Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Hull play host to Southampton this afternoon off the back of a run of results which has seen them lose their last 6 and a failure to win in any of their last 8 league matches. After a bright start to the season that is all but a distant memory now as the search for a first point since the 10th September continues.
Those 6 defeats in a row have seen some pretty poor defending with the Hull back line leaking goals left, right and centre. They have shipped 20 goals in their last 6 matches which by Premier League standards is pretty abysmal. That is an average of 3.33 goals per game.
Last Saturday they only conceded 1 but it still wasn’t enough to even pick up a point against Watford at Vicarage Road. The goal for Watford came in cruel circumstances as Michael Dawson put through his own net with 7 minutes to go. The luck never seems to go your way when you’re near the bottom of the table.
It’s Hull decent start to the season and the fact that Swansea and Sunderland have been worse this season which props The Tigers up in 18th place but the fact they have a goal difference of minus 15 after letting 23 goals in 10 matches makes for incredibly stark reading.
They are going to have to be a lot tighter at the back if they are to get anything for their efforts and although there were signs that the ship is being steadied at Watford there is still a lot of work to be done by Mike Phelan and his players and that works starts today when Southampton come to the KCom Stadium.
Southampton will be full of confidence after their fantastic win over Inter Milan in the Europa League on Thursday. Inter may have come to the South Coast without a manager after sacking Frank De Boer but it doesn’t take anything away from their victory.
After Mauro Icardi put the visitors ahead in the first half, Southampton then leveled through defender Virgil Van Dijk and then just minutes later Japanese international Yuto Nagatomo put through his own net in embarrasing fashion to complete a memorable turn around for the Saints.
That performance on Thursday was a lot more spirited than the one just four days before when they were outclassed by Antonio Conte’s Chelsea side with The Blues running out 2-0 winners. That defeat bought to and Southampton’s run of 5 league games without a loss.
But they would have started this weekend in 9th place and after a slow start, life under Claude Puel is starting to pick up pace and he will certainly fancy his chances of picking up another three points this afternoon against a Hull side who can’t seem to buy a clean sheet let alone a win.
For that reason I’ll go with a Southampton win, now that Hull are in the bottom three I think they really are going to struggle to get their way out of it. I expect Southampton to pile more misery on them today and consign them to their seventh straight league defeat. An away win for me.
