Hull City Post Match Thread 2 - 1

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Grewks said:

As for the posts about missing Kante, i didnt see it that way to be honest. It was a lack of quality rather than anything else.

This is one we can agree on.

 

We were missing Vardy, Mahrez and Kante not to mention the defence.

[Tielemans63]

Need another left sided centre half option IMHO (is Keane left sided?) as Wes looked understandably shaky having shifted over to accommodate Hernandez.

 

I'm not too worried, think Ranieri just had a bit of a mare which doesn't happened often at all.

 

Still think we need another defender, CM and striker though.

[LJS]

People saying this is when we find out about Ranieri must be thick as ****. He won the league for us last year for ****'s sake. How could it possibly be that he did so having stuck with Pearson's great escape formula? We didn't play the same system or style when Pearson kept us up. We didn't even keep the same style and system between the first and second halves of last season. Ranieri made changes to make us more defensively sound and they did the job. 

 

Neither did Ranieri win the league for us because he had Kante. It was Ranieri who had to decide where and how to play him. Kante's brilliance didn't play out in a vacuum. We could finish bottom of the league with ten points and Ranieri will remain our best ever manager. By a country mile too. We won the league. Leicester City won the league, for ****'s sake.

 

I was worried what doing so would do to the expectation of our fans. My fears were confirmed last week by the idiot I was sitting next to at Wembley getting irate at every misplaced pass and banging on about how "we should be beating these". That's Manchester United, the most successful club in English domestic history, led by one of the best coaches in the world. I'd hoped he was just a prat who didn't get to many games. Apparently not, judging by this thread. Jesus.

[Phube]

When hearing that were the first Champions to lose our first game in the Premier League era; all I can think is:

 

 

[Raj]

Can't beat reading abit of foxestalk first game into the new season as reigning champions after a defeat!

Surprised some haven't already asked for season ticket refunds!

[walkerleeds]

We missed Okazaki badly yesterday, I look forward to seeing him come back in along with Huth and Albrighton next time out.   

[foxinsocks]

don't panic ... don't panic

Amarty looked good in mid field.  We need to put the balls inform he sides earlier (diagonal) and musa and riyad need to pull the trigger not look for passes.  Simples... Claudio can sort this out

[dedlock]

We started well against a poor Sunderland last season then almost let them back into the game,followed this hanging on at West Ham and draws before the comeback from 2 down against a poor Villa.It took several games ,and the incentive of pizza before the defence stopped leaking goals.

 

Hull showed it may be more difficult this season against teams defending deep and denying space behind.We had chances to score before Hull did but failed to take them.

 

There is work to be done,more offers of pizza?!

[ARTY_FOX]

10 hours ago, fuchsntf said:

Space to run into, and no movement when we had  the ball, so the driving forward was curtailed by Hull playing deep..

That's not it either.  Yes they did play deep but so did Southampton in the second half at their place last year. They spent the whole second half in their box and we still managed to break them down.  We just didn't seem to spark. Never got the ball forward quickly. We were trying to build it up slowly and that's not what we're good at.

[ian_marshall]

Just watched the highlights, and I'd definitely put the result down to simply not being mentally sharp which is understandable so early in the season.

 

For their first, Morgan gets beaten too easily at the near post and Fuchs switches off and ball watches. If both had kept their concentration we have two opportunities to clear the ball or at least make the finish more difficult. 

 

The second goal is a comedy of errors. Schmeichel's poor decision making trying to start the counter without assessing the position of the other players, Gray not recovering quickly enough from losing possession, neither Drinkwater or King closing the space in midfield, Fuchs not getting tight and stopping the cross, and Drinkwater switching off and not tracking Snodgrass.

 

Some may argue that at this stage we should be sharper mentally but with the less than ideal preparation this season I don't think we should be surprised that were not quite at the races yet. 

 

Man City who've had a similar pre-season to ourselves didn't look particularly sharp against a poor Sunderland side at home and by all accounts were very fortunate to come away with the 3 points. 

 

Let's not get too disheartened after one game which in fairness was always going to be a potential banana skin.

[NotTheMarketLeader]

13 hours ago, Fox92 said:

Awful performance. Can't put it any other way. Didn't even want to stay in the ground to clap them off.

 

Hull wanted it more and their players were up for it. Certain players for us didn't look bothered at all. 

 

Formation didn't work. Okazaki needs to start. Drinkwater is doing the work of two players and we kept getting overrun in midfield.

This

[NotTheMarketLeader]

53 minutes ago, foxinsocks said:

don't panic ... don't panic

Amarty looked good in mid field.  We need to put the balls inform he sides earlier (diagonal) and musa and riyad need to pull the trigger not look for passes.  Simples... Claudio can sort this out

 

Amartey looked good? 

 

He did nothing whatsoever and looks completely ill at ease with the ball at his feet. Hardly ever drives forward with the ball or make things happen.

