Hull v City: Preview

February 05, 2010

Wayne Bridge

Vincent Kompany and Micah Richards both look certain to miss out as Wayne Bridge makes his long-awaited comeback for Manchester City at Hull.

While Bridge has recovered from a knee injury and is set to end a two month absence and play for the first time since the furore exploded about his private life, Richards (calf) and Kompany (groin) are not likely to be involved at the KC Stadium.

Patrick Vieira is set to make his debut after arriving from Inter Milan last month with a calf injury, while fellow new arrival Adam Johnson should also be involved and Joleon Lescott (knee) is fit enough to take a place on the bench.

Ahead of the game, boss Roberto Mancini confirmed he will stick with Kolo Toure as skipper.

“I want my team to have many captains out on the pitch, but only one player can wear the captain’s armband - and that is Kolo,” said Mancini.

“He is a very important player for us and a very good leader so I am very happy for him to continue.”

Hull forward Geovanni will be unavailable to face his former team after suffering a minor medial ligament problem.

The Brazilian has gone to Portugal for a short spell of treatment which should see him return to Britain early next week and be in contention for the midweek trip to Blackburn.

Nigeria midfielder Seyi Olofinjana is available after returning from the African Nations Cup while Jimmy Bullard remains around three weeks away from action after a knee problem.

Hull City (from): Myhill, Gardner, McShane, Dawson, Mouyokolo, Boateng, Mendy, Hunt, Cairney, Altidore, Olofinjana, Vennegoor of Hesselink, Garcia, Zaki, Zayatte, Fagan, Barmby, Duke, Kilbane.

Manchester City (from): Given, Taylor, Zabaleta, Onuoha, Toure, Lescott, Boyata, Garrido, Bridge, Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Vieira, Barry, De Jong, Petrov, Bellamy, Johnson, Ibrahim, Tevez, Adebayor.

Hull league form: DDLDD

City league form: WWWLW

Key opponent: Stephen Hunt - feisty midfielder sets a good tempo for the Tigers

Prediction: Hull 1 City 2 - With more defensive changes, City might need to score twice - but they're well capable of that

Agree with the prediction? Have your say.

Click here for all the latest odds from Betfred.

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THE BLUE WAFFLER exiled in gambia (05/02/2010 at 14:42)

Time for us to show what we are made of, Hull are a very physical team who have more effort than ability. Im sure our very best performance would be too much for them, anything resembling out pompy effort will leave us short.
My team would be GIVEN
ZABELATE BRIDGE

TOURE ONOUHA

DE JONG VIEIRA BARRY
BELLAMY TEVEZ
ADEBAYOR

SUBS- TAYLOR GARRIDO BOYATA IRELAND SWPHILIPS PETROV JOHNSON(A)

PREDICTION HULL 1 CITY 3

Sparky65, Newtownards, N Ireland (05/02/2010 at 14:52)

Would like to see a more attacking City with Bellers, De Jong and Barry rested. I'd go for a 4-4-2 with SWeep, Ireland, Vieira, Johnston across the middle and Tevez and Ade up front.

Portsmouth Blue (05/02/2010 at 14:53)

Nothing but a good win for us here and as an aside take a look at the Riley and Ratcliffe vids on the official site well worth a view and guys that have such passion for the club.

Ian, West Sussex (05/02/2010 at 14:54)

Chance to improve our only so so away record. Hull in relegation dog fight like last season and will be desperate not to drop out as effect on finances catastrophic. Myhill has hit a purple patch of form and Hunt and Zaki capable of causing problems. Await Johnson and Vieira debuts with interest. 2-0 win scoreline prediction

Sam Haggar Lowestoft -MCFC-Bluemoon (05/02/2010 at 14:57)

This will be tough after Hull's 1-1 draw with Chelsea in midweek they will be full of conferdence

This will be City team to play them i hope

GK Given

RB Zabeleta CB Boyata CB Toure LB Bridge

RM SWP CM De Jong CM Barry LM Bellamy

CF Tevez CF Adebayor

Subs Taylor Lescott,Onouha,Ireland,Vieria A Johnson,Petrov

2-1 City will do me

Esso Blue. Carlitos is officially a GOD , Blues Town (05/02/2010 at 15:06)

Hull - H + L= Lull.

We need to put the lull into Hull which we do by our cleverness, skill, or ingenuity, smooth motion and passing, scoring; which in turn will calm there noise into a silence.

The Blue lions roar like timid pussy cat at the tigers to lull them into a false sense of security, then after a few minutes we roar like lions and take the spoils while they run off looking over their shoulders with their tails between their legs.

Meeowwwwwwww.

Vanzuylan (05/02/2010 at 15:14)

I'm quietly confident that we can win this one, Hull we realise that we are a totally different propersition too Chelsea. So i think we will win either 2 1 or 3 1.

stevie-G (05/02/2010 at 15:45)

It seems Vieira and Johnson will start.

bornblue, Ulverston (05/02/2010 at 16:08)

Your prediction is a good one. Can't see us not conceeding but we will score more than we concede

mark jones (05/02/2010 at 16:14)

my team for tomorrow-given,zab boyata,toure,bridge,a.j,dejong,vieira,bellers ade,tevez, johnson and bellers bombing on and switching scare the life out of hull.

Stolen from Ivor, Manchester (05/02/2010 at 16:29)

Big game for us - with Spuds, Scouse, Villa and Arse all potentially losing points this weekend .... C'mon City !

