EPL Talk » Geovanni

Can Hull City Avoid Second Season Syndrome?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:08:49 +0000

Looking at the predictions that are currently flooding the world of Premiership football, two teams are entrenched in a dogfight for who will finish bottom. No-one, but no-one thinks both Hull City or Burnley will stay up. One if not both of them, in the eyes of everyone think they’re dead and buried before a ball is kicked.

I have to say, I’m more concerned about Hull staying up than Burnley. The run that they embarked upon from the win against Middlesbrough on December 6th was frightening. 9 points from 22 games was relegation form, no doubt about it, but thankfully Newcastle, Boro and West Brom were worse. Yet were Hull that bad? Only 3 teams put more than 2 goals past them during the last 22 games, Arsenal, Liverpool and Middlesbrough and lost 9 games by just one goal.

That cries out that all the Tigers needed was a consistent goalscorer, someone who could nick a goal off a shin, a backside or a deflection. Phil Brown has made no secret of his desire to add to the firepower at his disposal, but saw moves for Michael Owen, Bobby Zamora, Frazier Campbell and Marlon Harewood fail. In the last week though, he seems to have had more luck in his attempts and he’s taken the promising American striker Jozy Altidore on loan and is close to signing former Wigan striker Henri Camara.

Ideally though, looking at the Tigers front line, even with the two additions, looks still weak. Cousin, Fagan, Garcia, Folan and Kendall don’t seem to have the prowess between them to win matches. Why are Hull struggling to bring the required players to the club? The loss of Craig Fagan after Danny Guthrie’s cowardly tackle broke his leg was a big loss. Fagan’s pace can cause most teams problems, but that alone won’t keep them up. Geovanni has the skill and guile, but lacks the consistency. He needs to show more for the cause for longer. The attempts to sign Ross McCormack from Cardiff City seem to have stalled, the clubs a couple of million apart in their valuations. McCormack was immense for the Bluebirds on Saturday and City will be loath to lose him.

Of course in addition to the striker issues, Hull now face the fact that Liverpool have begun to unsettle Michael Turner in their usual way. Once again Benitez has begun to court a player in the media before making a bid, so no doubt Turner’s head will be turned. Most players would be delighted to play for Liverpool, so it would seem a matter of when Turner leaves. That would be a big blow for Brown’s men, but with Benitez claiming that he now has very little to spend, Hull need to try and get the price they want.

Strikers are always a premium in football, but surely it can’t be this hard to recruit one? Perhaps the solution to Browns issue is a quick one hour drive westwards on the M62 to Leeds. Would risking £3-£4 million on Jermaine Beckford at Leeds United be such a risk for the Tigers? 56 goals in less than 100 games for Leeds shouldn’t be sniffed at, regardless that he plays in League One. He doesn’t have to up root to Hull, living within easy distance of the K.C. Stadium and it surprise me that Brown hasn’t gone after him. He scored two on Saturday, both pure predatory goals, something Hull miss.

Sometimes you have to cut your cloth accordingly and sometimes the obvious solution can be staring you in the face and you miss it.To preserve Hull’s Premiership status, Beckford could be a hugely important signing. Worst case scenario, Beckford signs for Hull and they go down. Then they have the perfect striker to score the goals to fire them back to the Premiership. Take a risk Phil, what’s £4 million when a £50 million carrot is waiting for them once again if they stay up.

Rafa Benitez Fallout and Wenger’s Reaction to Fourth Nil Draw

Johnathan Starling — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:04:28 +0000

The two big stories this weekend not related to Manchester United’s getting the first leg of the quadruple would have to be events that transpired at the Riverside and at the Emirates Stadium.

