Hull City vs Manchester United Preview | Team News, Stats & Key Men

On August 27th, Manchester United travel to the KC Stadium to take on Hull City. Surprisingly enough, this is a battle between two teams that are coming off back to back wins in their first two matches.

Hull were odds on favourites to not just get relegated this season, but finish last at the start of the season.  Two games hardly means they won’t get relegated or finish last, but Hull have six points from their first two games, and that is as good a start to a season as anyone could wish for.

On the other hand, it would have been a huge disappointment for Manchester United not to get six points from their first two matches.  They beat Bournemouth and Southampton convincingly and will look to make it three wins in a row in their match up with Hull.

Team News

Hull City have all kinds of problems with their squad, including injuries.  Both Greg Luer and Josh Tymon picked up injuries midweek against Exeter City and look like they will miss out against United.  Along with that they were already missing Michael Dawson, Alex Bruce, Allan McGregor, and Moses Odubajo.

Manchester United’s squad is mostly at full strength.  They could be missing the scorer of their last goal from last season and their first goal from this season, Jesse Lingard. Lingard is back in training this week, but still could miss out.

Interesting Statistics

• Hull have not beaten Manchester United in any competition since November 1974.
• The two teams drew in their last meeting on the last day of the 2014/2015 season.
• Prior to that, Hull had lost all 10 of their previous meetings against United.
• Through the first two games of the season, Hull are the only team yet to concede a non penalty goal.
• The only goal they’ve conceded this season was a questionable penalty on the opening day against Leicester, despite conceding 41 shots.

Key Players

Hull City: Sam Clucas

Clucas has been a winger for the majority of his career, but due to the injury crisis at Hull Mike Phelan has plugged him in central midfield.  Surprisingly enough, Clucas has done pretty well for himself there.  According to Sqwauka, the Englishman has made more tackles than any Hull player so far and has more interceptions than any non defender. Considering Hull will likely spend most of the game with men behind the ball, they’ll need Clucas to help keep the midfield solid and United out of dangerous positions in the final third.

Manchester United: Zlatan Ibrahimovic

While Paul Pogba was United’s most expensive signing this summer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is arguably their most prestigious signing.  So far, he’s proved to still be a great player as well as a great name.  The Swede has scored three goals in his first two Premier League matches as well as scoring in the Community Shield.  The 34 year old was phenomenal in his last few seasons in France and has shown no signs of slowing down so far.

Prediction

Ultimately, United should be winning this.  Hull have started well, but they are really short of both quality and numbers in their squad, while United have plenty of both.

Prediction: 3-0 Manchester United