Hull City 1 Reading 2: Tigers troubles feel familiar

It’s like déjà vu all over again. Hull City go into a Saturday afternoon home game off the back off an impressive win on the road, name an unchanged team playing a sturdy 4-4-1-1 and lose on our patch again. The only real difference was that Reading aren’t a patch on Blackburn and this was wholly avoidable.

Liam Rosenior understandably picked the same team who impressively brought home three points from Cardiff, with confirmation of Oscar Estupiñán’s three game ban making a change up front unlikely.

City: Baxter, Christie, Greaves, Jones, Figueiredo, Seri, Woods, Docherty, Longman, Slater, Pelkas.

The Tigers started brightly. Despite some fear in the crowd, I’d call it playing out from the back PTSD, they were determined to build play and Seri was involved much earlier in moves – solving a real problem from the Blackburn game. I know not everyone is a fan. Someone near me called it "too much messing about" while someone else cheered loudly when Figueiredo lumped a ball up to that traditional hulking number nine, Pelkas. There’s a real vocal minority who hate City trying to play football and always have. The fact is, all successful teams do it and have for a long time. They take risks, they draw teams out and they make spaces appear higher up the pitch. We need to get used to it and support the players in doing it, not create an atmosphere of trepidation. I understand that it’s crap when it goes wrong but that is the risk. The key to success is to be better at it, not to abandon your principals and lump balls forward. We were better at it today. Not much, but a bit.

In spite of all that, this was a game of three set pieces, and we got the first. A Seri corner on 7 was cleared, Woods headed it back into the box and Figueiredo should have scored but his header was pushed wide. The following corner was delayed due to Reading trying to infiltrate a crazy City huddle and the pretty inept referee getting his knickers in a twist about it. When the corner finally came in from Seri, the City huddle parted into numerous runs and Greaves’s was completely undetected as his headed home from close range [1-0]. It wasn’t the first we’d see of an innovative approach to set pieces.

It was wonderful to see Greaves score his first home goal in his 59^th game for City at the MKM Stadium. He’s one of the best centre-halves in the league but played left-back here and was almost immaculate. His confidence on the ball and timing of his thundering tackles is a joy to behold. You’ve got to take joy where you can at the moment.

City didn’t really capitalise on the goal. In fact, the next 15 minutes were pretty humdrum until Reading keeper Bouzanis raced from his goal and completely fluffed a clearance leaving Slater clean through with a defender struggling to recover and an open goal but Slater just couldn’t get the ball out of his feet and was eventually pushed wide and a huge chance went. City paid for it on the half hour. Baxter pushed a shot around the post after a blocked Ince shot caused mild panic. Figueiredo had a much better game and he’d headed everything but as the corner was delivered near post, for once City didn’t meet it first and Meite, grappling with Greaves, tapped it in [1-1].

Rosenior reacted by switching Longman from the left of midfield for Pelkas who’d been the “false nine”. Pelkas in either position has no effect on the game whatsoever. It wasn’t Longman’s day, more on that later, but he did give City a focal point, pressed well and was a target for some effective through balls in the second half. He was our best weapon. That’s not saying much.

On 39, Hendrick committed a horrendous foul on Woods, going over the ball in a 50/50. Everyone in the stadium could see it was a red card, except the man who mattered – he produced a yellow. I know all football fans complain about referees but I really feel City don’t get the rub of the green from them. Our players are constantly told to get up. I’ve no problem with that whatsoever if they’re going down easily but it isn’t the same the other way. There were two blatant pulls in the box that weren’t given. One from a corner was probably hard to spot. The other, on Tufan, wasn’t. It’s clear no-one is handing City anything they don’t earn this season.

Half time: Hull City 1 Reading 1

The opening 15 of the second half was a non-event sparking a triple sub from Rosenior. Tufan, Coyle and Sinik replaced Woods, Christie and Pelkas. The change did eventually bring City to life but it took a while and Tufan had little to do with it. His contribution here was worryingly sparse. Reading also made changes but it didn’t immediately help them either. Both keepers had little to do in truth. Ex-Tiger Shane Long had fewer touches than some fans did. It rarely felt like The Tigers would go on and win the game but nor were they ever in danger of losing it. Old foe Andy Carroll came on, oddly sporting the number two shirt, which did create a bit of nagging doubt but he was also ineffective. Ahem.

