Marco Silva laments Hull City defending for Riyad Mahrez's moment of magic for Leicester

Hull are four points adrift of safety after Crystal Palace's victory

Silva believes his players should have put more pressure on the ball (Getty)

The feeling at Leicester City was that Riyad Mahrez was back to form after a brilliant first goal from open play this season, but it didn’t seem to be a thought shared by Hull City manager Marco Silva.

He felt his defenders should have put the Algerian under pressure, to prevent what was the key comeback goal in the champions 3-1 win over his side. Hull are now four points adrift of safety on 19 points, after what was a bad day in terms of results elsewhere.

Mahrez’s goal was the moment of the match, as he turned three times in a few seconds to outfox Andy Robertson before finishing brilliantly and also overturn what had been a 1-0 Hull lead, but Silva felt his side should have done more.

“Of course it is one moment after a corner and one moment we have an advantage with more players in our defensive zone,” he said.

“But we needed to put more pressure in this moment on the player on the ball. It’s not easy now, I have not seen it on TV yet. But my feeling is we needed to put more pressure on the man with the ball.”

Asked about the gap growing between his side and Crystal Palace in 17th, Silva said they just had to keep concentrating on their work, after what was a conspicuously slack display compared to the first few games of his regime.

“First we need to look for our work and our games – it is our focus to take points from our games, then after we can see the table and the other results. But first off all we need to look for is us.”