Analysis: Liam Rosenior's Tactical Philosophy
How Liam Rosenior has changed Hull City's fortunes on the pitch and has setup them up for success.
When Liam Rosenior became manager of Hull City on 3rd November 2022, Hull City had the worst defence in the Championship and sat just above the relegation places. The day Liam joined the Tigers, Hull City had conceded 35 goals in just 18 matches, that was an average 1.94 goals per game. To even hope of picking up a point Hull had to enter each match expected to score two goals at least. This is a mark of just how far the club has come in a short period of time.
Rosenior has turned the team around so they are not only defensively solid but also potent going forward through his possession based style of play. In part due to new signings and his favoured formation which has generally been a variation of 4-2-3-1.
Rosenior’s favoured 4-2-3-1 formation that Hull City have primarily deployed this season.
The first task on his arrival was to stop Hull leaking goals, this would build a platform that gave the team a chance to win football matches. Proof of this was in the pudding. After his first 10 matches in charge, across that period only now Premier league teams (for now) Burnley, Luton and Sheffield United conceded fewer goals in the Championship.
Beyond the harder to quantify technical work on the training pitch and individual relationships Liam Rosenior has with his players, his favoured formations all utilise 4 at the back. His tactics demand his defenders to be strong in the air and perform all the other basics of defending very well. This lead to his still now favoured personnel in Jones, Greaves and McLoughlin stepping into these positions. Greaves has since moved back into centre back after being deployed down the left, more out of lack of other options at the time. McLoughlin although not a starter now, still comes on in matches when Hull are defending a lead and sit in defensively towards the end of their matches. Fast forward to today and Hull City have been transformed into one of the better teams in the Championship.
The art of defending is as much a collective mind set and determination to win the ball back, if the team’s defensive system is setup correctly to best nullify the opposition’s tactics/attacking players. Hull City press with intensity and at their best give the opposition no time on the ball and are first to every bouncing or second ball. When they’re at their worst in matches such as Swansea at home this season they are off the boil and second to every 50/50. Its harder to quantify their defensive setup other than they are setup to work well together and generally show a gritty desire to win the ball back. As a result the remainder of this article will focus on Hull City when they have the ball.
The founding and most recognisable feature of Liam Rosenior’s possession based tactical ‘philosophy’ is playing out from the back. This is the attractive, fashionable way to play and what we’re used to seeing in the Premier League. In the Championship it is still maybe a minority tactical approach, certainly differing from the EFL football heritage 3 at the back long ball/head tennis tactics which half the league deploys.
From open play, free kicks and goal kicks in the defensive half, Hull City’s possession phases of play start with the goalkeeper. To play the possession style of football Rosenior wants, his centre halves and goalkeeper have to be comfortable with the ball at their feet. He was fortunate that he inherited Jacob Greaves and Alfie Jones when he took over. They have developed a very strong partnership at the back, especially this season and are for the most part calm and composed when on the ball. Ryan Allsop was signed last summer to ensure they had a ‘specialist’ goalkeeper who can pass the ball and comfortably have the ball at their feet under pressure.
Graphic showing the passing directions the goalkeeper and centre halves create to play the ball out from the back and beat the opposition’s press with a pass to feet of a more advanced wing back or midfielder. This is the foundation of their average possession of 55% this season (at the time of writing). The arrows represent direction of passing.
When Liam Rosenior took the reins at the Tigers the new ownership had already taken steps to introduce strong on the ball signings such as Jean Michaël Seri. This meant the manager had a backbone of the team that could put the way he wanted the team to play into practice on the pitch. The more recent squad additions of high calibre holding midfielders, wing backs and attacking midfielders; such as Tyler Morton, Jaden Philogene, Fabio Carvalho and Ryan Giles have shown just how strong Liam Rosenior’s tactics have been in powering the Tigers up the table.
In possession phases as Hull play out of their own defensive third, they build their attacks through patiently passing from centre backs to defensive midfielders or wing backs.
