The Premier League’s bottom side Hull City have confirmed that they have parted company with manager Mike Phelan.

The former Manchester United and Norwich assistant took over permanently at the KCOM Stadium in October, this all after a three-month stint as caretaker boss following Steve Bruce’s departure over the summer.

Nonetheless, Phelan has overseen just one win in his 13 league games in permanent charge, and his record including his caretaker spell also doesn’t make for pretty reading, as he won just three of his 20 Premier League matches in charge.

Their 3-1 defeat at West Brom on Monday, coinciding with Swansea’s victory at Crystal Palace last night, means that the Tigers are bottom of the division and three points adrift of safety with 18 games of the season left.

Despite reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup, where they’ll face Manchester United, the Hull hierarchy clearly feel that it is time for a change, and here are THREE reasons why Phelan is no longer the Hull manager…

One win in 18 Premier League games

It was always going to be a tough ask keeping Hull in the Premier League this season, but a run of just one win in 18 league matches is simply not good enough.

There was optimism around the KCOM Stadium after the Tigers won their first two games of the season, but since then their expected struggle has certainly set in, as they have picked up just seven points out of a possible 54.

Eight straight away defeats and just six points from eight home games isn’t going to be enough to stay up, and Phelan has to take some responsibility for his side’s poor run of form.

Conceding too many goals

Their 3-1 defeat at West Brom on Monday, in what turned out to be Phelan’s last game in charge, took their goals against tally to 44 for the season.

Only Swansea, following their 2-1 win at Crystal Palace last night, have conceded more (45), which is why these two are the bottom two sides in the table.

Hull have not kept a clean sheet since they beat the Swans 2-0 back in August, 22 games ago, while their tally of 24 goals conceded away from home is the most in the top-flight.

Despite having the likes of Curtis Davies and Michael Dawson in their back four, Hull always look susceptible in defence, and Phelan must take some blame for how poor his side have been at the back this season.

Victim of own success

It seems a bit of a strange thing to say, but those two wins at the start of the season may well have given Hull fans false hope ahead of this campaign, and perhaps made Phelan’s job look easier than it really is.

The Tigers beat champions Leicester and Swansea in their first two games, both against the odds given their depleted squad, and many could be forgiven for thinking that Hull weren’t in as bad a position going into the season as many made out.

However, these victories meant that the expectation had already risen around the KCOM Stadium ahead of the new season, and backing that up, with the squad Hull have, was always going to be tough.