City 0 Hull 1- Post Match

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Here's your post match links for Hull including highlights, reaction, vlogs and The LAST Word.

The LAST Word

"Onwards and upwards" is how I finished The LAST Word after the Arsenal game. This definitely wasn't either.

I'm hesitant to criticise City in some ways. Its a massive step up, maybe not in terms of opposition this week compared to last week but also in terms of scrutiny, media, hype etc. Most of our players won't be used to it even if SFL is, ts a learning curve every week. The problem is if we want to stay in this league longer than 1 season its going to have to be a very steep learning curve. The disappointing thing is the way we are conceding goals, looking slow and generally lacking quality when it matters.

SFL made 3 changes from the Arsenal game, starting the 3 scorers from Plymouth - Awoniyi, EMC and Rudi. Onyeka has a hip problem and missed out whilst Simms and BTA dropped to the bench.

Hull were obviously confident after beating Manure last weekend but City started fairly brightly without much to show for possession. Their best chance came from Awoniyi when the ball hit his thigh and was goalbound, not sure he knew much about it and it was tipped around the post. For all City's huffing and puffing, whenever they got a chance to cross the ball from open play, free kick or a corner the delivery was often so poor, particularly from Grimes' set plays. There was an interesting stat on MOTD that in Hull's 2 games so far they have faced nearly 70 crosses in total and not conceded. Their back 3 looks very solid and simply floating a ball in is going to achieve very little. the other thing of note is Amenda's shot which nearly cleared the stand and had SFL turn around and sit down.

SFL made subs second half, Thomas apparently had cramp and EMC being subbed around 60 minutes was always a plan to manage his comeback. The subs didn't have the desired impact though, in fact Yirenkyi coming off actually made us worse. Now I don't know if he had a problem, managing his workload etc but its becoming clear that he is one player that is going to have to play as much as possible. Torp came on and his crossing and set pieces were not of their usual quality. This is the annoying thing though, City were the architects of their own downfall. They had a warning a few minutes before the goal when Millar was played in down the City right after Thomas gave the ball away. He ran to goal, shot through the legs of Amenda, wrong-footing Rushworth in the process and the ball went narrowly wide. Millar should have played in Belloumi but City got away with that one. They didn't get away with the next.

Surely in a tight game the first rule of a late corner in your favour is to make sure you don't concede on the break. I can't believe for a minute that the plan was to leave Grimes as last man whilst MVE wandered around inside the Hull half but thats exactly what happened. Torp's corner was poor, the ball was recycled back to Torp and his cross was charged down. The ball looped up towards Tats and Balloumi and, bless Tats because we all love him, he hesitated to jump for the ball and it bounced in Balloumi's favour. At this point Tats has to stop being nice and take one for the team. He got a couple of hands on Balloumi but not enough to stop him, Tats needs a big shirt pull at least. Millar was the sent away down the right again as Grimes painfully tried to chase him. By the time Millar has slotted home, MVE was actually level with Grimes, despite a 15 metre head start. Simple fact is if MVE is last man, that goal doesn't happen, the game finishes 0-0, first point on the board, everyone goes home slightly disappointed but not the end of the world. City had one chance towards the end, a header from probable MOTM JDS of all people but it was straight at the keeper.

We have now played, on paper, our hardest away game and "easiest" home game. Thats no disrespect to Hull but on paper a home game against the team coming up from the play offs is supposedly the easiest, just as us going to them will be their 3rd easiest home game. As we know though there's no such thing as easy and Hull were excellent defensively and on the break. Their game plan worked to perfection.

City's game plan didn't though and we now have more questions than answers. Is it time to ditch the 4-3-3 and go to 3 at the back with Pinnock orchestrating things? Is it time for a more solid 4-4-2? I don't think we can continue with the 4-3-3, if we play that next week at Man City we will get hammered. Whatever system we play we need to be quicker with the ball, Hull were allowed to get back in postion far too ofetn as City were ponderous.

This really is a reality check now. I think I heard (unless it was a dream and I was thinking it) SFL say we need get over the whole We're Back and 25 years etc thing now, its time to move on and get on with the season. Listening to SFL, without naming Tats, it was clear he thought that the breakaway needed to be stopped "by any means", presumably meaning Tats needed to take one for the team. Final words from SFL - "Fan's were brilliant, we were not so brilliant today. Fact".

Opta now have us predicted to finish bottom. Things can change very quickly and they need to.

Huwligan's Highlight

"Daddy, will we score a goal this season"

Highlights: