City are over halfway through their pre-season schedule
Oli McBurnie, Abdus Omur and Regan Slater ahead of Saturday’s game with Kasimpasa(Image: Hull City AFC)
Hull City brought the curtain down on their training camp in Slovenia and Turkey with a 1-1 draw against Kasimpasa on Saturday in Istanbul.
Oli McBurnie’s second goal in as many games cancelled out the hosts’ opener a couple of minutes earlier, to make it two wins and a draw from their three games at the start of pre-season.
The Tigers will arrive back in England with plenty of questions surrounding the future of some of their players, and even more questions about the players coming in, with only two public outings left before Manchester United roll into town for the big kick-off two weeks on Saturday.
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! Latest Hull City news and analysis on our Hull Live FB page
Here, Tigers reporter Barry Cooper looks back on the final night of City’s trip across Europe…
A good test
For sixty minutes, this was a decent enough display from the Tigers against a side fired up and roared on by a good few thousand vociferous fans inside the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium.
There were moments of trouble when City switched off and allowed the hosts to get in on goal, but in general play, they were solid and compact and had more control than we’d seen in the previous two outings.
It’s another game unbeaten, and as we’ve said before, results aren’t the most important factor in pre-season, but they certainly help boost confidence.
In pre-season, you want to get incrementally better game by game as you build towards the start of the season, and I certainly think for the first hour, we saw that.
Ageing like a fine wine
John Egan, at the ripe old age of 33, seems to keep getting better and better. He was one of the Tigers’ unsung heroes last season and was a key figure in their promotion.
How many games he will play this season remains to be seen, with Lucas Herrington and Nobel Mendy expected to boost the central defensive ranks, but Egan’s role will be absolutely huge, both on the pitch and in the dressing room.
One to watch
We said in the week that the battle between Jack Butland and Konstantinos Tzolakis would be fascinating, and with the Greek international watching from the stands on Saturday night, he would have seen exactly what he’s up against.
Butland was again excellent in his glovework, pulling off one outstanding save when the striker was through on goal in the first half, and he was suitably commanding of his box.
It’s a wonderful problem to have for Jakirovic, but now he needs that competition across the squad because at the minute, he hasn’t yet got it.
More questions than answers
How many of the squad on this trip will still be in and around the first team setup come the end of the transfer window remains to be seen.
The work Jakirovic and his staff have been doing on the training ground was particularly evident in the second and third friendlies, but with so many question marks over who will be around the squad, and who won’t, it’s tough to make much of a judgment call.
So many players still need to arrive before we know what Hull City’s team will look like in the Premier League in terms of personnel. We know the style, the basic principles and the tactics, but it’s who will be tasked with delivering that game plan which will come out in the wash over the next three weeks.
The depth of the squad, or lack of it, was again apparent in the final half-hour when the majority of Jakirovic’s first team players vacated, and once again, highlighted the need for arrivals, and they can’t come soon enough.
Time for home
After two weeks away, City’s pre-season training camp is complete for another year, and who knows where we’ll be in 12 months’ time. We certainly didn’t expect to be in this position when we departed Istanbul last year.
It’s been something different with the players heading to Slovenia for nine days and then to Istanbul. While the weather has been more suitable over the past couple of weeks, their previous trips to Riva have probably been better. The environment in Riva, at the home of the Turkish FA, is perfect for an intense training schedule with everything on site.
That said, it’s still been a really good trip for the players, and the work they’ve done should hopefully serve them well for the weeks to come. Now, it’s time for a rest!
Hull Live are the only English media with City during every step of their pre-season tour, and you can follow all our updates in print and online.
Here at Hull Live , we are dedicated to bringing you the best Hull City coverage and analysis. Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group.
You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.