PREVIEW: Hull City vs Sunderland - Can The Black Cats avoid being mauled the Tigers?

All you need to know ahead of Sunderland's trip to Hull

IMAGO / PA Images

Sunderland went into the international break top of the table, one point ahead of Sheffield United after a bizarre late equaliser against Leeds by Alan Browne.

In the first of three games this week, Sunderland will face Hull City. The last time the two sides faced each other at the MKM stadium Sunderland came away with all three points, a late winner from Jack Clarke on boxing day.

Team News

Abdullahi, Alese, Poveda, Seelt, Huggins and Samed are all still out of action.

Elizer Mayenda is still a doubtful for todays fixture. Aaron Connolly could make his first Sunderland appearance, after putting in some impressive performances with the reserves as he regains his match fitness. He scored twice against Huddersfield Town's U21's mid week.

The Opposition

Hull City have had quite a tough start to the new championship campaign after losing head coach Liam Rosenior and notable players such as, Liam Delap, Jacob Greaves and Fabio Carvalho.

The Tigers were still winless on the return to action after the first international break, but three wins in four against Stoke, Cardiff and QPR have boosted the mood in the Hull camp

During the international break, Hull played a friendly against Turkish side Alanyaspor, winning 2-0. Matty Jacobs and former Sunderland striker Mason Burstow were the goal scorers.

The Gaffer

Tim Walter was named as the new head coach of Hull City on the 31st of May, following the sacking of Liam Rosenior.

Walter's style of football is somewhat similar to Roseniors', he likes to build from the back and dominate the ball and you can see the style of play starting to come to fruition over their last five games.

IMAGO / Focus Images

Walter started his coaching career at Bayern Munich's second team, he then moved to Holstein Keil, where he stayed for one season.

He then joined Stuttgart in the summer of 2019 but was sacked by the club in the December of that year, despite being in third place.

He joined Hamburger SV in 2021. He lost promotion in the play-offs in his first two season at the club before eventually getting the sack in Feburary this year.

The Squad

Midfielder Ryan Longman and goalkeeper Timothee Lo-Tutala are both out with a leg and shoulder injury respectively, Harvey Cartwright and Andrew Smith are also on out the side lines

Captain Lewie Coyle has been one of the star men for Hull so far this season and summer signings Kasey Palmer, Mohamed Belloumi and Chris Bedia have scored half of the Tigers' goals this campaign.

IMAGO / Focus Images

Midfielder Steven Alzate and left-back Ryan Giles' performances of late could have made a strong case for themselves to be involved in the Hull squad today.

Previous Meeting

The last time the two sides met was back in January, on a cold Friday night where Hull City came out victorious thanks to Liverpool loanee Fabio Carvalho.

In a poor game for both sides, Sunderland's best chnace came courtesy of Trai Hume, a thunderous effort from the Northern Irishman was tipped over by Ryan Allsop.

The goal finally came from a Hull corner, when another Liverpool loanee, Tyler Morton was able to pick out Carvalho after the ball had only been half cleared by Sunderland. Carvalho was able to strike the ball home and give the Tigers the all three points.

The Referee

The referee for today's fixture against Hull City will be Bobby Madley

Madley has officiated a Sunderland game a previous 20 times, more than any other club.

Sunderland have only lost four matches when Madley has been in charge

EFL Stat Pack

As per the EFL website:

Hull City are looking to win consecutive league games against Sunderland for the first time since December 2014.

Sunderland are unbeaten in six league visits to Hull (W2 D4) since losing 1-0 in November 2013 under Gus Poyet.

Hull have won three of their last four league games, although they lost 4-0 to Norwich in their last game which was their heaviest league defeat since losing 5-0 to Bristol City in April 2022.

Hull City’s Liam Millar has the best average progressive ball carry distance of any Championship player to feature in at least 100 minutes of action this season, progressing the ball upfield an average of 212 metres per 90 minutes.

Sunderland’s 17-year-old midfielder Chris Rigg scored his fourth Championship goal in their 2-2 draw with Leeds. Only four players have scored five Championship goals before turning 18 – Ryan Sessegnon (21), Connor Wickham (10), Gareth Bale (5) and Harvey Elliott (5).

Predicted Line up

4-3-3: Patterson, Hume, O'Nien, Mepham, Cirkin, Rigg, Neil, Bellingham, Roberts, Isidor, Mundle