New Hull City signing Billy Sharp can still help on the pitch as well as off it, says coach Liam Rosenior

The Sheffield United legend signed a six-month contract after training with Hull on Wednesday.

Landing the Championship's all-time top-scorer and serial promotion-winner is a coup, on a free transfer even better and right at the start of the window fantastic. The only disappointment is the 37-year-old cannot be registered in time to debut at Sheffield Wednesday on New Year's Day.

First Hull play at Bristol City on Friday, then host Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers. But Sharp does not have to have his boots on to make the Tigers better.

"It's conversations sometimes, it's not just on the pitch it's in the dressing room, travelling to a game, in the team hotel, in training, just having conversations about things players have been through and how they dealt with it," said Rosenior.

"I learnt the most not from my managers and coaches but experienced peers when I was a player. You need good role models who symbolise what you want to achieve."

Sharp won three promotions with boyhood club Sheffield United – most recently from last season's Championship as captain – and one each with Scunthorpe United and Southampton. He counts Doncaster Rovers and Leeds United amongst his other club.

But he is more than a museum exhibit. After being released by the Blades in the summer, he scored six goals in 12 Major League Soccer appearances for Los Angeles Galaxy this summer and it was a surprise when he was released.

"His goalscoring record in LA was top and I studied his goals – he's always still in the right place at the right time,” said Rosenior. “If you have a 21-year-old with that understanding of where to be in the box they'd probably be worth £20m, £30m and we can't afford to do that.

"But what we can afford to do is bring in players we feel will help us on our journey and help improve the young players we already have."

Sharp cannot be registered until the transfer window opens on January 1, meaning the earliest he can make his debut is the FA Cup third round tie at home to Birmingham City on the 6th.

Rosenior wants two or three signings on top of Sharp, but is much more able to focus on what he calls "sensible signings" than this time last year, when he was new in the job and his team was at the other end of the table.

"Now I feel the squad is pretty much built you can be more selective in the players you bring in, which is a great place to be," he said.

"The summer transfer window's really helped that so now we can really take our time and focus on what we feel will just tip the balance. Now it's not about building a squad, it's tipping the balance in our favour.

"Signing Billy affects our striking options but we've still got other areas we want to strengthen.

"It's really nice to get one in early but I said in the summer it's not when you get them, it's the players you get and the reasons you bring them in for.

"The other deals we're working towards, I don't know if they'll happen early in the window or on the last day but our work is to make the strong as strong as possible for the rest of the season."

Jason Lokilo is back in the squad for the trip to Ashton Gate. Fellow winger Jaden Philogene has had a PRP injection to aid the healing of a knee which has now had a brace removed, but is still some way off.