Saturday 15 October 2016 19:13, UK
Mike Phelan was left bitterly disappointed by his team's display in the 6-1 loss to Bournemouth, but insists that player recruitment isn’t a reason for Hull's struggles.
Hull were run off the park by a rampant Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday, with a deflected Ryan Mason strike the only positive in a disjointed display from the visitors.
The game came after run of defeats in tricky fixtures, but Phelan says that the team need to try and shrug off the disappointment of their south coast display and regroup.
"We've come off the back of four heavy defeats and we've got another one, so we need to regroup, we need to assess ourselves and we need to take a good long look at ourselves, all of us, and improve," Phelan said.
"I thought at times we did some silly things and that didn't helps us when we got back into the game, even though we were under a lot of pressure for 20 minutes, but we handled it the best we could, got back into the game and then we threw ourselves into situations we should not have found ourselves in.
"As a group we need to concentrate better; set-piece plays, too many. And we're all aware of the future and we've got to do much more."
Hull's transfer dealings were left very late in the summer window, but Phelan - who was caretaker manager up until signing a permanent deal with the club just days before the Bournemouth match - says that recruitment is not a factor in his side's poor run of results.
"We have a squad and we worked hard to bring players," Phelan told Sky Sports. "We started the season obviously under staffed. We've moved that forward a little bit, but there's got very little to do with it.
"We know the position we're in, we know the situation in the Premier League and we have to do better - all of us have to do better. And in the games to come I'm expecting that response.
"Every game is hugely important. You know, you come away from home and put in a performance like that… you get punished. We have to now be together, we need to respond, we need to regroup and we need to work hard now all of next week to be prepared for Stoke."