The starting positions for a second half Hull City corner!

On 68, a lovely City move saw Greaves deliver a good cross that evaded Longman at the far post. On 73, they worked the ball brilliantly out from the back via Figueiredo and Seri before Sinik smashed a crossfield ball with ridiculous technique out to Coyle whose cross led to the undetected pull on Tufan. Into the last 10 mins, Longman had a tame effort from distance and then met a Seri cross but without the force to trouble Bouzanis. With 2 to play, Seri burst into the box and went down under a challenge but the ref showed no interest. That one was probably spot on, in all honesty.

Football is a game of fine margins. When your luck is in, you win tight games. When it’s out, you get a boot in the teeth for your troubles. As City looked for a winner in the 91^st minute, Coyle delivered a cross for Longman but he was beaten to it by a defender who thrashed at the ball which could have gone anywhere but fell straight into the grateful arms of Bouzanis. A minute later, Docherty was harshly penalised for a good-looking challenge on our right. They chucked the ball into the box where Carroll rose and headed the ball down straight into Longman who could only ricochet the ball into our net [1-2].

There’s little to say to that. My 8 year-old had some wise words. “It’s just a game” she said “Losing isn’t going to affect your real life”. If anyone wants her, she’s where I left her at the MKM Stadium. Unless she’s started walking home.

Full time: Hull City 1 Reading 2

The unprecedented winter break for the World Cup is probably welcome at City. It will give Rosenior time to work with the players and get across his ideas. They’ll presumably play some behind closed doors friendlies to maintain fitness and it’ll be a bit of a bonus “pre-season”. It will allow key players to regain fitness. When she wasn’t belittling my lifelong football obsession today, my daughter did ask a good question about when we’re likely to see M’Hand. The same can be asked of Vale and Simons. We have an awful lot of players not doing anything and this period will allow Rosenior to rip things up and start again. Players who aren’t close to the first team need to go. Players with big reputations need to start earning them. Lads who give their all need a pick-me-up. Overall, the team still needs to find some identity and to learn to play with tempo, move the ball quicker, while taking the risks required, and harm teams rather than troubling only the Opta nerd counting the passes.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer. One hasn’t made our Autumn. I’m not as excited as I normally would be for the World Cup. But it probably beats watching City right now!

 

 

Hull City 0 Blackburn Rovers 1: Reality check for tame Tigers

After two impressive Hull City away wins under interim gaffer Andy Dawson, it was back to normal at home to promotion-chasing Blackburn Rovers at a subdued MKM Stadium.

Blackburn are flying under Jon Dahl Tomasson and showed their control, pace and movement to good effect in the first half and their doggedness and mastery of the dark arts in the last half an hour. We’ve been in the opposite position. February 2016 most memorably, going to Blackburn with no fear, watching The Tigers take three points and march towards the Premier League. It’s a good feeling. It was very much in reverse yesterday.

City: Baxter, Christie, Greaves, Jones, Figueiredo, Docherty, Slater, Seri, Woods, Pelkas, Longman.

I missed both away games due to girls’ football and an 8 year old’s martial arts themed birthday party (true story) and so my most recent experience of watching City is miserable and the first half did little to change that. City’s 4-4-1-1 with four grafting midfielders and a striker who’ll work and work without the ball was effective away from home but didn’t live up to the expectancy of playing in front of a good home crowd, who were never given any reason to be excited. They were incredibly easy to defend against, despite playing four central midfielders, there was never a pass on when Jones and Figueiredo were on the ball. Greaves, short, or Christie, in behind, were the only outball every time and Blackburn ate them up. Pelkas, playing off Longman, was the creative outlet and he was hard to find. At the other end, Blackburn had a bit of a donkey up front, in Gallagher, but had Brereton, Szmodics and little Dolan running off him which was much more effective.