 

At this point he does not look good enough to me.

[Bayfox]

Think cr got it wrong yesterday. Without huth we got championship Morgan.  For me wasyl would have been the better option alongside wes.

 

Kingy and drinky should be good enough against hull but weren't yesterday. Our pre-season seems to have left us a little short on actual match practice. We should have been playing more games in that week in the states.

 

Thought musa did ok. But there was a big gap between the 2 in the middle of the park and the front 4 a gap that was only filled and linked a little when Okazaki came on. Mahrez and gray don't work had enough defensively.

 

For me next week we will need huth and mendy or amartey to come back in and hit the ground running. 

 

Maybe even tempted to go 433 with mendy and amartey with vardy and musa either side of Okazaki or Okazaki just in behind the 2.

 

Never thought after last season I'd be contemplating not playing Ryiad.

[fuchsntf]

40 minutes ago, NotTheMarketLeader said:

 

Amartey looked good? 

 

He did nothing whatsoever and looks completely ill at ease with the ball at his feet. Hardly ever drives forward with the ball or make things happen.

 

At this point he does not look good enough to me.

Opinions, opinions...Too early to argue.

I reckon Armatey will be doing the business, yesterday with Okazaki, there was some improvement.

On this forum we tend to always throw in the negative, your last sentence..

I am the optimistic type, thats why I dont lean to the negative, we have just won the PL title,

Our 1st game wss below our expectations, but this forum underestimated Hull.

Every player to me deserves more backing than 1st game throw away statements.

Fans worse than media.

On yestetdays game IMO taking the pessimistic view, Wes Morgan shouldnt ever put

on a blue shirt again, his defending was quite pathetic..Silly though...innit???

[4everfox]

This thread is depressing, yes we lost on the season opener to Hull with a squad that isn't at full strength fitness wise BUT there is 37 league matches to go and we are still the Champions of England. We are in the Champions League man, come on! Dilly ding dilly dong!

[Number 6]

I still think Claudio is figuring out the best way to utilise the players we have this season. Without Kante, last seasons set up is clearly compromised. Also think in games where we have much more of the ball we need more of a link between midfield and attach - perhaps with Okazaki getting the nod.

 

Biggest worry for me is the defence that was so reliable last year looks really poor this. Morgan couldn't deal with Ibra in the air last weekend and was consistently beaten in the air by Curtis Davies today. Those two are obviously good in the air but given our strategy has been to encourage crosses we need to deal better with them (Huth should help in this regard).

 

Ultimately I think Hull didn't have much to lose yesterday as everyone had written them off, and they defended very well. I thought we'd have enough to get a 2 or 3-0 win and yet our play was very poor and we didn't adapt to them sitting back. One of the few occasions I think Ranieri got the subs wrong too - pretty much just sticking 4 strikers on at the end. I actually think the Arsenal game will suit us more next week but unless we have a huge improvement on today we'll be looking at 0 from 6.

[jayfox26]

20 hours ago, Drygon said:

Quite funny to follow the meltdown of when Drinkwater wasn't selected for the Euros, despite his dreadful England displays.

 

He's an average player to be honest, carried by Kanté and the system Claudio Ranieri set up.

What a terrible post. Do you watch the games? Do you see the impact Drinkwater has on games? He's a top centre mid and yes he wasn't great against Hull but neither was Mahrez or Vardy. Are they average players as well? And Drinkwater should have comfortably been in that England squad. And out of interest which of his England displays did you think were dreadful? The one where he got man of the match?

[deccers]

I'll readily admit I haven't read the other 18 pages, so apologies if I'm rehashing the same old points but from watching on Sky;

 

I think King has his role, but with no Kante, we need someone to snap into tackles and apply some pressure. King is not that man, and so we definitely need one of Mendy/Amartey in our midfield.

Drinkwater looked good, but no man is an island and was let down by King.

Hernandez wasn't as bad as he was made out to be by the commentators, and I think he did ok. Some of his tackles were very aggressive, but if Huth did them, they'd be praising his old school style of defending.

In a weird way it seemed like a Championship game, what with us generally looking threatening and having the better of the game, but in the end being undone by a set piece and a wonder strike.

 

There's no doubt we'll have to shape up quickly though. While the ICC was no doubt good for business, the travelling has had a clear effect on our fitness and sharpness. Bring back Oxford, Northampton, Mansfield then Real Zaragoza pre-seasons. 

 

 

[lcfcdamo]

2 hours ago, fuchsntf said:

Opinions, opinions...Too early to argue.

I reckon Armatey will be doing the business, yesterday with Okazaki, there was some improvement.

On this forum we tend to always throw in the negative, your last sentence..

I am the optimistic type, thats why I dont lean to the negative, we have just won the PL title,

Our 1st game wss below our expectations, but this forum underestimated Hull.

Every player to me deserves more backing than 1st game throw away statements.

