This season, Hull City have had a few issues with managers, which resulted in us having a shaky start to the season: we had Shota Arverladze, who was appointed as head coach on 27 January 2022 and discharged on 30 September 2022, and he was able to chalk up three wins out of 10 league matches, with five losses and two draws. So that meant that he was only able to pick up 11 points out of a possible 30, which is poor, despite the amount of excitement and players that he brought to the club. His last game in charge of The Tigers was when he took us down to Swansea, where we were thrashed 3-0. Acun–our owner–realised that we were in trouble, we were 20th in the league at this point, therefore he quickly sacked Shota and started scouting for a new manager. Whilst doing this, ex Hull City defender, Andy Dawson, took on the job as interim manager. Now, he had huge success as a player at the club and the fans warmed to him on his first game in charge. The frustrating thing about the sacking of Shota was that it was on the day when we had a match, against Luton. Why could they not just do it during the week before the match? Now, as it was last minute, Dawson did not have a clue what to do and he never had an experience of being a manager. Therefore, we lost 0-2. He then led us to three wins (two on the road and one at home) and four losses, which matches the amount of wins and losses that we had when Shota was in charge. To be honest, he did not do that badly whilst in charge; however, he could have done better and when he picked up those two away wins, I thought that he should stay put. But, this run was crushed by two defeats at home.
At this point in the season, we had only picked up 20 points out of a possible 54 and we were only able to chalk up six victories in 18 league matches. Compared with the first 18 league matches from last season we drew three, lost 11 and won four. Meaning we picked up 15 points, which is five less than this season. I know that we picked up more points this season, however, if we carried on then we would have probably matched that. Therefore, our owner was quick to scout for a manager and on 3 November 2022, Liam Rosenior was appointed as head coach. Just like Dawson, Rosenior was also an ex Hull City player, who played as a full-back or as a winger. As soon as the news was spread around social media and the city, it did not take the fans long to fall in love with him. Tom Huddlestone, also an ex Hull City player, instantly brought back the ‘his nan is from Hull’ chant, when he commented on Hull City’s Twitter post. I have to say that he was the best option that Acun could have chosen and he has steered our boat in the right direction.
His first game in charge was against Millwal, at the Den, who were higher up in the table than us meaning that it was going to be a tough first game in charge. But, unexpectedly, we started the game very strong and even when Óscar Estupiñán received a red card, we managed to hang on to a hard-fought point. By the way the team was playing, I could tell that he was having a huge impact already. After this game, he led us to a 2-3 victory over Cardiff, at their ground. However, his first loss in charge came when we were defeated by Reading, at home, when they were able to get a last minute goal. Luckily, the World Cup break came after this and it gave Liam a chance to properly get to know his squad and work out what he wants to do.
Since coming back from the break we have drawn six, lost two and won four. Meaning that since he took over we have won five, drawn seven and lost three. Therefore he has had a much better start with the club than the previous two managers. We have also had seven clean sheets and we have scored 17 goals. With Rosenior in charge, we are averaging 1.5 points per game and that means we are moving in the right direction. So with a fair amount of games left to play and sitting in the top half of the table, can Liam steer us into the playoffs and get us promoted just like he helped us to do, as a player, in 2012-13?