We’ll start with Liverpool because after such a great result midweek against Real Madrid, their loss at the Riverside defied belief. And the papers were quick to fill column inches with their own post match thoughts. Sam Wallace compares the Liverpool situation to that of Nigel Clough’s power struggle at Derby County. Personally I don’t see that much of a comparison as Rafa and Hicks for the moment appear to have formed a loose partnership. Piers Morgan heads down the character assassination route calling Rafa the most arrogant manager in the history of the Premier League. That’s just harsh. Patrick Barclay sneaks the line in his column about Rick Parry that Rafa is the one who has to answer for the results, not Parry himself. Don’t expect that anytime soon. This Independent column pretty much states what Rafa is confirming Sunday, the title race is all over.

It’s almost become a recording at the Emirates, a Premier League nil draw. The results are something that just baffle any mind and after the result against Roma midweek, you would think confidence would have reigned supreme against Fulham. However after Saturday’s result, all Wenger could come up with is “Maybe is is partly psychological. We are getting in good positions but not taking the chances.”

Maybe? Is that the best you could come up with? At this point it is completely psychological. When week in and week out your side can’t finish in front of goal, it becomes a mental thing. Wenger can praise your keeper all you want, and keep the faith in Arsenal’s stars, but you simply have to motivate your players to get goals. That is simply something Wenger hasn’t been able to do. Maybe Theo Walcott’s return to training can be the boost that Arsenal sorely need.

Other Stories
The other big result this weekend was Aston Villa blowing a two goal lead to Stoke City at home. That didn’t stop Tony Pulis hoping pre-match that Villa finished in the top four. Post match it was Martin O’Neill not happy at the arrogant and over confident nature Villa had after going two goals up.

In other Villa news, Martin O’Neill has responded to disgruntled Villa fans who decided to fly out to Moscow just to see the Aston Villa ‘c’ side lose to CSKA Moscow. His offer, dinner with himself and the players. I guess that works, but I was thinking more a reimbursement check for expenses after having to endure that game.

The cracks are starting to show at the KC Stadium. After Geovanni’s ridiculous antics after being subbed, Phil Brown gave him the verbal hair dryer treatment. I expect that one to get much more heated before it cools off.

Speaking of hair dryer treatments, Rio Ferdinand is still sacred of Sir Alex’s.

Tony Mowbray continues to say he will not stand down from his footballing philosophy. That’s even after another defeat.

Bolton fans probably aren’t happy after Gary Megson has agreed to a new rolling contract at the Reebok Stadium.

Florent Malouda says the lack of first team action could cause him to consider his Chelsea future. I say take a hike. You were a good player for France, but the English game is not your brand of football.

And finally, if the News of the World is to be believed (and I normally don’t unless they have the video to prove it), Manchester United is going to throw 200,000 a week at Cristiano Ronaldo to stay.

Just one more thing before I go. Has anyone noticed how many clubs are now within three points of the drop?

9 Reasons Why Hull City Is My New Favorite Team

The Gaffer — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:00:52 +0000

I admit it. I have a soft spot for underdogs. Three years ago, I was enamored by Wigan’s brilliant beginning to the season where they surprised so many teams and fans by playing attacking football. Two years ago, it was Reading’s turn to brighten up the Premier League. Last season there was no underdog, but this year we have Hull City, the Yorkshire Terriers of the Premier League.

After watching Hull’s gutsy performance against Manchester City in the 2-2 draw, here are 9 reasons why it’s impossible to not to love Hull City:

They give 100% whenever they go in for 50/50 balls,
Midfielder and captain Ian Ashbee has been at Hull City for seven years,
Geovanni. Say no more,
Striker Marlon King has regained his form despite being kicked off the Jamaica team and written off by many pundits when he was at Watford two seasons ago,
The foreign contingent of Kamil Zayatte, Daniel Cousin and George Boateng have been spectacular,
Defenders Paul McShane, Michael Turner, Zayatte and Andy Dawson have been a rock for Hull City at the back,
Unsung heroes such as Boaz Myhill, Dean Marney and Samuel Ricketts have been a joy to watch,
Phil Brown looks like a Sam Allardyce in training, which is exactly what he is (in a good sense), and
Perhaps most importantly of all, the entire squad plays together so well as a team.

