Michael Beale has suggested Sunderland will set-up ‘slightly different’ when they face Hull City at the Stadium of Light, little over three weeks after the last time the two sides met in the Championship.
Sunderland’s new head coach Beale marked his first away game in charge of the Black Cats with victory on Humberside courtesy of a fabulous Jack Clarke goal on Boxing Day. But with the two sides set to reconvene just 24 days on, what will Beale and his team have learnt from that triumph over Liam Rosenior’s men, and can they take it into Friday’s meeting?
Despite sitting outside of the Championship’s play-off places by virtue of goal difference, two points and three places better off than they were at the same stage last season when they would go on to clinch a play-off berth under Tony Mowbray, all does not necessarily feel quite as rosy as it could on Wearside.
A resounding loss to neighbours Newcastle United in the third round of the FA Cup may share portion of the blame, accompanied by a plethora of off-field errors in the build-up to that tie, but after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Ipswich Town – the first time this season Sunderland have lost having taken the lead, the mood feels lower than it perhaps should given the league table.
Beale’s appointment continues to be met with a mixed response from supporters and with just two wins from his first six games in charge there hasn’t exactly been a honeymoon period for the club’s new head coach. With that said, however, one of those two successes came against Sunderland’s next opponents in Hull. Beale organised his team efficiently to come away with what, at the time, was a very respectable three points against a play-off rival
Beale made a clear tactical switch to nullify Rosenior’s side, but can he do similar at home when the onus will be on Sunderland to attack the game?
“There won’t be much between the two teams and there’ll be a lot of games like that between now and the end of the season and that’s why we were disappointed [at Ipswich] and the frustration was shared in the dressing room amongst ourselves,” said Beale.
“I thought our performance away at Ipswich, in the main part, was good and there would have been a lot of positives had we got a result there. The focus now is on these two home games.
“Three out of the last four away from home has not been kind, now we’ve got two really big games at home. We know Hull well. We put in an excellent performance at their place.”
He added: “They’ve lost [Scott] Twine who’s gone to Bristol and they’ve lost [Jean Michael] Seri to the AFCON. They’ve brought in [Fabio] Carvalho and they’re trying to bring one or two others in so you don’t know – something could happen before Friday as well.
“They’re a good team. They’re going through their most difficult moment, if you like. Every time I see Liam speak he speaks with optimism about the way they play.
“They seem to be maybe lacking a little bit in the final third at the moment, in terms of taking their chances, because they’re a good team. But I think at the Stadium of Light, the way that we play is going to be slightly different because we’ve got our 40,000 fans behind us. We’ve come off the back of a defeat, so we want to take the game to them, for sure.”
When it comes to the Championship, Beale has adopted a different style at home as opposed to being more conservative on their travels. With this game coming so swiftly off the back of their first meeting, however, could there be a temptation to stick with what worked in that game? We Are Sunderland takes a closer look at what Sunderland can take from their first meeting with Hull ahead of Friday’s game:
The first thing to note is that Sunderland will come up against a different starting XI from Hull, no matter what, after, as Beale pointed out, the exit of Scott Twine and the absence of Jean Michael Seri with Manchester City loanee Liam Delap and forward Aaron Connolly also set to miss out through injury. Twine was recalled by parent-club Burnley after the Tigers completed a loan deal with Liverpool for Fabio Carvalho, with the former MK Dons man heading to Bristol City for the rest of the season.
"I wish him the best, he was a real pleasure to work with,” Rosenior said when addressing Twine’s exit. “I felt that he found it difficult in terms of the position he was playing. I know he's a natural number 10, but because of our injury issues, he did a great job for us out wide.
“I think the fact that we brought an outstanding player in Fabio in, maybe Burnley look at that and think the chances of Scott playing in the number 10 position are slim. They've made a decision that he goes to Bristol and I wish him all the very best."
Twine started on the left against Sunderland on Boxing Day and was matched up with Jenson Seelt who enjoyed a positive return to the line-up under Beale. Twine was left frustrated before eventually switching over to the right-hand-side having created very little.
But it is Seri who Hull may noticeably miss at the Stadium of Light, based on the reverse fixture at the MKM Stadium. The 32-year-old was an unused substitute in Ivory Coast’s African Cup of Nations group A opener with Guinea-Bissau but was one of Hull’s key players when the two sides met on Boxing Day.
Despite Beale’s tactical set-up to nullify the centre of the field, Seri was still a lynchpin in midfield for Hull, having been involved in 109 of Hull’s 650 passes. Only centre-back Alfie Jones was involved in more with 273 – more on him shortly. What stands out more for Seri, however, is that he linked up with 13 of his 14 team-mates on Boxing Day – the only player he did not share a pass with was Harry Vaughan who came on as an 89th minute substitute.
It was distinguishable from the opening minute how Beale had set-up at Hull with a front four of Patrick Roberts, Jobe Bellingham, Bradley Dack and Clarke forming a narrow shield out of possession when Hull’s centre-back pairing of Jones and Jacob Greaves had the ball. You can see in the image below in the opening minute how Sunderland were content with Hull having possession in defence with Dan Neil and Pierre Ekwah sandwiching Seri and Tyler Morton further behind. One key thing to take note of is designated left-back Regan Slater’s positioning here, as that is something Sunderland may have to contend with at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland did not touch the ball in that opening minute but it set their stall out – as did Seri. Having quickly realised there would be little room to operate in the centre of the field, the former Fulham man came searching deep for the ball beyond the line of four from Sunderland. That, in turn, left Slater free in behind Sunderland’s first line of defence as Greaves shuffled over to form a back three. Beale’s side carried out their set-up well enough though which meant a ball into the path of Slater was never likely to be on.