City were warned on 13 mins of the danger when Szmodics got in between Figueiredo and Christie and Baxter saved well before an outstanding Seri challenge denied Brereton the rebound but within a minute, the same run and slid through pass found Szmodics again to finish superbly from a tighter angle [0-1]. It was a game of fine margins but City would not make a chance this good in the game. The closest they came in the first half came on 26 mins when Docherty found Slater, whose excellent left footed cross just evaded Longman as he slid in at the far post and connected with the woodwork and not the ball. City had plenty of the ball, a couple of corners and some half chances but were way off the level of the visitors.

Blackburn have a bit of everything. They’re a young, fit side who have disciplined and tactically aware players carrying out clear instructions. They’re a threat from the three playing off the striker and the full backs and they have a target man to hit if all else fails. They’ve got all the tricks of the trade down to a fine art. Ben Brereton, particularly, showed this. It’s a great story, his conversion into a South American footballer and as well as growing out his hair and beard and sticking “Diaz” on the end of his name, he’s buying fouls and going down “injured” like a 70s foreigner stereotype. Four times he went down in the game with no-one near him. Four times. He won a free-kick claiming a push off Pelkas, who is about 2 feet tall. It’d be impressive to watch if it wasn’t so frustrating.

Half time: Hull City 0 Blackburn Rovers 1

Dawson made two subs at the break with Fleming and Tufan replacing Jones and Seri and were much improved for them. They showed greater urgency in challenged and taking restarts and Fleming was a good outlet on the left. The second half became a basketball game for 15 minutes and was genuinely end-to-end. Pelkas delivered a fantastic near-post corner that Figueiredo somehow didn’t connect with. Baxter immediately produced a tremendous save with a strong left hand to deny Brereton on the counter. Docherty then cleared a header from a corner off the line before Docherty crossed brilliantly from our right and Pelkas arrived to head down into the turf and it bounced up and over the bar.

Tomasson reacted cleverly to the openness of the game and sent on several defensive minded subs, the most familiar and impressive being Daniel Ayala. He dictated the rest of their game, ripping into Carter late on for his sloppiness from a quick throw-in. Dawson made more subs, introducing Estupiñán, Sinik and then Coyle very late, but for all their endeavour, City couldn’t find the momentum to create clear chances and Blackburn killed the game with their unabashed time-wasting and cheap fouls, aided by some weak refereeing.

The cheap fouls are nothing new but my tolerance for them disappeared long ago and they are killing the game. Turn on your radio and you’ll hear that referees are “letting the game flow” and it’s bollocks. They kill games with their constant interference and the selectiveness of it winds fans up. Longman and Estupiñán both had their shirts pulled blatantly but the game didn’t stop. A defender cleared the ball and then caught Oscar, who was trying to block, and the game got pulled back 30 yards for a free kick that took a minute to take. Woods was booked for a real nothing challenge. A few minutes later, he committed a clear foul that wasn’t given at all. I’ll never justify our players going down easily but Slater did it twice and was (rightly) given nothing but Brereton going down like Pelkas is Eddie Hall is given.

To top it all off, they ran out the 6 minutes of added time by taking an age over every gal kick and throw in. The ref didn’t book anyone, instead he kept pointing at his arm in the air to indicate that he was going to add on all the time. When did he blow up? Exactly on the 6 minutes he indicated. Cheers mate.

Full time: Hull City 0 Blackburn Rovers 1

For all the frustrations caused by the officiating, City’s biggest problems are our own shortcomings. In this calendar year, we’ve found two ways to play effectively, though inconsistently. Arveladze had some success with three centre halves in a back five. Dawson got some results with two banks of four including four central midfielders. Neither have been effective at home aside from the results we’ve ground out. It feels like, League One apart, we’ve been grinding out results at home for four years now. Creating a team with an identity who can make home feel like a place City will turn teams over again is a big challenge for the new manager. There are potentially exciting attacking players in the squad but they’re not playing and we don’t play a style that looks likely to suit them either. It’s a quandary.