Hull City is everything a Premier League underdog should be. They’re battlers. They’re a joy to watch. The fans are exuberant. Their stadium is sold out. And the eleven players on the pitch never give up.

Phil Brown has instilled a winning belief in the Hull City side. They don’t play in fear of their opponents. How could you not love a team like Hull City?

Time To Stop Underestimating Hull City

Paul Bestall — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:49:14 +0000

So, how many people thought Hull City would be Premiership cannon fodder, this seasons Derby County, bravely battling against the odds in a futile struggle that would ultimately lead to relegation. If so, how many had actually seen Hull City play before they came up? Not many I bet. Fair enough, I’d only seen them half a dozen times last season but there was enough there for me to feel that they’d certainly do a lot better than Derby did last season and I was not surprised when they won the play off final in May.

That’s one of the main problems football coverage has in the UK, it’s so biased toward the Premiership that sometimes the pundits have no idea about any of the sides coming up from the Championship at all unless they’re a former Premiership club or recently relegated and returning straight back. This in turn leads to the standard pre-season prediction of the 3 promoted clubs going straight back down, or depending how well the pundit knows the manager or either they used to play or manage them, the lucky promoted side may be tipped to finish 17th. It’s all rubbish really, a bit of an old boys club, blinkered people unable to objectively look at a side properly without bias coming into play. The plucky little promoted sides then have to run the gauntlet of cliches, ignorance and condescending comments as they battle bravely on until being relegated in April or May.
Yet Hull City, like Reading and Ipswich Town before them have caught a lot of people by surprise, Brown has them playing a fairly expansive 4-1-2-1-2 formation which seems to be working so far, with Geovanni in the hole behind Cousin and King and it allows them push up into a 4-3-3 when attacking with the ball, Boateng moving forward to form a midfield trio. It is so refreshing to see a side who come up, sign footballers and want to play the game the right way.

That’s why they’ve got 21 points after 13 games, because they’ve gone out to try and win games rather go into a match not wanting to lose it. Mentally, it’s a massive difference to your mindset and makes you feel more positive about the task facing you. West Brom are struggling to score goals because the players they have don’t have the top level experience and it shows, Stoke City are doing OK but as soon as people work out how to negate their long ball game, then they too will struggle. Hull on the other hand have more quality in the squad, players who have played in the Premiership, La Liga, Le Championnat and it gives them more weapons at their disposal.

Of course, at the moment everything’s going well but Brown will be the first to admit that he needs a bit more experience and depth adding to his squad in January. The loss of the highly rated Fagan thanks to Danny Guthries obscene challenge hit them hard, but they’ve recovered and carried on picking up points but I saw some comments about the fact they’d lost 3 games on the spin. Articles entitled ”The Bubbles Burst”, “Toothless Tigers” and “Hull’s Premiership Dream Start Over”, along with some ridiculous comments about Hull having been found out really got my back up.

Anyone who saw their last defeat, against Bolton Wanderers, will know exactly why they lost that game, an absolutely world class performance from the Premierships most underrated goalkeeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen, kept at least 3 or 4 goals out to nick the points for the Trotters. The other two defeats, against Chelsea and Manchester United hardly need defending, but to slate them for losing to those two sides? Absolute nonsense, if you’re lucky enough to support one of the big four, fine but if you don’t, just count up your recent results against them and see how well your side has done. At Old Trafford, they made Sir Alex a very nervous man indeed, pulling it round from 4-1 down to 4-3 and left with their pride intact. I think they were the first side to score 3 in a league match at Old Trafford since Chelsea in Mourinho’s first season, yet still the pundits pointed out the result and not the performance or opposition.

Unfortunately, yesterday Sky Sports fell into this very trap, saying it was a must win game after 3 defeats in a row in the game against Manchester City but then again, I don’t expect anything else from them these days so you learn to tune out the hype and dreadful punditry and focus on the game itself. When the commentating combination isn’t Gray and Tyler, then the same cliched ridden bores continue to offend the ears of all football fans with half a brain.

