Mike Phelan pragmatic after Hull City's heavy defeat at Liverpool

By Jack Wilkinson

Saturday 24 September 2016 20:20, UK

Mike Phelan says Hull City are under no illusions after Liverpool inflicted their heaviest Premier League defeat in six years with a 5-1 victory on Saturday.

For the second week running Hull were reduced to 10 men as Ahmed Elmohamady saw red for a deliberate handball, setting the Tigers en route to their biggest defeat since going down 1-5 away to Everton in March 2010.

The Tigers had been second best until that point though, and succumbed to a James Milner penalty in either half and goals from Adam Lallana, Sadio Mane and Philippe Coutinho.

"It was definitely difficult, we're under no illusions how difficult this league is," Phelan, who was celebrating his 54th birthday, told Sky Sports.

"We're on the back of losing to Arsenal and now coming to Liverpool, which was always going to be hard and we've lost heavily.

"But we move forward to the next one, which is Chelsea, then we'll have a break where we can regroup and build on from there.

"But we've started well, I'm not going to chastise the players over certain situations because they've done really well.

"Now we need to analyse things, look where we can go forward and hopefully learn from these two results.

"There's other ways to celebrate your birthday and that's not one of them. There still a few hours left in the day so we have to take this on the chin, analyse, regroup and go again."

Having seen Jake Livermore sent off for handball in last weekend's 4-1 defeat to Arsenal, Hull were given a mountain to climb at Anfield when referee Andre Marriner gave Elmohamady his marching orders on 29 minutes.

"The sending off never helps," Phelan added. "The new rule states if the ball hit your arm while on it's way into the back of the net then it's a red card. We understand that.

"It may be the case now where players let the ball in rather than lose a man. Two penalties in any game is too much to have but we have to learn.

"We are a team that has come up from a division and we're a team of some experience and some youth so to come to Anfield and try to perform and be brave is a lesson."

Phelan was quick to set his sights on Hull's next Premier League outing, which sees Chelsea visit the KCOM Stadium on Saturday, as well as securing his future at the club as Steve Bruce's long-term successor.

Asked for an update on his pursuit of a new contract on Humberside, Phelan said: "The offer has been there but it hasn't been signed, sealed or delivered yet.

"We had a terrific chat, it went really well and I'm just waiting for answers now.

"My priority has always been the team, it's always been the players, that's what I'm here to do. The other little bit, yes, I would want it to be sorted out but it will be done when it's done."