learn.

"In any line of work everybody needs that switch off. You can get ground down with work, work, work. You need that reset button and I feel this break has come at a good time for us.

"If we were on an unbelievable run you'd probably want to keep the momentum going but this is what we needed, a reset to re-evaluate where we're at.

"We need to do way more, work way harder, which you can always do.

"It's only very recently we were on a very good run putting in some good performances against some top sides so we're not asking the group and individuals to do what we haven't shown we can. We just need to get back to the things we were doing in the early part of the season when in my opinion we were doing the basics really well.”