Hull City head coach Marco Silva has conceded Manchester City were simply the better side on the day as we fell to defeat at the weekend.
Heading to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday for the game against Pep Guardiola’s side, Hull came out with a three one defeat and Andrea Ranocchia’s late strike was nothing more than a consolation.
Speaking to the Hull Daily Mail as he met with the media for his post game press conference, Silva knew the players had given their all but the better side had taken victory.
Hull’s back to back victory run came to an end against a quality City side, and with Ahmed Elmohamady’s first half own goal giving them the advantage, Sergio Aguero and Fabian Delph made the result more comfortable for the them but with 23 efforts across the game and controlling over two thirds of the ball, Silva knew he couldn’t really complain.
‘First Manchester City deserved to win. We didn’t have good performance this afternoon, of course we conceded the first goal really unlucky goal. It put our opponent more comfortable in the match, but we react well and we have a very good chance with Evandro to score but we didn’t score and the last minute of the first half Manchester City controlled all these moments.’
Silva went on to say.
‘We try to change some things during half time to prepare our team to press a little more and put more problems to our opponents but they score in the first minutes of the first half and they finish the game with this. Of course we tried to change but Man City controlled the rest of the game of course in some moments I thought we looked a little bit tired it has been a big force these last two games at home. But it was clear to me Manchester City deserved to win.’
Sky Sports also have Silva saying that we have to prepare now for ‘six big fights’ in the run in to the end of the season as we look to secure our Premier League future.
One place and two points ahead of the dropzone isn’t perfect, but it’s something so it’s now all eyes to Stoke City next weekend.
‘The next six games we must keep our goal in our hands. We need to fight and work hard. First we rest, analyse and prepare the next game because for us there are six big fights. Since I came to Hull I came with confidence. I try to pass that on to my players and we believe in our capacity. The others have good players and good teams as well and there’s a big fight until the end.’
Expending on his Manchester City thoughts, he also went on to say.
‘It’s the key. They deserved to win the game. In the first half we tried to control a little bit more the organisation of the opponent. In some moments we did well. It was a really unlucky goal we conceded. We reacted well after the first goal. In the 10 minutes we had a good chance to score as well. When you change things at half-time, we tried to play a little more high pressure and in the first minutes of the second half they scored the second goal. This was the key.’
