So the cloud of losing our first game of the season has nearly settled, right?
It was always going to happen, which I don’t mind, but what I do mind is the manner in which we lost our first game.
I know I’m not the only person that would prefer to lose a game we have given 100% in, rather than losing out on a whimper. Our perfect start is gone and we go into the international break on the back of the loss.
Liam Delap’s first-half strike brought an end to our 100% start in the Championship season and earn Hull a 1-0 win at the KP Stadium. It was also our first defeat of the campaign in all competitions.
I tweeted in the morning of the game that Hull would be our toughest game of the season so far and this is what it proved to be. Hull was never going to be an easy game where we just showed up and win the game. Hull are a good footballing team who came to the KP with a good game plan.
Yes, we have won 6 in all competitions, but if we are honest we have not played our greatest football and adapting to Enzo’s style will take time. That is showing via our second gear performances that we were putting out in our games.
Winning is great when we’re not playing great, but all it does at times is just paper over some of the cracks.
The first half wasn’t the greatest, we didn’t really create any clear opportunities and Hull went ahead with the first meanful shot (yes It deflected). The game plan after that was to sit back and apply a deep block for the remainder to of the game.
The second half was a lot better with Enzo making a triple substitution with new signing Abdul Fatawu coming on with Casadei & Mavididi.
It was the new boy, Fatawu, who showed glimpses of trying to open Hull up.
The new boy cut in from the right flank and running into the box, he curled a shot against the base of the post. Barring Vardy’s flick on header that went just wide, that was all that we created unfortunately.
We had 21 shots with only 1 on target, and on Saturday we seemed to play “safe” rather than trying to attack Hull. We need to start playing balls into the box. And I don’t mean “lump in it football”, but football where in the final third we are sliding balls into the box for our strikers to latch onto. On Saturday we went safe and played it wide or choosing possession based football instead of trying something different to create more clear cut opportunities.
It will take time for us to play with more excitement for sure. We know from previous experience that it won’t be easy. When we won the league last time we lost 6 all season, and after 5 games in that season we had 10 points W-3 D-1 L-1, so on reflection we are fairing better without even hitting top gear YET!
There where boos at the end of the game – Ouch, I’m not sure they were for the performance, perhaps most were aimed at the ref for only giving 3 mins of extra time. Let’s stay patient people.
Remember Burnley romped the league last season, but after 5 Championship games they had a similar record to what we have now. Perspective is key!!
The September run
Oh well we lost, we will now dust ourselves off and hopefully use the international break to work on some of the above areas and also gives the new signings more time to settle in.
Casadeai, Fatawu & Akgun need time to settle in. Tom Cannon could be the guy we go to for goals going forwards. Cannon comes with a good rep after a good last season. Lets hope he has the knack of being in the right place at the right time going forward.
We play Southampton next on a Friday night. Enzo won’t move away from the current style for sure and has already said that we are only 20%-30% into this project.
What he may do is change the side for the game. KDH barring a good 20 mins against Coventry has been below par, so perhaps it’s time he comes out of the starting eleven to give Casadei a chance. Let’s also hope for a Fatawu start, the man is rapid for sure, lets unleash him.
Southampton again won’t be a easy game (definitely wont be a 0-9 game), they have just been mullered 5-0 by Sunderland (although I’m sure Pipes was over the moon) and Southampton will want to get back to winning ways and so will Leicester. It should be a good game for sure.
We then play Norwich away on the 20th . Again these two fixtures, well September in general is going to be tough. It will be good to see where we are after this run of fixtures and gauge how well we really are doing.
Norwich lost away to Rotherham, who we beat, so just proves how week on week in this league, anything can happen. Norwich are a good footballing side who play some good possession football also, and will want the ball and to attack us. They currently sit 5th place and only 2 points behind us.
Taking 2 away draws would be good if we are not hitting top gear, but so would 1 win and 1 loss in terms of points. But those losses can bread negativity.
Both Southampton and Norwich are both aiming for promotion to the Premier League, so we can expect two hard fought games, where only our A game will do. Let’s have faith. Foxes never quit, right?
Enjoy your free weekend not worrying about the Foxes. The footballing anxiety will be back next Friday evening against Southampton.
Words by Gogs Gogna
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