How Hull City Have STUNNED The Premier League

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How Hull City Have Stunned the Premier League

The host breaks down Hull City's strong start to the Premier League, focusing on their risky pressing from a 5-4-1, three-man defensive wall, diagonal attacks and unusual use of McBurnie. He concludes that Hull's tactics, key individuals and a bit of luck have set them up well to survive, and that xG-style stats should not dismiss them too easily.

A Premier League victory over Manchester United, one defeat so far and a comfortable spot in the top half - it’s been a cracking opening to the season for Hull City and manager Sergej Jakirovic’s bizarre, yet incredibly effective tactics. But just how have they gone from being touted as the next Derby County to being the leagues worst nightmare? Well, Jacob Horsfall is back in the hotseat to tell you how Hull City have stunned the Premier League! premierleague football tactics Check out the latest NortonVPN offers here: https://norton.ow5a.net/c/221109/4022657/4405?sharedid=fourfourtwo&param1=aff&param2=ytvideo&param3=vpn&subid1=OctFFT6 Buy the latest FourFourTwo magazine here ➡️ https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/FourFourTwo/author/B0GSRRXJWK?ref=srnttsrchlnk1&qid=1786984945&sr=8-1&shoppingPortalEnabled=true ⚽ FourFourTwo - At the heart of football since 1994 - in print - online - on video ⚽ 📰 SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/3ErE4ai 💻 WEBSITE: https://bit.ly/3GFXMC0 Follow FourFourTwo on: Twitter/X: https://x.com/FourFourTwo?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fourfourtwouk/?hl=en TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fourfourtwoofficial Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FourFourTwo/?locale=enGB 📥 Sign up below for 𝗘𝗫𝗧𝗥𝗔-𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 @FourFourTwo's FREE weekday newsletter 🤝: Transfers 🛒: Deals 🎥: Videos 💡: Quizzes ✍️: Opinion ➕: 𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙀 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 👇 https://t.co/Yn3AQUt7b6