The players being passed to are almost always being marked or pressed by the opposition so the ball will be moved back and forth with one-twos. This manipulates the opposition forward line in such a way that when for example the ball is played to the right wing back/full back, the right sided central defensive midfielder will be more likely to find a pocket of space as the opposition markers move across to block the right wing back from advancing forwards.
By playing the ball back to the central defender, a quick pass can then be made into the central defensive midfielder. The hope is that they will then either be presented with an opportunity to either turn forwards dribbling towards the opposition goal or to make a more incisive vertical pass forwards to a team mate. If space doesn’t open up they can simply retain possession passing back to one of the central defenders and they can try again to get around the outside if the wing back has space to play forwards.
The ball is shifted left to right across the pitch, patiently waiting and probing until an attack can start if a player manages to pass or dribble into the attacking third from the work done with the ball.
Graphic showing the simplified ways Hull City try to build attacks through their centre halves, defensive midfielders, wing backs and attacking midfielders.
When Hull manage to find a forward ball into either a Carvalho or Omur usually in the central attacking midfield ‘number 10’ role, to receive the ball they often have their back to goal and are under pressure from defenders behind them. Their first thought upon receiving the ball is if they have time to turn, look up and choose the best option from: play a through ball or horizontal pass to a striker, or wide players such as Philogene or Zaroury taking up inside forward positions or a wing back, shoot on goal if in range, or if none of these options are on, pass backwards to a defensive midfielder or centre half to ensure possession is retained.
This is where the quality of forward players Rosenior now has at his disposal has elevated his team to become playoff contenders. The forward players such as Carvalho and Omur more often than not, make the right decision and do not give the ball away cheaply.
I have attempted to analyse how Hull City aim to play through their opposition in more central areas, we will now look at how they exploit the spaces inside the opposing full backs and wide areas in attack to setup scoring chances.
Hull City’s front line has consisted either of two wingers, a number 10 and a striker, or, two wingers and two number 10s in the final third.
In the final third Hull City’s wingers move infield and become inside forwards. From this position they are more likely to get shots and direct passes off. When on form Philogene, Zaroury and Carvalho have all shown their powerful distance shooting can convert outside chances into outstanding goals.
The primary strength of Hull City in attack is their intricate passing as the wingers move in field closer to the central attackers such as Carvalho or Omur. Their quick passing sets up shooting opportunities before the opposition defence can react. Sometimes they try to score the perfect goal passing through the opposition before tapping in, this comes off more rarely than they would like and can be a frustration felt by the fans at times.
In recent weeks the Tigers have been lacking in finishing off their chances and shipping points as a result. I believe this is partly due to the lack of a striker starting games as I will now explain. I’m awaiting my oracle moment or awful take confirmation when Liam Delap returns for the Tigers, the sooner the better.
When the wingers move inside this creates space on the outside too. This leaves space for the wing backs to overlap into, something I think Hull fail to capitalise on. Particularly given the speed of Coyle and Giles, particularly paired with the latter’s crossing ability. In the game against Birmingham, Jaden Philogene especially had poor decision making on the ball for when to bring Giles into the game on the outside on a couple of occasions.
To continue this, although it was maybe an off day I think part of Jaden’s indecision is partly down to his footballing intelligence than lack of, if he plays a wing back in on the outside to cross from before or the by-line, who is going to be in the box running across the front post to get on the end of a cross, dragging defenders out of the way in the process? Carvalho’s strength and instinct is to wait for a pull back in space. This is exactly what a Billy Sharp, Noah Ohio or a fit Aaron Connolly excel at creating but at the moment they can’t as none are even on the pitch.
Ozan Tufan is so effective because he is incredibly strong and balanced on the ball. When he drives into the box or edge of the area from anywhere on the front line he often scores just because he is too strong for defenders. This is a different dimension he brings and has softened the obviousness of not having a man leading the line a bit in my opinion in some games.
