Saturday 15 April 2017 18:58, UK
Marco Silva was highly critical of the start Hull City made in their 3-1 Premier League loss to Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The visitors found themselves trailing after just six minutes in the Potteries following Marko Arnautovic's well-taken strike.
However, despite Harry Maguire equalising six minutes after half-time, goals from Peter Crouch and Xherdan Shaqiri still condemned the Tigers to a 14th defeat in their last 15 league away games.
It was Hull's slack beginning to the contest, though, which most angered their Portuguese manager.
"We had many chances to score during the game, we did not and then our opponents scored and that made the difference," said Silva.
"Our opponents scored some very good goals, but we did not start the game well and our team played only 80 minutes because the first 10, we did not play. And that made our opponent feel a little bit more comfortable in the game.
"After this 10 minutes, we put some good intensity into the game in some moments, we caused problems for our opponent and we controlled many moments.
"But it is impossible to start the game like we start. You need to respond away like you do at home. Today, I felt we did not start well.
"We need to analyse our game and I am not happy with our performance in general because we need to do more. We need to improve as at this level, you need to start strong, to play 90 minutes and not only 80.
"When you give moments for your opponent to score like we did today and we do not score, then it is a problem."
Hull remain two points clear of the relegation zone, however, after fellow strugglers Swansea City also lost on Saturday, meaning it is still all to play for in the final five matches of the season.
Next up for the Tigers is Watford at the KCOM, when Silva will be hoping his team's impressive home form under him continues.
"Our home form is very good until now, the next game is at home, but we will prepare this week like we prepared the last one," he said.
