Hull City will be aiming to end a miserable 13-game winless streak when they host Swansea City at the KCOM Stadium on Saturday afternoon for matchday 22 of the Championship season.
The hosts are bottom of the table with just 16 points from their opening 21 matches, while the visitors are 10th in the standings with 27 points from their first 21 games.
Match preview
© Imago
Hull City have endured a devastating start to the 2024-25 Championship season, sitting bottom of the table with just 16 points after 21 matches, from three wins, seven draws and 11 defeats.
That is a far cry from their seventh-placed finish last year when the Tigers finished just three points short of securing a playoff spot, narrowly trailing sixth-placed Norwich City.
They started their campaign with three successive draws, followed by two back-to-back defeats, before finally winning their first game of the season against Stoke City, which sparked a run of three consecutive victories.
However, they were unable to build on those results as Hull City subsequently failed to secure a win in their next 13 matches, suffering nine losses and drawing four during that period.
That run saw Tim Walter sacked after 17 league matches in charge of the club, having been appointed in the summer, with Ruben Selles since taking charge, though he has lost two and drawn one of his three games.
Aiming for his first win as Hull City manager and their first since early October, the Tigers will face the tough challenge of taking on Swansea City on Saturday as they look to climb from the bottom of the table.
As for Swansea, they have had a rather inconsistent start to the 2024-25 term, winning seven, drawing six and losing eight of their opening 21 matches to leave them 10th in the table with 27 points.
That leaves Swansea just seven points behind the top six after 21 matches, something that will surely please the fans and Luke Williams as Swansea aim to return to the playoffs for the first time since finishing fourth in 2020-21.
They are coming into this one on the back of a disappointing 3-2 loss to Sunderland, which saw Swansea squander a two-goal lead to eventually lose, a result that means Swansea have lost all of their meetings with teams in the top seven this campaign.
Aiming to return to winning ways as they look to mount a push for the top six places, history suggests Williams should be confident of a result here with Swansea winning two and drawing two of their past four meetings.
Team News
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The hosts are anticipated to be without Andrew Smith, Mohamed Belloumi, Carl Rushworth, Dogukan Sinik, Harvey Cartwright, Liam Millar and Thimothee Lo-Tutala due to ongoing injury issues.
Having scored a joint-league-low 19 goals so far this season, Selles may make several changes to the attacking system in search of an improved performance, though Joao Pedro is likely to start after scoring last time out.
Swansea are set to be without Andrew Fisher, Josh Ginnelly, Oliver Cooper and Sam Parker for this match, with all four not likely to return to action until the new year.
Liam Cullen is Swansea's top scorer in the league with six goals this season, and with six goals in his last seven appearances for club and country, the in-form attacking midfielder is expected to start here.
Hull City possible starting lineup:
Pandur; Coyle, Hughes, McLoughlin, Giles; Slater, Alzate; Burstow, Palmer, Bedia; Pedro
Swansea City possible starting lineup:
Vigouroux; Key, Cabango, Darling, Tymon; Franco, Grimes; Eom, Cullen, Ronald; Vipotnik
We say: Hull City 0-2 Swansea City
Swansea may have been defeated in disappointing circumstances last time out, but they are undoubtedly the favourites to bounce back with a win given Hull City's run of 13 winless game, leading us to expect the visitors to comfortably win.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Ellis Stevens
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