Will the new manager be Liam Rosenior? It seems like it. He doesn’t have much more experience than Andy Dawson in terms of first team games managed. But he’s an impressive, well-thought of young manager with his own ideas of how the game should be played. He feels like the sort of person we’d all be demanding should be part of our club under any other circumstances. My only concern is that Rosie is so well thought of here from his time as a player that I’d hate to see things go sour for him. I hope he gets the time and patience needed to build something here. For all the optimism of the early part of the season, this is clearly still a huge work in progress and will take another season at least to build a team as well-balanced as Blackburn Rovers.

Hull City 3 Coventry City 2: Tigers maintain perfect home start

Hull City maintained their perfect start to the Championship season at the MKM Stadium with another hard-fought victory over Mark Robins’ Coventry City.

 

Ozan Tufan became the latest first-team absentee having been injured for The Tigers in last week’s defeat at WBA. The recent arrivals of midfielder Ryan Woods and right-back Cyrus Christie as well as the return to fitness of Ryan Longman and Tyler Smith added depth to the squad but Shota Arveladze chose to revert to a 3-5-2 formation in the absence of playmaker Tufan giving a first league start to Vaughn Covil in a surprise move.

City: Matt Ingram, Lewie Coyle, Callum Elder, Tobias Figueiredo, Jacob Greaves, Alfie Jones, Regan Slater, Ryan Woods (Randell Williams), Vaughn Covil (Andy Cannon), Oscar Estupiñán (Ryan Longman), Benjamin Tetteh (Cyrus Christie). 

There were times in the game when you wondered if the referee turned up at the Circle expecting a game of Rugby League - particularly when he watched uninterested as Woods was launched into touch with a shoulder high tackle in the second half – but you could say the same of some fans, like the woman in the SE corner who screamed “Ger Onsard” after 15 seconds. No word of a lie.

City started well. Progressive football, aggression and determination in spades and a tremendous atmosphere emanating from the stands. I thought about the meak defeat to Coventry on October 30^th last year. A game played in front of 6,000 fewer fans. A struggling City side failing to lay a glove on Coventry and barely even throwing a punch. Only Ingram, Greaves and Elder lined up today from that starting XI (Cannon came on later) and the difference is striking. The switch to a back three didn’t hurt City at all, the wing backs attacked from the early stages and Slater, the heartbeat oof this City side, provided the impetus with and without the ball. On ten minutes, Elder linked well with Greaves, again, and delivered a cross beyond everyone. Coyle recovered the ball and hit a fine shot/cross on the volley that the keeper parried for Estupiñán to tap in at the far post [1-0]. The Colombian is the top scorer in the division and has a healthy habit of turning up in the right place at the right time.

The goal didn’t provide the lift-off City hoped and with Figueiredo having a bit of a nightmare in possession, Coventry were invited onto us time and again. Palmer pulled the strings for them and Godden and Gyokeres’ impressive movement caused problems. Fortunately, Greaves was outstanding, putting out fires all over the place but Figueiredo kept lighting them. Young Covil was injured – another one – and replaced by Cannon and City didn’t settle. We had one let-off as Gyokeres headed home whilst offside but shortly after, we conceded a penalty. Figueiredo was the guilty party with a rash challenge in the area but the opportunity came from Woods’ being caught on the ball on the 18 yard line. Godden dispatched past Ingram [1-1].

Woods’ home debut was a mixed bag. He started well enough but made a big error for the equaliser and disappeared for a while after it. His use of the ball was often poor, trying Hollywood passes and coughing up possession. He was much better after the break using his short passing game to good effect and dictating our best passages of play alongside Slater. He put in a lot of had graft, and fits in well in this team because they all do. It’s the minimum requirement and no-one falls short.

Despite Coventry looking more dangerous for the second quarter, City wrestled some initiative back as half time approached and then, somehow, went in ahead. Coyle made the goal again, swinging a cross in with his left foot which keeper Moore spilled under the challenge of Estupiñán and Oscar poked in another from close range [2-1].

