Match Day Thread Sunderland v Hull City

Took me ages this...

Sunderland host Hull City in the Skybet Championship

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Last time out Sunderland lost at Cardiff and Hull drew with Reading

Chris Coleman is looking for new signings while trying to off load the high earning poor performers. Jonny Williams returned to training this week after recovering from a shoulder injury. The Black Cats are seeking their first win in January 2018 as Sebastian Larsson & David Meyler both return to the Stadium of Light. Hull are also on a poor run, without a win in six games under Nigel Adkins, and are only one point above the bottom three sides.
The Tigers have failed to score in five of their past six Championship games, and they will hope to improve on that record in their next game against Sunderland, who have conceded more goals than any side in the division.

Chris Coleman:
“Jonny (Williams) will be back fairly soon, he trained today (Thursday) and did most of it, he’s ahead of schedule and we need his help.”
“A player like Jonny can change the dynamics, he gets a lot of free kicks by committing players”
“What do we need to do? we need to add a bit of experience, numbers to the squad, we’ve got two weeks to do it, we want to do it today if we can, we are trying.”
“ The players that we’ve got now are maybe having more exposure than we’d like, because they are young and inexperienced. Never the less, it is what it is and they will get better for it – they will get better.”
“Catts is not as fit as we need and he needs to be, we are chasing with him because he’s had an injury, but he’s brought himself back in, made himself available, put himself up for the games cos he knows what’s at stake.”
“We need a couple of fresh faces in that area (up front) to help out Josh and Joel”

Nigel Adkins:
"We've got bodies coming back which is a big help. Moses (Odubajo) and (Stephen) Kingsley are also making good progress. Maybe sometime in February, Odubajo could be getting some minutes for the Under-23s."
"It's a big game for both clubs. Both clubs have recent Premier League history, but currently find themselves at the wrong end of the table. Our performances have been good of late, the games we haven’t won have been close, and on another day we could have won them all."
"The way it’s going gives me hope and every game now is going to be very big. We go away to Sunderland, we need the victory, they need the victory - our players have got to go out and perform."
"Our mindset is that we have to win every game, and of course, we're going to Sunderland wanting to pick up all three points. I’ve highlighted to the group that they can’t allow one session or game to go by. Every game has its pressures, the players have to perform."

Match facts:

• Sunderland are unbeaten in four league matches against Hull (W2 D2).
• Hull have won two of their last three away league visits to Sunderland (L1), one more than they managed in the 12 trips prior to that (1).
• Chris Coleman and Nigel Adkins have not faced each other since February 2010, when Coleman's Coventry won 2-1 against Adkins' Scunthorpe in a Championship fixture.
• Sunderland have scored just once in their five games since Christmas in all competitions (W1 L3), failing to score in each of the last three - they last went on a longer run in April 2017 (seven successive games).
• Hull City themselves have scored in just one of their last six Championship games (D3 L3), a 2-2 draw with Fulham in December.
• The Tigers have seen 83 goals in their Championship games this season (F39 A44) - more than any other side.

Form:

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Sports Analytics Machine: Home win 37%
Prutton predicts: 1-2

Match Appointments:
Referee: KEITH STROUD
Assistants: James Mainwaring and David Avent
Fourth Official: Jeremy Simpson

case of having to win this one I think.


Mcgregor

Tomori Dawson Mazuch Aina

Bowen Meyler Larsson Irvine

Campbell Dicko

Let's get Bowen back on the right. Got to be two up top for me. Let's cause them some problems. Three strong midfield players and an attacking one. Both Dicko and Campbell need a ppartner to play off. Then get keane in for the last thirty.

City win 2-0

 

Sunderland are confident of a 7 - 0 win.

"Three points separate the sides heading into the game and a win for Wearside would see the Black Cats move above the Tigers."

https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/2018/january/managers-preview-v-hull-city

0 - 0 please.

 

Our current form is better than Sunderland's

 

That’s **** Chazz. Facts, stats, quotes & bollocks when a simple “Any team we put out can, should & will beat Sunderland’s shower of ****” would have done.

City 3 nowt.

 

Now that’s a Match Day Thread.

 

I'd prefer a win

 

4 nowt to us. Keane to score in the final 15 mins, 3 for Campbell.

Accept nowt else.

You Ull.

 

I'd take a scruffy 1-0 win. Just hoping we don't ****ing lose which is the Hull City way.

 

3-1 city and niece to come home happy with her friend and older escort for the day

It's about time she saw a good away win

Hoping to get to a couple of away games myself if possible

 

You should be focusing on arranging the Not 606 Away Day to watch Scarborough Athletic!!

 

Wow, you put some effort into this Chazz, best match day thread this season.

P.S. Slight omission, Campbell is returning also as well Meyler & Larsson.

 

Got 0-0 written all over it

 

Usually better informed is Louise. Poor on us.

Middlesbrough’s owner, Steve Gibson, predicted his team were set to “smash the Championship,” and Hull City’s new manager Leonid Slutsky spoke of celebrating promotion by “singing, rapping and dancing”. Three hours’ drive up the road at Sunderland, Slutsky’s freshly-installed Sunderland counterpart, Simon Grayson, revealed his ambitions to manage “this great club” in the Premier League.