City Slipper, Manchester (05/02/2010 at 16:47)

Hull drawing with Chelsea was a good thing as it serves as a warning to our players that they cannot be complacent, which is how they appeared against Portsmouth (not helped by the poor tactics also). Hopefully they will put that behind them and be revved up for this one. I sincerely hope Petrov is not on the right again otherwise it will be like playing with 10 men.

All depends on whether Vieira can hack it. If he can, I would rest Barry (needs it) and only bring on De Jong, Bellamy and Zabaleta if it looks like we need to. Ireland needs to work hard but I'm not a fan of three defensive midfielders in one team.

Given

Onuoha Toure Lescott (or Boyata if JL not ready) Bridge

SWP Vieira Ireland Johnson
Adebayor
Tevez

Sub. Taylor, Zabaleta, Boyata, Garrido, De Jong, Ibrahim, Bellamy.

Bert Trautmann's FG42 , The Eastern Front of Manchester (05/02/2010 at 17:22)

Paddy V has to come in for Barry from the start. No discussion! Barry's passing has been awful recently and needs time on the bench to get his head sorted. If PV is fit now, there's no reason to use him as a bit-part player on the day, I want him dictating play from the whistle. Chelsea proved how hard it is at the KC, so we need our most gifted eleven out there.

I think Bellers will start, but will probably be replaced by Johnson on 60 mins (score depending, obviously), but the kid should be given half an hour. I want to see what all the fuss is about.

Not sure about Boyata. I'd probably choose him over Ned, as much as I love Ned, but I want to see how Deddie Boy copes with these rock-hard, gritty away games. Can't mollycoddle him, he has to be tested.

blueangel manc (05/02/2010 at 18:03)

I predicted we would win our match at Everton 0-2, so i aint gonna put the mockers on the boys for this one lol, I expect 3 points though and hopefully movement into the top 4 if all the other results go for us

MBLUED, UK (05/02/2010 at 18:21)

hull have just held chelsea at home, why so many fans become so arrogant that you think we can just turn up to places and now expect us to win, hope the players dont think the same way

MancunianHumbersider, Radcliffe (05/02/2010 at 18:32)

C'mon City...Hull that is. Let's hope the same chant coming from both ends of the stadium doesn't confuse them on the pitch. I was wondering why I was getting odd looks two weeks ago when I was talking to my Dad on my mobile about City playing at Old Trafford. Someone was about to correct me I think...when he realised I was referring to the mighty Tigers. Another draw on the cards methinks. Zaki to score and Wayne Bridge to get some stick from the City fans. The Terry chants at the KC last week were hilarious.

bluemark, oldham (05/02/2010 at 18:37)

for the game against hull i would play aj from the start and save bellers for tues against bolton so given in goal back four zab toure boyata bridge midfield swp dejong vieira a johnson up front tevez adebayor subs taylor ireland garrido petrov lesscot barry onouha barry on the bench for a rest then if anything happens to dejong move zab into midfield nd put nedum at rb

StretfordBLUE in America, Born a BLUE and Forever (05/02/2010 at 19:32)

3-0 City, and 4th spot is ours!

Esso Blue. Carlitos is officially a GOD , Blues Town (06/02/2010 at 00:22)

MCFC Press conference.
I would assume that a press conference if for the manager to take questions in quiet and that the people that are there are there for that purpose?.

It appears to me that there seemed to be some noise in the press conference today unrelated to the interview? if it is the case then people need to go and make their noise somewhere else.

Also the camera seemed to have an unhealthy shutter or it was close to a mike. Was someone playing with there camera?.It seems someone is more interested in messing about with equipment?. Also how many pictures do you need to take.

Another good idea would be for the press to put there questions forward on paper before the press conference it can then be read and the answers ready for the conference.

Rick Jenks, Bury (06/02/2010 at 04:07)

You dont drop your best players like Nedum, Barry and Ireland who must play.

It is about time Mancini played what he considers his best team and formation and sticks with it. Only then can he allow those selected to learn about each other and gel as a unit.

It's alright tinkering around on the training pitch but the tinkering has to stop in team selection. Those players not up to playing match or producing high level performance and consitency match after match needto be assessed on that basis and challenged. The book stops with the manager.

TOMMY D., SALFORD (06/02/2010 at 08:24)

StretfordBLUE in America, Born a BLUE and Forever

support tour local team

HAYMAN BACK IN BOLTON, WESTHOUGHTON (06/02/2010 at 09:35)

If Viera plays todays and fails to hit the ground running - as I fear - then we are in danger of actually losing this one.However if he does bring some added strength to midfield and we are able to move the ball quickly on the ground rather than in the air then we may win by a higher margin than anyone could have predicted.It will not be a draw ... famous last words.For me one of our games in hand midweek versus Bolton is a far more important game especially if we pick up three points from it.

MancunianHumbersider, Radcliffe (06/02/2010 at 10:28)

Come on City... Now we have an Egyptian and a pair of Kamels in our squad the question is simply this: Who'se gonna have the hump come 5pm?

Lifelong Sufferer, Stockport (06/02/2010 at 10:40)

Considering how poor we've played in both Carling Cup Semi-Final games and then even more poorly against Portsmouth, the best we can hope for is a draw. I would love to see us win 3 or 4-0, but the team appears to be set up far too defensively at the moment.

Andrew Shaw (06/02/2010 at 10:52)

This will be a close game. We gifted them a draw at home. This is no easy fixture as Chelsea found out. Hull are one of those sides that have small good spells in amidst the dross. They were utter dross against United and others a few weeks ago and are now on form. Which means we should probably be happy with a point but actually, we should really go for all three. Noel Gallagher has just been on the radio saying third is a possibility. I would go further than that and say that as things stand, third is ours to lose just like the title is Chelsea's to lose.

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