#4. An organised Hull City are a difficult side to beat
Hull City snatched a point against Manchester United at Old Trafford mid-week and all but got a win, if not for the post keeping out Lazar Markovic’s effort. They managed to shut out United’s attack for the duration of the game and their defensive organisation deserves another round of credit and applause following a similar achievement against Liverpool.
20 minutes before kick-off, the Tigers’ captain Michael Dawson picked up an injury during warm-up which necessitated the drafting in of new signing Andrea Ranocchia against the league’s most potent attack.
However, Dawson’s absence was not a cause for worry at all as Hull were committed, organised and narrow. Rarely did the Reds attack cause them too much trouble, with the visitors resorting to too many passes sideways and taking too many touches of the ball to actually hustle a well-oiled unit.
Eldin Jakupovic kept out an effort each from Sadio Mane and a superb flick from Jordan Henderson late on and was ably helped out by his teammates in the box every time something looked remotely threatening.
On more than one occasion, Hull City have demonstrated that they are a difficult side to breach and therefore beat.