Liam Rosenior’s striker point as Hull City boss ponders Liam Delap move at Coventry
The Tigers need three points in Coventry to keep alive their play-off hopes
Hull City head coach Liam Rosenior says he needs to be cautious with striker Liam Delap as he continues his return from a knee injury which kept him sidelined for three months.
Delap’s two cameos off the bench against QPR and Watford have given City something different in the top third of the pitch, and there could be a temptation to start him at Coventry on Wednesday night, with the Tigers knowing only three points keep their slim play-off hopes alive.
The Manchester City loanee has been a big miss for the Tigers, but with another game to come on Saturday night at home to Ipswich, Rosenior admits he must be careful with the 21-year-old and not put him at risk.
“That’s a decision that we’ll make in the next few days because I’m bearing in mind that we need to win every game we play,” he told Hull Live on the eve of the trip to the Midlands. “We play Wednesday, we play Saturday (against Ipswich Town), so I need to balance out.
“He’s not played the full 90 minutes for three months, so his impact off the bench is a great impact because of his speed and because of his pace. When defenders are tired, that’s when he can cause real problems as well. What I don’t want to do is put him in too early and he hits a wall or the risk of injury is really, really high.
“I have to build him in the correct way to get the maximum out of him, and definitely, in the last two games he’s come on, he’s affected the game in an outstanding way, and normally you can affect games at the end of games, you can win games.”
Coventry’s FA Cup exploits in the semi-final at Wembley against Manchester United on Saturday may well see an element of fatigue creep in during the final stages of Wednesday night’s clash, but Rosenior says that’s not something he’s planning for, given Delap’s explosive abilities off the bench.
“I’m not planning on that, I’m just planning on the opposition’s strengths, weaknesses, our strengths, weaknesses and where we think we can win the game.
“Coventry have a really, really good squad. They can rotate, they showed that with the subs that came on that impacted the game the way that they did. Mark knows his group really well. The fact that they played extra time or they played in a semi-final comes into my thinking, but I don’t think it has that big a bearing, it’s about who performs on the day.”
