Manager Mike Phelan has been giving a team news update ahead of the game against Watford.
With Hull looking for a return to winning ways with recent results and disappointments, Phelan told the Official Site in his pre game press conference that with a good week of training for both David Marshall and Eldin Jakupovic, he hadn’t yet decided on who would be between the sticks at Vicarage Road.
‘We have some good goalkeepers at this club and I`m pleased with all of them. You want competition with them playing well and it`s something I`ve got to think about. That is my job. There are other decisions to make as well, such as trying to build on the system we used on Tuesday night.’
For greater team news, Adama Diomande is out following his violent conduct suspension and Robert Snodgrass (ankle), Andy Robertson (calf), Dieumerci Mbokani (hamstring), Alex Bruce (achilles), Moses Odubajo (fractured patella) and Allan McGregor (back) all continue to be ruled out with their injuries.
McGregor could return to action with the U23 side next week though as he nears a full return.
As for his wider press conference ahead of the game, Phelan said he was expecting a tough test from Walter Mazzarri’s boys.
‘Watford have established themselves very well and the manager there has created a system and a unit that they seem to like. I`ve seen them a couple of times and they go about their football in a pleasing way. They have intelligence in the side and their strikers are probably their main threat. They seem to relish the opportunity when teams visit their ground. I don`t know their manager personally, but he seems to be doing as good a job as possible there. Watford are a progressive club. We`re going away from home and it will be a challenging game. But we look forward to these challenges and the players are going into it with confidence. We managed to come out of a difficult run of results in midweek, albeit in the cup, and now we have to take that into the league.’
With new assistant head coach Neil McDonald having a good first week at the club as well, he went on to say.
‘It`s always a positive to have good coaches around you. We`ve promoted Tony Pennock (Academy Manager) up to help us out for a period of time and now we`ve brought Neil in who is very experienced at this level of football. We probably need to add to that and we`re trying to do so, but I`m happy to have Neil on board. He brings some experience here.’
Having mentioned our new assistant gaffer, McDonald was also interviewed ahead of the game.
‘The players are in a good frame of mind and we just need that one result to kick us on in the league. Hopefully the Bristol City result has done us the world of good. From my experience, we will go through spells where we lose games and win games but it`s about holding your nerve and playing in the way the manager wants to. I`m encouraged by what I have seen so far and I`m really looking forward to my first league game now. The players had a really good training session on Friday morning and I know they`re raring to go. The detail we go into about the opposition is really excellent, so the players have all of that but they also have to express themselves in the game – hopefully we can give them that platform to express themselves and get some good results.’