To make use of the space on the outside I feel a regular trusted striker is the missing piece that is to come in Rosenior’s tactics. He is obviously the ex-pro/manager so will have better reasons to not be playing a striker that only he and his coaching team will know all their reasons for.
But I think his side are missing out on being able to play to the by-line. This is how the best passing team in the world, Manchester City score so many goals, aside from their superior to most squad. It is simply impossible for defenders of any level to run back after being turned backwards by an attacking move and then turn faster than the ball moves when crossed from the by-line. For Hull City to be so good at building up through their passing it seems a shame to not take advantage in as many ways as possible and unlock teams that sit in when visiting the MKM stadium.
For all their passing dominance and high number of shots, they have not unlocked defences regularly enough. I think this could well be solved by one of the striker’s earning Liam’s trust. They have been unfortunate with Delap suffering such a serious injury and that Aaron Connolly was already playing with an injured foot before Angus Gunn shoulder charged him against Norwich, a tackle that would earn a red card in a Hull FC game let alone Hull City. He can’t be blamed for his form because I’m almost certain he is playing through more pain than people realise to get near playing at the moment.
Noah Ohio is still a young player so may have more development to progress through to reach the level people may expect him to be at already. He is also on loan so in the long term may not be the right striker to move Hull forward as the main man. Billy Sharp however is an odd signing, is it as simple as he is past it at the Championship level? Or is it the argument he won’t find match fitness until he plays regular matches, very few attackers hit the ground running without regular game time? Without the opportunity to showcase his ability still, I doubt we will find out which is true.
This leads me onto the final point of Rosenior’s tactics, they are bold for the Championship because they rely on consistent refereeing of the physical contest. He has reigned in his venting at officials for being crap as he was receiving a few too many yellow cards risking watching a game or two from the stands earlier in the season.
However, nothing has changed other than Hull have got better as they’ve developed throughout the season. It is easy to criticise referees so I’m going to and I enjoyed writing this paragraph, they’ve pissed me off more than usual this season. Mostly because its the first time I’ve seen Hull play such expansive passing football so often. Home results like Birmingham and Swansea are examples of when they have played badly and have faced increased media/fanbase scrutiny, only from wanting the team to do well but it builds pressure, anxiety and negativity.
I would invite you to imagine the league table if referees such as Andrew Kitchen (Norwich at home), or Darren Bond (Sheff Weds away) did their jobs consistently. Hull might be above Norwich, or even clear of the chasing pack alongside West Brom in the table. I highlight these two games as they are clear cut examples when they were objectively wrong and drastically changed the outcome of these two specific games. I appreciate this line of thinking applies to every team in the league and hypothetical madness lies. Bad decisions go against every team in the league.
But the point remains that the way Hull play has magnified this issue to me. As a ref the most important thing they can do is get the big decisions right, as they affect games and the table most. Too many times this hasn’t happened in my opinion as Hull’s possession style invites strong challenges. Just a thought, can’t change these things now but from a fan’s entertainment perspective I don’t trust half the referees in the league which detracts from my overall enjoyment watching. Look at the penalties in the Leicester game, Hull’s wasn’t a penalty and then Leicester’s wasn’t either but one bad decision lead to another in an attempt to balance it. Does it add to the entertainment factor of watching? Is it just part of the game, the referees are at work too after all? Maybe for some but I personally hate it when they change the outcome of the game, win or lose.
Moving away from ranting about officials the way the game is refereed affects the tactics that the Tigers use. The team has come such a long way under Rosenior and it is a luxury to be able to follow a well run club moving in the right direction, I think wherever they are next August we will be seeing a trusted striker deployed as Rosenior’s tactical approach evolves as his team matures.
I hope this has offered some insight into what Liam Rosenior has and continues to bring to Hull City tactically. By critiquing his recent tactics, I do not claim to know better but simply to highlight what we may begin to see as his tactics evolve based on recent performances and how we might see the players up their goal output collectively. At present if they can’t build on or maintain 1-0 leads, they will not make the playoffs. They’ve come a long way but can they go further?