Liam Rosenior ticks lots of boxes with Hull City passion, chemistry with Acun Ilicali, comfort in his surroundings and his thoughts on the game

Ask Hull's decision-makers and they will tell you they are ambitious and impatient. Vice-chairman Tan Kesler was sensible enough not to put a time-frame for when he expects Premier League football to return to East Yorkshire, but it is what owner Acun Ilicali demands.

With a talented but unbalanced squad a point above the Championship relegation zone 18 games into a campaign meant to be about looking up, not down, the pressure is on a 38-year-old whose only management experience is 12 games in interim change of Derby County.

If Rosenior feels it, he hides it well. There will be no win-at-all-costs football on his watch.

"There's pressure on every manager in the world and there won't be anyone who puts as much pressure on me as myself," he says with a smile that rarely strays far away.

His first match with a team he met on Thursday takes him into the Lion's Den, at Millwall. Rosenior calls it "a perfect away game". When you have been through the problems he did as assistant then caretaker manager as Derby flirted with extinction on their way out of the Championship, it must take a lot to faze you.

It has been an exhaustive search to replace Shota Arveladze, sacked on September 30. The first option was Pedro Martin but Rosenior ticks many boxes the Portuguese does not.

He knows English football and the faces around the place – "Long time no see" are his first words as he catches a familiar eye. He knows what success here looks like, having played in Hull’s only FA Cup final.

He knew the city and club before five years playing for them thanks to his grandmother, Cath Mills.

"I had a feeling I'd be back one day," he says. "It was a year ago this month she passed away. I was in Cottingham cemetery and she was in the crematorium with a Hull shirt.

"That gives me so much pride and a lot of motivation to do her proud.

"I told my mum (he had got the job) and she started crying so I think my nan would be really tearful because I know it was a big dream of hers to see me in that dugout."

Old team-mate Andy Dawson will be one of his two assistants, having held the fort as caretaker. Negotiations are ongoing with another, expected to be Jimmy Walker.

Rosenior’s comfort in his surroundings is obvious. He cracks a joke about the press conference lasting longer than dad Leroy's time managing Torquay United and a smile when Kesler talks about Ilicali doing "due diligence" on him.

They are just bonuses.

"Liam's English football experience wasn't the deciding factor, it was just another box ticked off," explains Kesler. "He's served the club as a player for a long time but that wasn't the only deciding point for us.

"With other candidates, the chairman wasn't fully on the same page.

"When I first met him his passion just impressed me but it's not about passion it's also knowledge and being ready for the job. From the first minute he gave me that perception.

"We dipped into his philosophy and discussed many times how he can improve the club, how we can achieve our goals. I was very impressed, as was the chairman, with his game philosophy, how detail-orientated he was, how genuine.

"His philosophy was the key point for me and the chairman. We had a genuine conversation.

"He'd already been watching us and he brought his opinions and it came together. I could feel Liam's ideas, touch them."

If Kesler paints a picture of perfect chemistry, so does Rosenior.

"It's a club I love but it can't be all you take into account," he insists. "It's been a really long process so me and Tan have got to know each other really well. Tan said, ‘I've not done an X-ray on you, I've done an MRI!’

"It was the chemistry between myself, Tan and the chairman in terms of what they want from a manager. If your philosophies aren't aligned, it's never going to work.

"We were all completely on the same page and that's key for success. I feel really comfortable that if I do the job in the way I believe I can we can all be successful together.

"As a young manager it's very important to find the right people who respect the way you work."

Like the rest of words, Rosenior's thoughts on how the game should be played are crowd-pleasers.

"It's brave," he says. "I want to dominate and play out from the back. I want players in high attacking positions and constant full width to stretch the opposition but I also want an energy, an intensity and a pressing without the ball.

"I don't mind players making mistakes, I want them to express themselves and not hide from the ball.

"The clubs who are brave are more successful in the long-term."

Ticked boxes do not earn points, but Rosenior begins his new job with a healthy headstart.