Can Marco Silva turn Hull City’s season around?

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The typical Premier League fan could be forgiven for not knowing too much about Hull City’s new appointment Marco Silva. Despite only being 39 years of age and making just two top-flight appearances in his native Portugal – the former full-back has managed to get himself a job in the Premier League.

While his name may not be particularly well known outside of Portugal and Greece, Marco Silva has a very solid track record during the early parts of his managerial career. He started coaching with Estoril in the second tier in Portugal and led them to promotion and to a Europa League campaign before ultimately departing for giants Sporting Lisbon. It was at Sporting that Silva won the Portuguese cup before leaving for Olympiakos following his dismissal for failing to wear an official club suit during an earlier round of the tournament. At Olympiakos, he led the side to their 43rd Greek league title – as well as a 3-2 win over Arsenal at the Emirates.

The main issue that surrounds Hull City is the fact that it is seemingly largely irrelevant who the manager is. The current owners, the Allam Family, have failed to sell the club after 3 years and have angered the fans during their time with Hull. Following the departure of Steve Bruce back in July, and with a squad of only 13 senior players on the books it looked an impossible task for whichever manager decided to take the job. Mike Phelan did about as well as anyone could do given the resources available to him and it will be the opinion of many that bringing in a manager with no experience in the Premier League into a relegation battle is not a wise move.

In addition to this, many of Hull’s already very small first team squad are getting looked at other clubs. Robert Snodgrass has been a key player in a lot of Hull’s positive moments this season and Marco Silva will have a fight to keep hold of him and others – as well as persuading the owners to free up some funds so he can add to his thread-bare squad. A good deal of Hull’s squad had their contracts automatically extended by a year when none were very keen on signing new deals with the club. The lack of proper negotiations has led to a group of players who feel disillusioned from the side’s cause and are struggling to put together results. The atmosphere around Hull has been nothing short of toxic this season, it is not a good environment for players to be playing in due to problems both on and off the pitch. Many fans had planned a walkout for their third round FA Cup tie against Swansea and the game itself was only watched by 6,608 fans.

However, a 2-0 win in his first match as Hull City manager against fellow Premier League strugglers Swansea and their new manager Paul Clements will raise the spirits of Marco Silva’s men and the fans at the KCom Stadium. The return of Abel Hernández from a relatively lengthy lay-off will also improve the mood, especially as the Uruguayan international was able to find the net after appearing as substitute.

So, what can Marco Silva do when everything is seemingly stacked against him? Well, he has to call upon his expertise of when he was working with Estoril. He took a club from the second tier to the Europa League very quickly and on minimal funds and will surely have to use some of the skills he acquired during his time in his native Portugal to try and turn Hull City’s fortunes around. Silva will have to use his knowledge of the dressing room from his playing days and his ability to run a club on the cheap to get the Hull City players, and fans, onside. Marco Silva has been used to success wherever he has managed in his short managerial career, but if he can turn Hull City’s fortunes around and keep them in the Premier League when it is largely expected that will be relegated at the end of this season – he will have boosted his reputation in the game tenfold.

Hull City and Marco Silva have a mountain to climb if they are to stay up this season. In all likelihood, the owners will not hand over a decent amount of funds to their new manager so player recruitment may be minimal. The introduction of a new face at the helm may prove helpful for some of the players and a chance for the club to take things in a slightly different direction in terms of tactics and training. The club are only 3 points from safety despite only collecting 13 points in their opening 20 fixtures – which is hardly an insurmountable gap to close.

Many Hull fans will feel that it was wrong of the owners to dismiss Mike Phelan from his duties, but they have little choice now but to back Marco Silva and hope that he can turn things around. A victory against fellow strugglers Swansea and an EFL Cup semi-final clash with Manchester United on the 10^th January will give the supporters something to cheer about in what has been a poor season. A win in his first game will give Marco Silva and his men some hope going into their next few fixtures, but it is going to be an uphill struggle to get enough momentum and belief to keep this Hull side in the Premier League.

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