Disrupted Hull City look to stem the flow of defeats against wounded AFC Bournemouth

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Hull City entertain AFC Bournemouth this weekend with the Tigers looking to recover from three successive league defeats which see them sitting towards the bottom end of the Championship table.

Despite recording a promising opening day win against Preston North End, Grant McCann’s side has failed to capitalise on home territory against Queen’s Park Rangers and Wayne Rooney’s Derby County.

Last weekend, City travelled to Craven Cottage, where they were comfortably beaten 2-0, following strikes from Aleksander Mitrovic and Fabio Carvalho.

Thus far, their journey back into Championship football is currently sailing a little off course but mitigating factors are having an impact on McCann’s plans.

Disruption

The disruption to City’s start to the season is clearly an influencing factor. There has been no doubt that the Tigers are a better side with the likes of George Honeyman and Mallik Wilks in it, and Honeyman, in particular, has been a big miss to the starting 11.

The midfielder’s infectious desire and energy was hugely influential when Hull found themselves navigating some choppy waters in the last campaign. Without Honeyman’s ability to drive the team on, let alone his quality from set-pieces and his eye for goal, his absence has been difficult for McCann to cope with.

Added into the mix that Greg Docherty has also been recovering from COVID during pre-season, the Tigers’ well-oiled midfield has required a bit of tinkering to get through the opening games.

Tom Huddlestone is still getting up to speed in terms of his fitness, having missed a lot of football in the twilight of his career, and with George Moncur serving the last of his three-game suspension following his sending off against QPR, there has been immediate pressure on young Manchester City loanee Matt Smith to hit the ground running.

“We’ve had a really stop-start preseason. And what what I mean by that is that the plan has been fine but what we’ve had a lot of COVID cases, injuries and a lot of people trying to get back up to speed.

“When you’ve got when players missing; two to three with COVID, and then injuries,  it’s probably been one of the most disruptive pre seasons that I’ve certainly had since being a manager of a football club.

“Because of that, I don’t think you’ll see the fruits of us really and the real Hull City until after the international break and we get everybody back and we start getting fitter after COVID.

“Everyone’s in the same boat, but speaking to our medical and Sports Science Department, I think we’ve had a quite bad, you know, in terms of one of the worst in the region.

“But it’s not about me making excuses. I know we can ger better and I just feel that we’re going to get stronger.”

New Faces

Whilst there are those good options available, City’s manager is only too aware of the patience required in bedding new players in and getting them to understand what the new manager wants from his players. Andy Cannon and Randell Williams have shown in glimpses that they could both be shrewd acquisitions, but both are finding their feet in the second-tier, like many of McCann’s squad. 

Given that the quality of opposition has gone up, particularly in meeting the likes of Bournemouth, still armed with parachute payments and Premier League quality within their ranks, McCann was confident in the options he has at his disposal and what they are trying to achieve as a club. 

“We would rather have a group that’s willing to learn, willing to get better, willing to improve and willing to take to the Championship.

“Some haven’t been given the opportunity before and that’s the only reason why some haven’t played at this level before. But they have that (opportunity) now. We want to work with them and we want to make them better.

“There’s only one way we can get people to say they’ve played at Championship level and that’s to play in it. So that’s what we’re about. We’re about developing.

“We’re about bringing these younger players in from other clubs and give them the opportunity to go on to express themselves at a higher level.”

Goals Shortage

Despite scoring a record of 80 goals last season, one of the biggest fan concerns coming into the season was if they could score the goals to trouble Championship defences. Currently, the Tigers are finding goals hard to come by as they adjust to the next level of challenge. Since the 4-1 win on opening day, they have only scored one goal which came in their Carabao Cup defeat to Wigan Athletic.

Losing Mallik Wilks to injury at Preston, City’s top scorer last season with 22 goals, is an absentee that McCann really could have done without. As a collective, Wilks, Josh Magennis and Keane Lewis-Potter were outstanding in League One as a front three, scoring the goals and creating assists for each other as they cantered towards the title.

Both full-backs, Callum Elder and Lewie Coyle, who were influential from wide positions last season, are both yet to show the quality they possess in supplying further service to the City forward line. When adding in the loss of Honeyman and with Docherty just coming back to match sharpness, it’s not a huge surprise that City haven’t had the full momentum that many promoted sides do in stepping up a level.

McCann is mindful that whilst his side have been creating opportunities, he wants to see more from his players.

“We haven’t scored the first goal in any of the four or five games that we’ve played this season and it is important, but I think these things are like swings and roundabouts.  As the season goes on, it changes.

“We are creating opportunities but I would say that we’re not creating too many really, really good ones. So we need to get better at that, of course, and we need to get more of an edge to us at the top end of the pitch.

With Longman coming back and Wilks and George Honeyman probably after the International break, I think we’ll get stronger but we’re looking forward to the game on Saturday, and see if we can get a result”.

In addition to the new faces and in the conundrum of resolving the lack of goals, comes forward Tyler Smith, who has arrived from Sheffield United on a two-year deal.  The 22-year-old scored 10 goals in 26 appearances for Swindon Town last season and has played under McCann at Doncaster and the Hull manager was pleased to be adding a player to the squad that fits the mould of the City blueprint.

“We are delighted to get this deal done. Tyler is a player I know well, having spent time with him during my time at Doncaster, where we took him on loan from Sheffield United.

“He’s a great age at 22 and wants to learn and improve, which is always a key ingredient in our recruitment. He plays on the shoulder and wants to stretch teams, and we feel he will thrive in our environment.

“He’s a calm finisher and has a real knack of being in the right place at the right time.”

Team News

Alfie Jones, who missed last week’s visit to Fulham, looks set to be back in contention, having resumed training on Thursday. It will be important for Jones and the Tigers that he settles back alongside Jacob Greaves. Ryan Longman is also due to return to the first-team squad, having missed games through injury also.

Bournemouth will be looking to bounce back to promising league form, having been thrashed 6-0 by Norwich City in the Carabao Cup. Manager Scott Parker will hope that his side can harness their embarrassment going into Saturday’s game. Former England regular Gary Cahill and Manchester City loanee Morgan Rogers could be both set to make the Bournemouth debuts.

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