That theme carried on as Sunderland allowed both Jones and Greaves to advance towards halfway. The Hull centre-backs exchanged 101 times with one another, but, again, Sunderland were content with the position of their possession which ultimately, with Seri still locked up, ended up turning into a hopeful ball over the top for one of the wider midfielder players, in this case Morton, to try and run in behind as Anthony Patterson gathered with ease.
READ MORE: Jenson Seelt's return against Hull shows why Sunderland swooped for Burnley target
Hull’s possession continued to allow Slater to move into a midfield position, as we have seen become a popular trait in the modern game. Sunderland, themselves, have deployed this tactic under Mowbray with Trai Hume tucking into one of the central midfield areas to help create overloads. Slater, as seen in the second picture below, became so far advanced that it did leave Hull open to the counter-attack – something which Beale may look to exploit this week.
Although Rosenior deploys his team in a flexible 4-4-2 system, which appeared to transpire into something of a 3-4-1-2 in possession, it’s very much a 4-4-2 defensive shape out of possession. That is, however, when they don’t get caught by a counter-attack, as suggested earlier. Below you can see where Sunderland were able to turn possession over through Clarke who found Roberts with plenty of grass to run into as Slater was out of position. Roberts will miss the visit of Hull – Alex Pritchard likely the man tasked with a wide-right berth, but the space in-behind Slater, or Matty Jacob should he continue at left-back with Slater actually moving into midfield in Seri’s absence, can be exploited.
Beale’s tactics worked extremely well in the first half, so much so that Hull became much more direct after the break with substitute Cyrus Christie looking to hit the space in behind Hume on a number of occasions. The key to this, however, was Liverpool loanee Morton. He became Hull’s threat in the second half as he looked to pick up those pockets of space in-between Sunderland’s defence and midfield pairing of Neil and Ekwah and ended the game with the most passes into the final third for Hull with 19.
Seri started to get more involved by dragging Sunderland’s press slightly out of position to create gaps for the likes of Christie to seek Morton on the half-turn.
The design by Hull with Morton, at this point, was to set traps to lure Sunderland out of their positions as can be seen below with Hume. The Northern Irishman could return to left-back against Hull with Aji Alese a doubt which means a similar situation could be targeted by Rosenior. In this example, substitute Jason Lokilo has slipped beyond Clarke, who remains in the kind of narrow set-up we saw from Sunderland in the Wear-Tyne derby, and into the space vacated by Hume as he looks to cover for Ekwah.
Lokilo is likely to feature in one of those attacking positions for Hull with Carvalho and Ozfan Tufan. As the game began to get stretched in the second half, Morton’s advances created spaces for Sunderland and Pritchard in particular. On this occasion his through ball for Adil Aouchiche was a little overhit, but with Neil also advancing from midfield, and Clarke just out of shot on the left, Sunderland started to create overloads – something which they may look to do from the off at the Stadium of Light.
And it was actually the spaces Morton was trying to occupy for Hull which proved dividends for Sunderland. As you can see in the build-up to the goal below, both Pritchard and Neil are in behind Hull’s central pairing of Morton and Seri which means as soon as Jobe wriggles free there is an opportunity to attack the defence.
Neil is able to turn and advance towards the edge of the area with Pritchard and Aouchiche to his right and Clarke to his left in a four-against-four. As a result of those numbers, Christie is left to deal with Clarke in a heads up dribble as the winger skips inside to expertly find the bottom corner and seal an impressive away victory.
The onus will be on Sunderland, as the home team, to be more front-footed, as we saw against Preston. But there is a blueprint in the approach to this game given the short time since the two teams last met.
Hull are ninth in the away form table having won five of 13 games on the road this season, but only Middlesbrough have conceded more goals on their travels than Hull in the top 12 ranked teams.
Rosenior may look to be more rigid as the away team when it comes to a full-back moving into midfield, but data in the games since Boxing Day would suggest Hull are likely to attack either down the right or through the middle. Against Sunderland, 29 of their 34 attacks came from those areas (14 and 15 respectively) with 23 of their 52 attacks in the defeat to Norwich City coming down the right - 75 per cent of Hull’s crosses in the first meeting with Sunderland came down the right.
The Tigers were involved in 102 offensive duels against Norwich which was the most in a number of weeks since their game with Watford back in early December – their next best was against Sunderland with 79 which may suggest they played more in Norwich’s half of the field.
Hull’s last win on the road came on their last visit to the North East against Middlesbrough, but they recorded their highest xG of the season the following week, despite losing 3-2 at Bristol City. Rosenior’s side have attempted more passes in recent weeks with 754 against Birmingham City in the FA Cup and 686 against Norwich after 650 against Sunderland and they did appear to play wider against the Canaries as shown by their overall passing map below.
The changes Rosenior will make to his line-up will be interesting. As mentioned, Slater is likely to be tasked with moving into midfield after the City boss praised him in the defeat to Sunderland recently.
“I thought Regan did a fantastic job,” he said. “Regan’s position when we have the ball is naturally in midfield. What Regan’s ability enables me to do is play him anywhere on the pitch and he adds to the team.” And that was evident when he took over Seri’s mantle against Norwich when involved in 96 passes in total, exchanging with all 13 team-mates to feature.
Former Sheffield United striker Billy Sharp could lead the line in Connolly’s absence after his return to England from MLS, but the principles for Sunderland will remain the same. Beale would not go so far as to say the fixture with Hull, and next week’s with Stoke City, were must win, but Sunderland’s head coach knows the importance of finishing the month strongly on the field while the club’s hierarchy look to finish it strongly off the field in the transfer market.
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