Tony Mowbray says new Hull City boss Liam Rosenior has already made an impact at the MKM Stadium as the pair prepare to go head-to-head in the dugout tomorrow. Rosenior was appointed head coach at Hull at the beginning of November, after a poor start to the season led to Shota Arveladze's sacking at the end of September.
And while the former Derby County assistant manager has won just one of his first four games in charge, Sunderland boss Mowbray has dug into the data in his preparations this week and that has revealed the underlying improvement Rosenior has made. "We've tried to show the players the problems and the issues that Hull City wil give us.," said Mowbray.
"They've got a new manager, he is starting to make an impact on their team - I think Liam is a very bright coach, having come up against him when he was working with Wayne [Rooney] at Derby - they are a football team that are going to try and use the ball and give you some problems. We have to be ready for it and we have been preparing for them, and hopefully we can give them some problems as well.
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"A lot of Championship teams have changed manager already this season - about half, or something like that. Many times this year we have shown the players slides and looked at how the opposition looked in X number of games under one manager, and then how they have looked since then the new manager has changed things.
"Generally we look at the data and stats of where a team might be in a league of 24 in terms of shots on target, possession of the ball, duels, or crosses or whatever it is. You can then see that when another manager comes in, it dramatically improves or decreases because they focus more on one thing or another.
"Looking at the data this week on Liam, he has improved a lot of the statistical stuff regarding possession, touches in the final third, shots on target. A lot of stuff has improved under Liam and that doesn't surprise me."
Hull go into the game sitting just one place and one point above the relegation zone. They went into the World Cup break on the back of a 2-1 defeat, Rosenior's only reverse since taking charge, at Reading, and resumed their campaign with a goalless draw at Watford last weekend.
Mowbray said: "Having watched their game against Watford, to go away there and get a nil-nil draw - as we found when we drew 2-2 there - it is tough to go to Watford with the players they have got. You have to say well done to Hull to go to Watford and put such a good performance in.
"They'll be looking to try and build on that, and we have to be mindful of that."
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