Hull City analysis
Watching back Hull’s last two games vs Swansea and Southampton, they might be one of the weirdest teams I’ve watched from a tactical pov. I did watch their games vs Bristol City and Blackburn too but the setup has changed and as I mentioned, the last two games I’ve seen is more relevant as the strategy was consistent. Basically everything is so obvious in what they’re trying to do but in a chaotic way. Pandur (GK) goes long at almost every opportunity, their centre backs play it around a bit and then go long, neither of their midfielders want to get on the ball and if they do it’s only one of them, the right winger regardless of who it is touches the ball 2% of the time (that’s not made up, that’s factual) and Ryan Giles (LB) leads the team with touches in the final third. Narrow 442 press off the ball too and there are some quirky things going on as well which I’ll get into and despite me sounding dismissive of what I’ve seen, the coach there is clearly working to the strengths of his players, which again I’ll go into.
Defensive setup.
To be polite, it’s disjointed. A fairly deep line, not particularly compact, leave so much space behind the central midfielders as the centre backs don’t jump to close the distances, wide players easy to pull out and manipulate with simple rotations between full back and winger. They don’t really put much of a press on unless it’s from a throw in deep in the opposition third or if a long ball down the flanks is unsuccessful. They look to contain the middle of the pitch but aren’t great in doing so. They’ve swapped between a 4-4-2 press and a weird 4-5-1 press with the attacking midfielder sometimes pressing forward to be along with the striker if the ball is played square. They’ve conceded the second most chances in the league and the second highest shot quality for a reason, they’re leaky.
This passage of play here for example — Ethan Galbraith jogged to the left with no intention to receive the ball, but he knows his centre back teammate will angle his way to pass the ball which moves McBurnie from blocking the central pass to the striker. Vipotnik drops, passes to Galbraith who plays it wide to Key in space to deliver. Watford are so reliant on Louza picking up the ball, this should be an avenue of attack IF Petris is available or you use Abankwah deeper to just stay close to Kyle Joseph and have Baah as the touching winger to receive.
They do switch up their press in a losing game state. They go from a passive block to a man marking approach. The two central midfielders will push up to the defensive midfielders and the left winger will tuck in to mark the spare third midfielder. It’s been an issue for them going to this setup because the full backs are left isolated 1v1 and with Giles not being the best defender anyway and Coyle being on the slower end of full backs in the division, they’re likely to be tested or beaten, moreso Giles, consistently.
In possession.
I was surprised to watch that they aren’t particularly a counter attack team despite having less of the ball. They’re selective in their approach once they win the ball back. McBurnie will drop, Joseph will drop and Gelhardt is one that might spring forward, but they usually circulate the ball with a few passes and then look to go long if the opportunity arises. Before the game vs Southampton, Hull were bottom of the league for fast breaks with zero, but they’re fourth for direct attacks. Which means they aren’t a team, that I’ve said, to quickly spring, but they’re much more likely to go direct in settled possession. One of the ways they do this is from goal kicks. Pandur will go long to Joseph or McBurnie and they’ll get close to one another to either pick up the second ball, flick on or have Gelhardt run on through.
vs Swansea and Southampton, their long ball percentage (passes in comparison to long passes) was 25% and 27% which is absurdly high. To put it into context, the average is around 17% in the Championship. They have clear instructions and it’s been working for them as of late. One of them is getting the ball to Ryan Giles in space at almost every opportunity. They’ll focus their play down the right then quickly recycle over to the left for Giles to deliver a ball into the box. Giles for Hull this season has led them for touches in the attacking third with 108. I don’t blame them for this approach. They have hard working midfielders, a crossing specialist in Giles and two excellent aerial players in Joseph and McBurnie — why wouldn’t you optimise their talents like this? For example; Hull are the best crossing team in the league by a landslide. 24% of their crosses into the box have been completed, the next best is Millwall (unsurprisingly) with 18%. The intention is clear, when Giles has that ball wide, Joseph will move inwards and get into the box, McBurnie will already be there and Lundstram and Gelhardt will back them up with late arrivals. You know what they’re going to do but it’s another thing stopping it. Stop Giles and you have a good chance of stopping Hull creating consistent chances. If Pezzolano doesn’t start Baah on that right side to counter their biggest threat, someone will need to hold me back.