Hull City manager Mike Phelan has expressed his disappointment with his side's display in the 2-0 defeat against Stoke City and has hinted at the possibility of tweaking his preferred starting line-up, as reported byHull Daily Mail.
Two goals from Stoke's Xherdan Shaqiri on either side of the half-time whistle at the KCOM stadium condemned the Tigers to their sixth defeat of the season.
The result leaves Mike Phelan's side in the relegation zone for the first time this season and the former Manchester United assistant manager believes their first-half display was especially disappointing.
He said: "First half, we weren't proactive in passing the ball well and in our movement off the ball, and we came unstuck to an extremely exceptional first goal from a quality player who is capable of doing these things.
"Second half, we went down too early with the second goal. We had opportunities to clear, to deal with the incident and we didn't. We gave a free kick away and again the logical thing happens; a quality player scores from those distances.
"After that we changed it a little bit. We went to three at the back and two up top and it seemed to refresh us a little bit. I don't know why that is but they seemed to take heart from that so we'll have to look at that in the future."
Phelan indicated a change in tactics may be needed after highlighting Hull's improvement in the second half after Abel Hernandez's introduction.
"In Abel's case, he's found it difficult playing up there on his own so we had to take those steps to change things. Obviously when he came on as sub it changed because two went up top.
"That may be the road forward. That may be what we have to think about and give Abel and whoever plays up there with him the opportunity."