City’s three goals took their league tally to 10 in the past five games
Barry is the Hull City correspondent, and previously covered Nottingham Forest for the Nottingham Post/Nottinghamshire Live. Barry has reported on Hull City’s League One title success and Championship campaigns
It’s been a positive start to the season for Hull City after their well-documented troubles over the course of the summer months off the field.
Saturday’s 3-1 win over promotion favourites Southampton was their best performance in the early weeks of the season, and perhaps gave an indication of why the Tigers could prove to be a dangerous outfit this term.
While the sorry Saints had all the ball, most of it was in areas where City were not troubled. The Saints’ 612 passes compared to the Tigers’ 252 show a huge chasm of difference, but it was the hosts who delivered the crucial punches when required.
It was an expert delivery of how to control a game without the ball, and then the mistakes came. Sergej Jakirovic’s side were there to punish their opponent with clinical precision.
In the early weeks of the campaign, the Tigers looked a bit of a mess defensively after their opening day clean sheet at Coventry City, but in the past couple of games, Jakirovic has managed to tighten things up a little bit. But for Adam Armstrong’s fine 95th-minute finish on Saturday, they’d have claimed a second clean sheet, which would have been a major step forward.
As it was, that didn’t come, and it did take the gloss off a fantastic afternoon (as well as that comeback injury to Mo Belloumi); however, it shouldn’t detract from what was a terrific display.
It’s going the other way which is fascinating, and means City are a team others in the league will begin to fear. They’ve now scored 10 goals in the four league games where they have found the net.
When it comes to XG, City are fifth in the Championship with 10.29 and their 80 shots on goal is the eighth best so far. Away at Bristol City and Swansea, Jakirovic’s side had 35 attempts, and though Saturday’s game with Southampton was a tighter affair, they scored with three of their four attempts.
Inside the box, only Coventry’s 63 attempts on goal beat City’s 55, which shows they’re not just slamming in efforts from anywhere on the pitch. They’re getting into good areas where they can really hurt the opposition.
Add to that, Oli McBurnie’s six-goal involvement (three goals, three assists) is the joint-best in the league (with Anis Mehmet), while Ryan Giles is fifth with three assists already.
McBurnie said on Saturday that he felt teams were so wary of him, that they were leaving other players free and that’s something that can be a major benefit going forward.
In McBurnie, Joe Gelhardt, Matt Crooks, Joel Ndala, David Akintola, Kyle Joseph, Enis Destan, and the returning Liam Millar and Mo Belloumi, City has some real attacking quality. Add to that the crosses being delivered by Giles and Lewie Coyle in the past couple of games, and chances will continue to come.
If John Lundstram can repeat more of what we saw on Saturday, then the goals will continue to be shared about, which is vitally important and something we didn’t see last term.
What will come of City’s season will become clearer in time, but the early signs are hugely promising for a new group of players working under a new manager. Their attacking unit looks exciting, potent, and in McBurnie, they have one of the Championship’s smartest operators.
It’s far too early to suggest City are capable of mounting a play-off challenge, but the early evidence suggests they are going to be a dangerous outfit this season, and one opposition teams may not relish coming up against because they’ve shown different ways to win.
Against Oxford, they dominated the game and were worthy winners. In the clash with Southampton, they were compact and played a home game on the counter, but won the match well. That suggests Jakirovic can change systems and approaches depending on the opposition, and still get a result, which is a major bonus in this league.
Ultimately, it’s going to be a fascinating watch over the next few months, and already, there’s a flair about their approach and fans are enjoying. Some weeks it’ll go their way, occasionally it won’t, either way, it feels like it’ll be fun to watch their development and progress in the coming months.
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