Fast forward a little over half a season, and despite each being in receipt of £47m worth of parachute payments this term alone, the trio of sides relegated from the top tier last May have all changed manager.

Although Tony Pulis, who replaced the sacked Garry Monk at Boro on Boxing Day, still harbours play-off ambitions, his new side currently sit a modest ninth. So much for a summer transfer market spending spree approaching £50m.

Meanwhile Hull, now under Nigel Adkins’s charge, are 20th, four places above bottom-placed Sunderland, now managed by Chris Coleman. The pair meet at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

“This division is improving all the time,” says Ian Holloway whose QPR side entertain Boro on Saturday. “All the coaching and the coaches are improving. All the managers know how to stop you and your team; everyone’s got access to the same data, the same analytical tools.”

Throw in the reality that, in terms of ability, there is very little between the majority of Championship players and it is easy to appreciate that, of the three sides relegated at the end of the 2015-16 campaign only Newcastle United – “coached by Rafael Benítez, the most illustrious coach to have managed at this level,” reflects Holloway – made an immediate return to the Premier League.

Yet the problems endured by Norwich City and the currently resurgent Aston Villa had very different root causes to those besetting Boro, Hull and Sunderland. Boro’s have, broadly, been philosophical. Essentially, Monk’s attempt to rip up his predecessor Aitor Karanka’s ultra cautious, extremely defensive blueprint and replace it with a much more expansive approach backfired.

Monk persistently talked of the difficulties of getting the balance right between attack and defence. “Change doesn’t happen overnight,” he said, the day before his dismissal. “It’s taken a bit longer than I’d hoped but the players I inherited had one system drilled into them every day for three years; it’s not easy to change the style.”

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Hull’s former manager Leonid Slutsky was described as a ‘broken man’ when he left the club. Photograph: Thomp/ProSports/Rex Shutterstock
Similarly radical change – albeit primarily of personnel – helped ruin things for the first Russian to manage in England. Previously in charge of CSKA Moscow and Russia, Slutsky arrived in East Yorkshire all smiles but departed a sullen figure dubbed a “broken man” by club insiders.

Between June and 1 September he had overseen the departure of 16 members of Marco Silva’s old squad and signed 11 players for a collective £16m. The departees included key midfielder Sam Clucas, who joined Swansea for £15m, Harry Maguire, a talented defender who moved to Leicester for £17m and left-back Andy Robertson, an £8m Liverpool capture.

Of the 28 players that started a Premier League fixture for Hull last season, only 11 remain on Humberside.

Boro possess some fine players but the psychological impact of relegation should not be underestimated

Despite spending a decade in the Premier League, Sunderland had made so many transfer market mistakes and fallen into such deep debt that Grayson was only able to invest £1.25m on 10 new faces while offloading 15 senior professionals.

Moreover he was left with some disaffected individuals, most notably centre half Lamine Koné and £13.6m record signing Didier Ndong. That pair are not the only ones who no longer want to be on Wearside.

“When you take over a football club and you don’t have such good characters then it ain’t half hard,” said Holloway following QPR’s 1-1 draw at Sunderland in October. “It might be that the not good characters are on far too much money, aren’t your signings and aren’t happy at the club. I’m not saying Sunderland have those problems but without stability it’s very difficult.”

Coleman, installed in November, has since spoken of the club requiring “a thorough cleansing” – and the perils of tackling a relegation “dogfight” with “kittens”. He is desperate to re-home Jack Rodwell, his unwanted £70,000-a-week midfielder, but unsurprisingly there are no takers.

Boro possess some fine players, the £50,000-a-week defender Ben Gibson and the £15m striker Britt Assombalonga among them, but the psychological impact of relegation should not be underestimated.

“I’ve been part of a relegated side [at Southampton] and there is a hangover, it can be difficult,” says the former Sunderland defender Danny Higginbotham. “Confidence dips. When a team gets relegated, it’s because they’ve lost a lot of games; it takes time to get that belief and resilience back.

“Often, scoring the first goal is vital. When Boro have scored first they’ve tended to win but, after conceding first, confidence can be sapped.

“Boro bought a lot of players last summer but there’s plenty in the dressing room who were there last season, and it’s not easy to recover and go again. Mentally, some players take time to get back to the level they need to be at.”

 

Good luck, that's another 6-pointer so don't lose at least and score one goal too

 

It has but it won't be. Lump on laying a 0-0

 

Game plan will be to get a point, to keep the 3 point gap between us and them. Got 1-1 on the tin. Us first, they get one back with 10 to go, then backs to the wall for the remainder.

 

I'm going with 2-0 City.

 

If you haven’t bought a ticket in advance for this afternoon’s away game against Sunderland, it’s still not too late to follow the Tigers to the Stadium of Light.

A cash turnstile is available for the away end, open from 1.30pm, with admission priced as follows:

£25 Adults

£19 Seniors (Over 65)

£16 Under 22s

£10 Under 16s

Head for turnstile 71. Kick-off is at 3pm.


Me and Chazz junior were supposed to be going to this but the lazy gift is still in bed hungover. Meh

 

I saw that... muppets

 

I love a lazy gift, my wife usually gives me one but not when I’m hungover in bed