It was no real surprise that Sergej Jakirovic viewed last weekend’s dire display at Fulham as the worst of his tenure, now Hull City must respond against even sturdier opposition in Brentford.
The Bees are a great example to the Tigers when it comes to initially surviving and then progressing steadily up the top-flight table.
Keith Andrews is arguably the most underrated head coach in the Premier League, with his side’s 13 goals so far this season coming from all angles. Former City ace, Keane Lewis-Potter, has been at the heartbeat of that despite featuring in a wing-back role that no one would have seen coming at the time of his move four summers ago.
Kevin Schade is already on track to trump his goal tally from last season too, although it remains to be seen how Andrews will reshuffle his pack given the red cards brandished to Yehor Yarmolyuk and midfield lynchpin, Vitaly Janelt, in the 2-1 loss to Liverpool.
For the Tigers, who are still unbeaten on home turf, a major improvement on the shocker in West London last weekend will be expected.
Whilst the 2-2 draw against Everton was also far from flawless, City were at least able to salvage a point despite the Toffees being in control for large periods. Against Fulham, no shots on target and five touches inside the box told its own story.
There has been plenty of discourse over whether too much loyalty is being shown to those who achieved promotion in May when it comes to team selection, and having struggled in the past two games, it feels likely that Matt Crooks may come out of the lineup in place of Tim Iroegbunam, who has been impressive in his substitute cameos thus far.
Brooke Norton-Cuffy had played left-wing-back for Genoa, but it appeared rather strange to see Ryan Giles dropped in his place given his strengths, and with the onus somewhat back on City this weekend, I for one would like to see his place in the lineup restored.
Criticism has slightly started to come the way of Konstantinos Tzolakis given the way in which he was beaten by Alex Iwobi, but in truth, any world-class goalkeeper could have played for the Tigers last weekend and it would have still been questioned how the Whites’ margin of victory was so narrow.
Whilst it means very little, Brentford have only left the MKM Stadium victorious once – the disastrous 5-1 game of February 2020 – and a continuation of this strong run from City’s perspective would certainly ease the worries of a four-game unbeaten start being a flash in the pan ahead of the gruelling winter months.
