Later on today, the lads take on Hull City at the Stadium of Light. A tough game is expected, but I think the lads have enough to win…
HULL CITY
Since Liam Rosenior’s takeover as manager at the start of November Hull have a win percentage of 27. To the naked-eye it might look bad but considering the team morale when he took over after five losses in the opening 10 games it could be worse. Only a winter break, due to the World Cup, is really the only time that Rosenior has had time to fully implement his style of play to the team he came into. Hull City this season concede 1.36 goals on average, they have conceded four goals on one occasion, alongside this they haven’t won an away game in three months. They have one of the worst defences in the league conceding 53 goals in 39 games, additionally scoring only 43. So knowing our lcuk they’ll be the best defensive side we’ve seen this season.
One of Rosenior’s stand-out players this year is talisman Oscar Estupinian. The Columbian this year has scored 13 goals in 35 games once being the leading goal-scorer of the Championship, although he had missed their last game against Rotherham United, which was a 0-0 draw, meaning he will be a miss today reinforced by Liam Rosenior. Rosenior has solidified the defence having nine clean sheets out of the 10 recorded this season. Alongside this, the business for Hull has been good, bringing in Aaron Connolly (on loan), Cyrus Christie, Oscar Estupinian, etc.etc.
On average Hull City only gather 51.1% possession, which makes them bang average this year but away from home they only get 48.2%. 26 times this year, Hull City have deployed the 4-2-3-1 formation, which Rosenior clearly favours. Connolly, Tetteh and Estupinian have all been out recently meaning their output upfront has been lacking. Alongside, Cyrus Christie being out so that means we can use the left flank a lot in the game today.
SUNDERLAND
Now onto the lads, Tony Mowbray has come in at the end of August and completely changed the way that we play football. Mowbray was always known to implement good-looking football to his team, which certainly has reflected onto SAFC. This year has been a year for the lads to get adjusted to the Championship which we certainly have, accumulating 54 points in the 39 games played so far this year, on the way having one of the best attacking presences in the league where we have always been capable of scoring.
We come into this game after one of our best defensive performances against high-flyers Burnley, drawing the game 0-0 last Friday. Mowbray has hinted at the selection of Alex Pritchard despite a niggling issue that he has been dealing with. With Niall Huggins, Ross Stewart, Aji Alese, and Dan Ballard still being out I see some experimentation with the squad today with the possible first start of Isaac Lihadji following on from the first start from Pierre Ekwah against Burnley last time out.
Some bright news about injury would be that Dennis Cirkin played an Under-21 game midweek, and came off the bench against Burnley last Friday. Hopefully he will get more game time today.
PREDICTION
I think that the lads will secure a 1-0 victory against Hull City this Good Friday. I don't think that Hull will have enough to go forward, especially with the likes of Oscar Estupinian possibly being out again today, alongside the leaky defence that they bring to the SoL (53 goals conceded). I think Mowbray and the lads will have enough going forward with Joe Gelhardt scoring, yes you read that right, on Good Friday to ‘kick-start’ his season. I think this will be the start of a possible play-off push to end the season.
PREDICTED SAFC LINEUP: 4-2-3-1
1 Anthony Patterson, 32 Trai Hume, 13 Luke O’Nien, 6 Danny Batth, 11 Lynden Gooch (C), 39 Pierre Ekwah, 25 Edouard Michut, 22 Isaac Lihadji, 16 Amad Diallo, 20 Jack Clarke, 28 Joe Gelhardt
PREDICTED HULL CITY LINEUP: 4-2-3-1
12 Karl Barlow, 2 Lewie Coyle, 5 Alfie Jones, 17 Sean McLoughlin, 4 Jacob Greaves, 24 Jean Michael Seri, 27 Regan Slater, 18 Adama Traore, 7 Ozan Tufan, 20 Dimitrios Pelkas, 10 Malcolm Ebiowei
