Hull City. Last Season’s Finish: Promoted. Expectations: Avoid Relegation. Predicted Finish: 19th.
Steve Bruce guided Hull to promotion last season, building a successful team based on a solid defensive structure and scoring enough goals to get by. The Tigers will be resolute at the back in the Premier League, keeping their fair share of clean sheets and will be strong, but again like many of those teams at the bottom, lack that true forward who they can rely upon.
Scoring the least amount of goals in the top half of the Championship last season, winning 18 of their games by a one goal margin, doesn’t bode well for them. Danny Graham gives them a fighting chance, successful record at Swansea but has failed to impress at Sunderland, and new signing Yannick Sagbo is an unknown quantity. Sagbo has been linked with a move to the Premier League before with West Ham and Newcastle, but both turned him down because they found better options. Will these two players be the key to their survival? I’m not banking on it.
Key Player: Sone Aluko and Ahmed Elmohamady need to provide top drawer service to Sagbo and Graham all season long if they wish to stay in the Premier League. Defensively they are ok, its scoring the necessary goals to stay up which is the key for the Tigers.