Hull City Fan View: The only thing the Tigers are missing is goals

With a spell of tough fixtures finally out of the way and Premier League survival still very much a realistic possibility for the rejuvenated Hull City under Marco Silva, the Portuguese must now attempt to add goals to his team’s recent impressive performances, as a period of ‘winnable’ games approaches.

As I discussed in my last blog, the fact that the Tigers were even able to compete against the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, during a spell of consecutive games in January and February, is an achievement in itself, never mind managing to pick up four vital points. With Burnley, Leicester and Swansea providing opposition for City’s next three Premier League fixtures, there is certainly reason for Hull City fans to be optimistic, however, with this optimism comes expectation and pressure. With expectations now at a season high, and these games against teams in and around Hull City in the Premier League table coming up, fans are now expecting wins, providing Marco Silva with another challenge to overcome in his fledgling Hull City managerial career.

What has seemingly been Hull City’s biggest problem, not only this season but also during our last two Premier League campaigns under Steve Bruce, has been scoring goals. Despite two drubbings this season, against Bournemouth and Liverpool respectively, the Tigers’ backline, chiefly consisting of different combinations of Robertson, Davies, Maguire, Dawson and Elmohamady, has been impressively solid. In my view, matches have been lost and points have been dropped at the other end of the pitch this season.

Of course, this hasn’t been helped by a number of factors outside of the club’s control. Last season’s top goalscorer Abel Hernandez missed most of the first half of the season through injury, while summer signing Will Keane was ruled out for the season in October with a serious knee injury and misfiring loanee Dieumerci Mbokani went to the African Cup of Nations without finding the back of the net for the Tigers in nine appearances.

This is not to say the club are completely blameless. Looking back at the start of the season and the ridiculously limited squad Mike Phelan had to deal with, our lack of fire power can certainly be attributed to not sufficiently strengthening our Championship promotion-winning squad in the summer. As I said at the time, with Hernandez being the club’s only real goalscorer, the signings of Will Keane, who has only scored four goals in 54 senior appearances, and Mbokani, who has only had one mediocre season in the Premier League, smacked of desperation.

However, with the Allam family providing new manager Silva with a small budget to improve the squad in January, striker Oumar Niasse and attack-minded midfielders Evandro, Markovic and Grosicki are tasked with providing the squad with more goals, as the Tigers look to remain in the Premier League. With rules which limit the amount of loan players allowed in any given matchday squad, and a plethora of attacking options (well, compared to the summer) available to the manager, it will be interesting to see how Silva decides to deploy his troops in upcoming winnable fixtures.

As I stressed in my last blog, it is certainly worth noting that against both Liverpool and Arsenal, Marco Silva opted for a system with a packed midfield and a loan striker, with Hernandez starting against Liverpool and Niasse against Arsenal. With the likes of Burnley, who have only picked-up one point away from home all season, at the KCOM a week on Saturday, and fixtures against the struggling Champions Leicester City, and Swansea City in subsequent weeks, I would love to see Silva opt for a more attacking starting line-up.

If Silva, who it must be said has not put a tactical foot out of line since taking over at the start of the new year, chooses to disrupt his seemly solid back four, or midfield five, in favour of two strikers, I would love to see a strike partnership of Hernandez and Niasse. Both strikers are capable of finding the back of the net in the Premier League and both bring very different attributes to City’s frontline, which I believe if worked on properly, could see the pair dovetail perfectly. Niasse’s brute strength and hold-up play combined with Hernandez’s flair and pace is a mouth-watering prospect, and one I believe would cause the backlines of many Premier League sides a few problems, not to mention inject much needed goals into City’s ever-improving impressive performances.