HULL REPORT

Sunderland lost their third pre-season game in a row, this time against second tier Hull City. It was an improved performance compared to the weekend’s loss to Hearts, and Simon Adingra found the back of the net for the first time as a Sunderland player, but overall the performance wasn’t great.

We lined up as follows:

Moore, Hume, Ballard, Seelt, Jones, Sadiki, Diarra, Le Fee, Talbi, Mayenda, Adingra

One of the biggest faults of Hull City was their shaky ability to play out from the back, and there were numerous times throughout the first half where they gave the ball away or came close to doing so and we just didn’t take full advantage of it. The first chance of the game fell to us as Le Fee crossed to Hume but the latter fired over on the volley. The hosts should have then scored as they sent a strike just past the post.

Our goal followed, it was winger-to-winger action as Talbi passed to Adingra and the Ivorian slotted it into the right hand corner of the net. Chemsdine Talbi can walk away from tonight happy with his performance, I feel. We then, comically, threw the lead away just six minutes later. Seelt played it to Le Fee under pressure in our half and the Frenchman was forced to pretty much cross it into his own area, a Hull player was waiting and it was 1-1.

Enzo came close to redeeming himself but fired into the side netting, Hull squandered a decent chance and Sadiki and Diarra both had half chances. In the last five minutes of the first half we took control of the affair but couldn’t produce much in the final third.

The first half was a mixed bag from a Sunderland perspective, the manner of their goal was disappointing but it was pleasing to see Talbi doing well and Adingra getting on the scoresheet. Harrison Jones, playing out of position as a left back, had coped well enough but it highlighted the need to get Reinildo involved in pre-season as soon as possible, to be ready for competitive football. A new centre back wouldn’t be amiss either. Mayenda wasn’t eager enough to do much.

Hull started off the better of the two sides in the second half, Seelt and Ballard were forced to work hard. Mayenda had a blocked effort and Le Fee sent a free kick into the stratosphere. The Tigers almost took the lead with a header that went just the wrong side of the post and then we changed virtually the entire XI bar Simon Moore. It wasn’t long after these wholesale changes that the Championship team took the lead, Jenson Jones was bullied away from the ball and it was 2-1. One of the opposition’s new signings struck the post and for the rest of the half it was City dominating the ball while we struggled to break away with it.

I’m not too sure what the point is with giving some of the U21s game time at this stage in pre-season. Surely they’d be better served playing with their age group rather than struggling against superior opposition? As well as this, we need to give our starting players, and players likely to be in the match day squads a full 90 minutes. That’s not to say all of the academy lads were poor, Timur Tutierov (playing out of position) had a number of decent moments in particular.

In conclusion, it’s not overly concerning as it is still pre-season and results don’t matter but it does highlight the need for more signings still. I think centre backs and a striker are a must. We also need to begin to trim the squad down for the final three pre-season games. Lastly, we need to get Reinildo and Xhaka integrated into the squad as soon as possible to ensure a smoother transition to Premier League football.