Half time: Hull City 2 Coventry City 1

The second half followed a similar pattern with the visitors having plenty of the ball and looking the most likely to score. Despite some great bit of play from Tetteh and the constant threat of Estupiñán, City were quiet as an attacking force. But sub Cannon, who lacks quality but makes up for it in sheer effort, forced a throw-in high up the pitch on our right. He then held up the ball from the throw, slid in Coyle and he delivered again for his fellow wing-back Elder who arrived unconvincingly but his knock down was poked in by Estupiñán to complete a hat-trick with three goals from a total of about 7 yards [3-1]. Oscar’s hat-trick was our first at this level for five years, since Abel Hernandez against Burton Albion, and takes him to 7 goals in the Championship already, here more than anyone else in the division.

From there, the game became all to familiar to anyone who has seen the other games we have taken points in this season. Elder produced a great block and Ingram made a fantastic save to stop a certain goal before one came as Godden headed in at the far post from a flick-on from a corner [3-2]. It was a poor one to concede but it was always coming. City had 15 minutes or so to see the game out and had been dropping deeper and deeper. Arveladze made subs, including the welcome return of Longman, but like the previous games, he withdrew our most dangerous players for, frankly, far inferior replacements and set up his 5-4-1 to just get through the game. It’s not pretty and in the moment, it’s pretty hairy, but it worked again. Elder produced another good block and former City loanee Martyn Waghorn, on as sub, fizzed one wide, but Ingram wasn’t even called upon.

In fact, City should have sealed it. Before his late withdrawal, Tetteh beautifully sent Longman clear towards the South Stand without a defender in sight and with the whole ground standing in anticipation of the net bulging and the six minutes of stoppage time becoming a celebration rather than a tribulation. Unfortunately, Longman drew keeper Moore but pushed the ball wide of the near post and those last few minutes felt like several hours before the whistle finally signalled another home win and “Happy Hour” blasted out throughout the stadium.

Full time: Hull City 3 Coventry City 2

There were moments of real quality from City but on the whole, it was a victory they scrapped for. With little creativity in the middle, the goals came from getting the ball wide and relying on Coyle’s outstanding delivery. Both players gave everything and it’s no slight on either, but Covil starting in the “number ten” position, only to be replaced by Cannon shows the areas of real weakness at the moment. In the five games they’ve picked up points, City have finished with four or five players on the pitch you’d have imagined would be nowhere near the squad this season. Those players aren’t letting anyone own but it’s the reason games are ending with ten men behind the ball defending for their lives. It’s working though. We didn’t amass this many points until game 17 on 6^th November last season.

Greaves was probably the pick for City with his outstanding defending in the first half getting his mate off the hook time and again. His tackling is timed tremendously, his positioning near flawless and his height incredibly useful for aerial battles. Slater was excellent too. He was everywhere without the ball and a joy to watch with it. His ability to sell two defenders with his body movement before he’s even touched the ball is a thing of beauty and his running with the ball, the drop of the shoulder, the close control and the calm under pressure was as good as he’s been in a City shirt. Does anyone know how much he cost?

Coyle is sometimes maligned, unfairly, by morons, but he was terrific again at both ends, as was Elder on the left. Tetteh’s combination of size and ability to challenge for a ball in the air with a ridiculously deft touch “for a big man” continues to create crowd-pleasing moments and links with expert goal poacher Estupiñán. Figueiredo had a mare first half but was much more composed after the break. Everyone put in an incredible effort, typical of this group. Fears that the heart of the side were lost with the departures this summer, from yours truly especially, look unfounded and that’s very pleasing. 

Most pleasing is another great crowd of 17,878. That’s 2 consecutive home games over 17k. We only achieved it once last season and didn’t at all in the league in the short 19/20 season or the full 18/19. (Stats: https://tigerbase.hullcity.com) The average is already up 4,000 on last season and 6,000 on 19/20 - before the world ended.

It felt for a long time like City’s world was ending. But not any more. The club and this team are alive and kicking.