Marco Silva hailed the importance of Abel Hernandez to Hull City's chances of Premier League survival after the Uruguayan inspired Saturday's win over Bournemouth.
Hernandez has returned with a bang after two months out injured and took his tally to three goals in as many games since his comeback with a double that helped sink the Cherries 3-1 at the KCOM Stadium.
Victory in Silva's first league game in charge of the Tigers lifted them off the foot of the table as a swathe of teams above them in the table all failed to win.
Though Silva is keen to add more players to his squad after the recent signings of Evandro and Oumar Niasse, the return of last season's top scorer has enthused the Portuguese.
"He's an important player for us, like the others," Silva told Sky Sports. "We start to have more competition between them because finding new players for our squad is important.
"He has been injured for a long time but in two games at home he's scored three goals - it's important for us and for him."
Junior Stanislas' third-minute penalty had City behind early on, but they roared back with a performance full of intense play in all areas, leaving Silva happy with how the team has progressed under his leadership.
"I start to see [the team improving] of course," he said.
"We haven't had a lot of time, I've been here just 10 days. In these 10 days we played three games.
"We have time to work more but I can see it and I'm happy about this and the players believe more in our ideas."
Bournemouth are 11th in the table, largely thanks to their excellent home form, but Saturday's defeat was their fifth in six league games and they have conceded three times in each of those losses.
Manager Eddie Howe remains wary of joining the Tigers in the battle for top-flight survival.
He said: "We got the perfect start and from that point we were looking to consolidate and then it slipped away. The second half was tough to watch.
"The frustrating thing is we didn't go for the game to try and put it to bed.
"We're disappointed with all three goals. We're in the middle of the season and we have everything to play for. Our season could still go two ways."
