As far as excuses go, this one really isn’t that bad to be honest. Hull City boss Marco Silva has lamented his frustration at the conditions of the KCOM Stadium pitch, calling for the scrapping of the ground share with rugby league side Hull FC.
It’s a bold move from the newly appointed Hull City gaffer, arriving from a distant land and attempting to ruin such a longstanding tradition. He does seemingly have a point however, with some of Hull’s passing against Swansea rather unconvincing to say the least.
The Tigers did manage to win the game 2-1, but were forced to rely on a quick-fire brace from substitute Niasse.
The pitch at the KCOM certainly looked in a bad state at times, although Swansea’s defenders would have looked just as uncomfortable on the slick green grass of Wembley.
Manager Paul Clement was the first to point out their mishaps at the back, and agreed with his managing companion that rugby games the night before a huge relegation scrap are not ideal.
Although not exactly an excuse per se, Silva has given himself some sort of back-up if his team doesn’t survive the Premier League this year. He’ll be glad to know that he hasn’t made the all-time list of excuses for a bad run of form, with countless other managers giving much stranger reasons for failure.
Spurs once suffered three defeats in five games, with Pochettino infamously exclaiming that “our style means we need a bigger space to play because we play a positional game”. Poch just missed out however to the legendary Sir Alex, who once blamed the colour of the strip for the reason his side lost 3-1 to Southampton in 1996.
Maybe he’s onto something though; given Hull’s relegation rivals Swansea are involved in a similar deal, but with rugby union side Ospreys. The Swans are however doing slightly better than Silva’s side, so maybe it’s the type of rugby being played, who knows? What makes the whole ordeal more fascinating is the fact that Silva has no regard for the stadiums owners, Hull City Council, and rightly believes that football, the greatest sport in the world, deserves sole attention.
His disgust remarkably comes on the back of a 2-1 victory for his side, begging the question as to why is he so upset if they are still winning games? It’s beyond me, but then again I’m not the one playing there every other week, but then again neither is Silva?
Both Hull and Swansea really are struggling in front of goal this season, with the former’s top scorer having recently departed, and the latter relying on defender Alfie Mawson for inspiration up top. Perhaps the pitches really are at fault here, but both sides need to rapidly improve as the relegation scrap reaches a climax.