Robert Snodgrass believes Hull City should believe they’re capable of competing for a place in the top half of the Premier League, rather than just targeting survival.
City earned another point on Sunday with a battling 2-2 draw with unbeaten Everton at the MKM Stadium, coming from behind after initially leading through Joe Gelhardt.
That point saw Sergej Jakirovic’s men move onto nine points, above the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur six games into the fledgling season.
Their only defeat came at Newcastle United before the international break, and that was largely because they conceded twice inside the opening seven minutes, but that spell aside, the Tigers have been hugely competitive and are firmly inside the top half of the table.
While survival will remain the primary target, the former City winger believes City and their supporters should be encouraged by what they’ve seen so far, as they prepare for Saturday’s trip to winless Fulham.
“Listen, why not? Why not? I think that’s the big thing for me. The way they’ve performed, going and pushing the big teams, and they don’t want to just be there in the Premier League. They’ve really sort of learned from when we were back in there before,” he told TribalFootball. “Taking that step down and coming back bigger, better, their recruitment’s been great. They’ll be calling on a few of the lads to try and help the squad for the last season. Why not push for the stars and believe that you’re good enough to try and push and get in that top half of the table?
“Hull’s form hasn’t surprised me. I felt as if last season, the way they recruited the squad that they had was really impressive in terms of how they could only sign free transfers. I think they had a few bans on spending money in some windows and stuff. But the way they recruited, I thought it was great. I thought that they’ve built on that this season in terms of adding in those little bits of quality, keeping the squad fresh in the competition. So I’m not surprised at all.”
David Moyes praised City after Sunday’s game for how quickly they’d adapted to life back in the Premier League, before warning that things would get tougher, and that’s a sentiment echoed by Snodgrass, who says his old club cannot take anything for granted after only six games.
“The thing with Hull is maybe getting carried away, having that sort of ‘top half of the table tag’ on your back,” he continued. “Sometimes, when you start looking at the table and things like that. But it’s fairly early. The lads are just really enjoying being in the Premier League, and they’re there to show people why they got promoted last season and build from there. I think you see that within the lads like (Mohamed) Belloumi, Oli McBurnie and big characters that have started well, but you need players like that to keep fit and push the rest of the squad on with their performances. It’s been great to see an old club go and really take the Premier League on with a great start; I’m delighted for them.”
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