The staff and players at Hull deserve a big pat on the back for dealing with the cliches and negativity so well and rubbing a few peoples noses in it. They’ve been a breath of fresh air all season, from their fantastic ground, the way they play football to the eloquent way Phil Brown discusses his side and football in general. Brown has surprised me, with how positive he wants to play the game, it’s fantastic to see a side want to win football matches away from home and do it in the right way. I thought he was taking a massive gamble with the front 3 he signed, but so far all 3 have been on fire, especially Geovanni who needs special attention to get him to kind of form that prompted Barcelona to shell out £10 million for him 7 years ago but Brown has certainly got a knack with him. Whatever he’s doing to get him playing so consistently well is another feather in the cap of the impressive Brown.

Daniel Cousin and Marlon King are also delivering goals and performances, King showing his Watford form, rather than the performances he put in at Nottingham Forest and Cousin is beginning to show just why Roy Hodgson was so desperate to sign him in January. Add to that, the wily old head of George Boateng and Bernard Mendy adding some further quality and it becomes obvious why they’re doing so well.

They will need to add to the squad in January, especially to give them a bit more depth up front but with only 6 weeks until the transfer window re-opens, no doubt Brown will have his targets already lined up. Of course, they may get pulled down the table but they’ve still got at least 10 winnable games to come and if they can get those points who knows where they may end up. If they finish top ten, then Brown deserves to be named Manager of the Year. Thank you Hull City, keep rubbing the pundits noses in it and good luck for the rest of the season.

All Hail Hull City, Giant Killers Of The Premier League

The Gaffer — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:25:53 +0000

Who would have expected Hull City — tipped by many for relegation, myself included — to go to the Emirates Stadium and pull off one of the shocks of the season against the mighty Arsenal?

Every player on the Hull City side yesterday deserves a massive round of applause for the way they played in their shock 2-1 win over the Gunners.

This was no fluke. Far from it.

Hull defended valiantly, putting so many of their players behind the ball and breaking out on counterattacks whenever the opportunities arose. By flooding so much of their penalty area with defenders, Hull forced Arsenal to play wide. Hull was then easily able to defend the crosses coming in from the left and right wings and then knock the ball to safety.

Sure, this wasn’t a performance from Arsenal that we typically expect to see, but part of that has to be directed at Hull who prevented Wenger’s side from playing the type of game they thrive on. Theo Walcott for Arsenal had a poor game and looked very much like the player of last season instead of this season — spending too much time on the ball and being slow to react.

Going back to Hull, the players that generated such a herculean performance deserve to be mentioned, all 11 of them:

———————Myhill———————-

McShane——Turner—-Zayatte——Dawson

——————-Ashbee———————-

———–Marney———-Boateng———–

King————-Cousin————-Geovanni

The two goals scored by Hull were world-class. Geovanni’s 25 yard shot into the top corner is one of the goals of the season thus far, while Daniel Cousin’s header was wonderfully taken after a great leap.

While Hull’s goals were spectacular, the overall way they played against Arsenal wasn’t pretty by defending deep. But to play against Arsenal, this is exactly the type of performance that’s necessary that prevents the Gunners from playing their beautiful brand of football.

Incredibly, Hull City now sits in sixth place in the league with eleven points, which is exactly the same number of points that Derby County achieved during the entire 2007/2008 season. Hull have already beaten Arsenal, Newcastle and Fulham, and have drawn Everton and Blackburn.

Where Hull goes from here, no one knows. But what we have seen is a wonderful performance that just goes to show that if teams play with heart and confidence that even the lesser sides can overcame the giants. And this is exactly what the Premier League needs. Predictability? The Big Four? You’re having a laugh.

Be sure to read all of the newspaper match reports for the Premier League games throughout the season, as well as chatting live with football fans from around the world during today’s games in the EPL Talk Chat — all courtesy of EPL Talk writer and host Johnathan Starling.