Fans worse than media.

On yestetdays game IMO taking the pessimistic view, Wes Morgan shouldnt ever put

on a blue shirt again, his defending was quite pathetic..Silly though...innit???

Argree with everything people on here was acting like we was playing a league 2 side hulls 11 they put out wasn't a bad team at all really 

[Guest Col city fan]

Whether a reaction is knee-jerk or not is based on what side of the fence you sit on. Ie. Glass half full/half empty.

I try to look at how we are PLAYING (as opposed just to scores). It's one league game yes BUT it's four pretty drab performances on the bounce. 

We are not linking the midfield to attack. Despite all the love for Gray, he's not finding our own men in the final third. Mahrez looks pants. And the defence look very shaky, not helped by a weak looking central midfield. 

Even Vardy yesterday was snatching at chances.

Football is so much a confidence thing. For some reason, we don't look confident? Needs work. But hugely early days.

[Bert]

I think the biggest shock for me was that it was absolutely nothing like last season. Even when we played bad it wasn't as bad as it was yesterday. Kante will obviously be the biggest miss, and it's quite clear we missed the organisation of Huth. 

 

Hull worked us out. We had little movement and seemed devoid of ideas. The link between midfield and attack was missing and that's where we really missed Okazaki. The pace of our front 4 meant more often than not there was huge gaps between the midfield and the strikers. Hull just filled in them gaps and we had no answer. So then we started to lump balls, and hopeful balls at best into the channels or down the throats of their centre halves who just won everything. None of them seemed on the same wavelength as anyone else either. 

 

The travelling during pre-season has had a massive effect on us. Especially Fuchs. He's been at the euro's then joined up for the Celtic friendly. 

 

It could be a frustrating start to the season I think, but I still think we will do more than enough to come at least top ten. 

[Phube]

2 hours ago, lcfcdamo said:

Argree with everything people on here was acting like we was playing a league 2 side hulls 11 they put out wasn't a bad team at all really 

 

As put in the Stat. Thread: 

 

Hull's starting eleven - 800 odd Prem games.

Our stating eleven - 500 odd Prem games!

[the fox]

spurs with a draw and arsenal with a loss. i know liverpool and everton are better than hull. but ther players are off the pace. so lets keep our support for the player and wish they pick up form fast

[Dan]

The talking points for me:

 

- Ranieri did get the team wrong. I'd say there was even an air of arrogance about it, as if we could power past them. It was a team that we were naturally going to get excited about, but it was a bit too attacking and a lot of our success has come through how well drilled we are as a unit and how much we make it tough for an opponent to settle in any kind of game. Not just the obvious loss of Kante, but the lack of Okazaki and Albrighton hit us too I feel.

 

- Vardy and Musa will look good at times but neither of them are link-up players between attack and midfield, and as a result I think we're going to have to either change the system to fit them both in or use one at a time. I saw last season as sort of 4-4-1-1, Okazaki with his very unique role of being like a defensive number 10, both of these two play on the last man. It will look great at times, but Okazaki's presence despite his lack of quality on the ball caused problems for the opposition, he'd pull defenders out of position, and he'd stop them playing and organising themselves.

 

- N'Golo Kante, as predicted, is a huge loss.

 

- Robert Huth is a bigger loss than we appreciated. Wasilewski did a very good job filling in for him last year. Hernandez looks good in parts and awful in others, worth persisting with but he's got a fair bit of adjusting to English football to do, more physical than Spain.

 

- Gray, Morgan, Vardy, King, Schmeichel and Hernandez were dog shit. Mahrez was good in parts and poor in others. I didn't see a lack of work rate from him as such but his body language doesn't look right.

 

- Don't ever bother with something like the ICC again. It's clearly knackered our preparation. Mourinho, Guardiola and Ranieri have now all said that things like this are a hindrance. We can't turn this down? Are you serious? Even if you're talking in terms of monetary gain, surely it pales into insignificance compared to $ky's riches - especially given the knock-on effects it clearly had on us. Given we got slapped in our game in USA as well I can't exactly see them going mad over us.

 

- For all we weren't particularly prepared, think of our opposition. They've had the worst pre-season of any side I can remember so we can't exactly put it all down to that. It was comfortably the worst result we've had since we've been back up in the Premier League considering the state of the opposition and arguably the worst performance since the Barnsley loss. It was worse than the Villa performances. As an isolated game, it was disgracefully bad and an embarrassment given we are title holders. It feels like such a chance wasted as well.

 

- We'll smash Arsenal and all will be fine.

[TheLittleBigMan]

We created sh*t loads of chances, we'll be fine. Agree with most that our pre season didn't help the team but it helped the profile of the club so if we're looking to be a top end club we'll have to get used to it - money talks.

Really looking forward to the gunners at home, it'll be a different world to the hull game and i'm sure the blue army will be in fine form. Stay positive - everything's ok.