Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic faces one of his toughest selection decisions of the season when he picks his starting XI to face Fulham on Saturday.
Fresh from a thrilling 2-2 draw at the MKM Stadium against Everton on Sunday, City will be looking to claim a first victory since the away win at Coventry City in late August.
Jakirovic was able to call upon Tim Iroegbunam and Hidemasa Morita in the second half of the Tigers’ first game in three weeks, while Brooke Norton-Cuffy was an unused substitute.
What the Croatian opts to go with in attack is fascinating. Joe Gelhardt was handed a first Premier League start for City against the Toffees, and marked it with a well-taken goal created by Sorba Thomas. In-form Mo Belloumi wasn’t fit enough to start after his international exploits with Algeria, but came off the bench to replace Gelhardt and powered in the equaliser.
While City must proceed with caution surrounding Belloumi, given his injury troubles in recent months, the temptation to start their most dangerous player will be great, but dropping Gelhardt would be a tough call. Despite his error for the second Everton goal, Thomas delivered an impressive display on Sunday and will be keen to keep his place.
The make-up of City’s engine room is another interesting call that Jakirovic will have to make. Matt Crooks didn’t have his best game on Sunday and picked up a fourth yellow card of the campaign, and like Oli McBurnie, he is just one away from a suspension. That could open the door for Iroegbunam to be given a first start, or Morita a second.
Jakirovic will have to make a change in his defensive ranks with Nobel Mendy unavailable through injury, so Lucas Herrington will likely come back in for his second league start, with skipper Lewie Coyle and Ryan Giles continuing at full-back.
City’s squad will not be boosted by the returns of Mohamed-Ali Cho and Lucas Gourna-Douath, after the pair missed the Everton game through injury, nor Matt Targett or Charlie Hughes. Cho and Gourna-Douath should be available for the visit of Brentford next Sunday.
City’s predicted XI: Tzolakis, Giles, Egan, Herrington, Ajayi, Coyle, Slater, Iroegbunam, Thomas, Belloumi, McBurnie.
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