After a thrilling win over high-flying Newcastle United in penalties that saw them reach the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, Hull City will be visiting the Riverside Stadium to face Middlesbrough in the late kickoff on Monday.
The Tigers have met Boro only twice in the Premier league before, in the 2008-09 season. Although Hull have the upper hand over Boro in the recent past as they have won twice in their last 3 meetings, they have managed only one win in their last 11 Premier League fixtures so far.
Another very interesting fact shared by the teams is that Hull have strangely never won a game played on Monday, while Boro have won 5 of their last 7 Monday Premier League clashes at Home.
Being a late kickoff, Hull City will be well aware whether a win could take them out of the relegation zone as all teams will have played by then. However, going by Hull’s away record this season, they don’t look like the favourites to win the fixture. They have managed to collect to only 4 points from 6 away fixtures so far.
Defence
After a resilient performance against a confident Newcastle team, who have found goal scoring quite easy this season, Mike Phelan is expected to stick to his back four for the game with only one change. Joshua Tymon didn’t start the EFL game and came on only in the 80th minute to replace Andrew Robertson. We expect the young side back to start on the left flank.
The central defensive role will undoubtedly be taken by Captain Michael Dawson and Harry Maguire as they look most reliable for Phelan at the moment. The right-back Elmohamady will once again take the right-back position.
After being rested in the midweek fixture David Marshall is expected to come back under the bar replacing Eldin Jakupovic.
Midfield
In the absence of Sam Clucas and Ryan Mason, Mike Phelan had to make a difficult choice in the midfield and it clicked against Newcastle. To Phelan’s delight, Huddlestone stepped up in the time of crisis.
However, with both of them back, we expect Phelan to start with his regular four in the midfield of Ryan Mason and Jake Livermore flanked by Sam Clucas and Robert Snodgrass.
Attack
Although Will Keane is still out for a long time, Abel Hernandez is recovering well and will be returning to training in a few days. However, Phelan is expected to stick to the successful deployment of Henriksen and Mbokani up front.