Transcript

A victory over Manchester United, one defeat in the league so far and a lovely spot in the top half off of England's top division. It's been a cracking start to the season for host city and Sergio Jakirovic's bizarre yet incredibly effective tactics. But how have they gone from being touted as the next Derby County to being the Premier League's worst nightmare? Well, I'm Jacob Osour 442's resident tactician and this is how City have stunned the Premier League. And it MUST BE PIA. >> To truly understand this whole city side and how they're doing so well at the moment, we first got to truly get a grasp of the foundations of their football. Stopping the ball going between their own two posts. A lot has been made of their 541, the typical trope of smash and grab low block football. And to be fair, 35% of their games have been played in their own defensive third. But within that shape, they take risks. And I mean, huge huge risks. And that's what makes this side so so intriguing. Here we see that 4-1 pressing line, but when Magguire plays sidewards, the ideas change. Belumi waits for his midfielder to cover Kuna and then jumps to Heaven whilst Mcernney covers the pivot. very quickly going from a passive block in front of United's defense to shutting all of Heaven's passing options down, even though they may risk someone getting into this space beyond their midfield line. And that's sort of the payoff that they take. Yes, it's a risk to jump out of a 541 block with your midfielders. And it does give some space for players to get into, but they press so well, close angles so well that the opposition don't actually have the the time, the area to play that incisive pass through hole. Now, the reason the Tigers compress so well is because of their threeman wall. Egan, Mendy, and Aai have been an absolute joke, and their jobs is almost entirely zono Marcus are really complex. All three of them are back in defense here. Yet none are man-to-man on a United player because the space either side of them is actually really important to them. Should one commit to Bruno Fernandez early, then Embuo is free to exploit space in behind. Instead, we see Hol time their jump with the pass so they can meet Fernandez's first touch, forcing him to take a risky pass. Then Aaya can just sweep up the loose pass. But it's a risk again because a lot of teams will say you don't want that player to be able to receive with any moment to try and turn you. And with these center backs jumping out, that means their jumps have to be timed to perfection. If in that instance a Jai didn't jump at the right time, he doesn't pick up that loose pass and United are be able to rip through a whole team who would be underloaded in their defense. But so far, it's kind of working perfectly and the risks are paying off tenfold. We've even seen it in the front line. Coventry here have been forced back and are facing their own goal. But Straoud sees an opportunity to take a calculated risk and jumps out of the whole block, leaving Coventry with two free midfielders. But his risk pays off and in the end Coventry play that backwards pass. And now he's in a brilliant position, which is kind of how Hull's start to life in the Premier League has gone. Every tweak, every change, every sort of 50/50 opportunity has gone their way. Straoud getting a little bit lucky that Coventry still played that ball backwards is great, but in the Premier League, you don't just get lucky, you make your own look. And that's what Hull do so well without the ball. Even when we see teams get a player down the sides of one of their wider center halves, which is probably the best way to hurt Hull, their individuals have stood up tall like the goalkeeper and pulled them out of those moments, which is basically how survival goes. A pretty decent tactical setup. a few individuals who can save you in moments and a little bit actually no and a lot of luck that goes in your favor. That is how you stay up in the Premier League. Now, Hull may not be the top team when it comes to XG in the division, but last season they were also expected to be relegated from the Championship based on XG. So, what does stats know? Before we carry on, a quick word from today's video sponsor, NortonVPN. Whether you're working from a coffee shop, traveling, or just browsing at home, you're constantly sending information across the internet. NonVPN helps add an extra layer of privacy by encrypting your internet connection and helping you keep your online activity more private. It's simple to use, works across your everyday devices, and you can connect to VPN servers across the world, whether you're chilling at home or you're out and about traveling. So, if you want to add an extra layer of security and privacy to your browsing, head to the description, click the link below, and go and check out NVPN's latest offer. Right, back at video on the way. >> Pull City take a diagonal approach to breaking teams down. Their goal is to reach Giles on the underloaded side of Villa's defense, but the beauty comes in how they get themselves there. They have three points of contact on the Villa defense here. Baloney taking both the fullback and winger. Mc Bernie occupying the central pair and Straoud as basically another striker. Taking Matikash into a very narrow position. So Aai has many solutions here. Play wide into Coyle in behind to a winger or into Mcburnie's feet between the lines. Instead he plays to Giles and then you have something common with diagonality. Deception within Hull's moves and passes. Giles can then drop this ball backwards before darting the other way which as small as that may seem is the key to unsettling John McInn who is split and gets Giles into that crossing space that he thrives in. Now this is something that Yakurovic looked to use in the Championship last season. 23% of his side's passes were long balls or crosses. And that's something that we've seen continue into the Premier League with them very much so trying to play those direct balls into the feet of those attacking dynamic front three that has caused so many sides so many problems this season. And when you've got Ollie McBurnernie crashing at box, why would you not whip it onto his head? Ollie McBurnernney sits up as the spearhead of this front line. And that front line has two mobile operators alongside him. And not only has Mc Bernie been great aerily, but I think his presence and the sort of we defenders view Ollie McBurnernney gives opportunities, whether it be shooting, whether it just to get on the ball for the likes of Straoud and Belie. But again, a bit of a peculiar adaptation from the Home City Gaffer is that Mc Bernie isn't this big target man up front, this big spearhead who just nuts things, which is what Mc Bernie's commonly been associated with throughout his career. No, Yakurovic has his own way of playing with the Scotsman. >> Good delivery, Mc Bernie. >> When Hull come out in their 3-2 buildup, look at who drops in to give a diagonal passing angle. Ollie Mc Bernie. His move pulls the center half out of the back line. And with the left winger occupying the currently right hand side, Balumi sees that as his trigger to attack the gap, pulling the left back really narrow. So Hull can go wide, giving them a four versus three in this wide area of the pitch, allowing Hull to progress play in overloads and creating loads of mini 1v1s across the pitch, which is obviously safer than attacking in a 1v2 because if you've got more players around the ball than the opposition, you're probably going to be able to retain that ball. But it's also a reason why I think we're going to see these wingers contribute to so so many goals for whole this season because they're in 1 v ones. They're in areas where there's space to attack. We regularly see Mc Bernie drop out of that front line combined with a juxtaposing movement of the two wingers who dart in beyond to get behind him which in turn pushes the defense in two opposing directions and thus opens that central gap for whole city's attackers to play in. In similar fashion, Marita uses a drop out of the attacking line to get the same sort of space because Matt Grimes is marking him and follows his horizontal move. But Marita on his blind side then drops deeper to get on the ball. Now from here he can deliver into the box and because he's deeper he can play behind the opposition's defense who are facing the ball whilst Mcernney is already moving toward the box which means despite Mc Bernie being 2v1 he has an advantage over the center halves as the ball goes into his path and that is bloody brilliant again it's whole city creating these sort of marginal gains for themselves which is so so valuable in a division that gives you nothing when you have the lower end of the quality scale and whole city do it brilliant ly whether it's using corner routines to create 1 v ones at the back post for Ollie Mcburnie it all seems to give hole just the smallest little bit of advantage which in the end is actually gigantic in a 90-minute football game and at the center of it all is a big Scott Oie McBurnie now it's a long old season for whole city as an early promoted side but from what we've seen so far it looks like they've set themselves up really really nicely the goalkeeper coming in has been phenomenal I know there's a little mistake against Everton But even in that game, he kept them alive in that fixture. Their defenders are just absolute brick walls who have carried through from the Championship to the Premier League and given them so so much. Their midfield has the tenacity, the creativity to be really effective in what is a physical Premier League. And then that attack has just everything. You've got the running and the ball carrying of Straoud. You've got the Trying to think of a word to describe Ollie McBurnie. He's got the stuff. I think that's the best way to describe him. got something about him to put himself around, to make things happen, to play onetwoss. And then you've got the sort of magician, the star man of the show, which is Belumi, who has that individual spark to completely flip games on their head. And that is what you need in the Premier League. So, can the Tigers keep on mauling? And can you head down and drop a subscribe to the 442 YouTube