The Tigers face the managerless Potters in front of the television cameras on Friday night
Hull City are back in action on Friday night when they travel to face Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium looking for a repeat of last season’s impressive 3-1 success.
Tim Walter’s men are without a win since he took charge on July 1 and will be hoping to inflict further frustration on a Potters outfit who were beaten for the third time this term at Oxford United last weekend, a result which brought Steven Schumacher’s near-nine month reign to a premature end.
City will travel to the Potteries with injury doubts surrounding a few of their players, while others are still getting their fitness to the necessary levels after summer moves to the MKM Stadium.
Here’s the latest news from the treatment room at the MKM Stadium…
Charlie Hughes
Injury: Appendix
Return date: Unclear – unlikely before the October break
Carl Rushworth
Injury: Unspecified bruise
Return date: Expected back for Friday night
Dogukan Sinik
Injury: Tendon problem
Return date: Back in light training but unlikely before the October international break
Ryan Longman
Injury: Dislocated shoulder3
Return date: Back in light training but unlikely before the October international break
Andy Smith
Injury: Ankle problem
Return date: Not before the next international break.
Sheffield United ace highlights big Hull City problem that Tim Walter must quickly fix
The Tigers remain without a win since their German boss took charge in July
Hull City’s style of play under Tim Walter has generated plenty of discussion in the opening weeks of this fledgling Championship campaign, not least from opposition teams.
Walter’s insistence on playing out from the back, rotating his defenders and leaving big gaps through midfield, he hopes, will see his side exploit their opponents and create chances and ultimately goals.
So far, however, that hasn’t happened and unfortunately for Walter and his players, the opposition have been quick to exploit their risk and reward style with little sign of reward so far.
It was the same again on Friday night when Sheffield United eased to a 2-0 win at the MKM Stadium, scoring a goal in each half with both goals coming from City’s attacking corners.
Blades boss Chris Wilder highlighted City’s desire to take risks, although he was frustrated by facets of his side’s performance against the Tigers. He was relieved to have secured three points, and one of Wilder’s key men, Gustavo Hamer, highlighted an issue Walter must overcome.
Each team who has come up against the Tigers have looked to exploit that openness and Hamer has offered an insight into United’s plan in the build-up to the Yorkshire derby.
“Yes (worked on stealing the ball),” he said. “We knew they were decent on the ball and on the counter-attack there were a couple of gaps. We trained on that for the whole week, we knew the counter-attacks had a lot of space. I hit the bottom left and he (Sam McCallum) hit the bottom right, so we trained on that.”
Walter’s men head to Stoke City on Friday night knowing they simply have to tighten up if they’re to halt their alarming slump in form. Other teams must surely be seeing them as a soft touch at the moment.
Leave a Reply