Talking Tactics | Hull City v Swansea City
Football stats experts WhoScored identify defender Marc Guehi as a key man in Swansea City's Championship clash with Hull City at the KCOM Stadium.
Hull are among the top home goalscorers in the Championship this season having netted 23 times in front of their own fans. However, the January transfer window wasn't kind for the Tigers as Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki left for West Ham and West Brom.
The duo netted 14 of their 23 league goals at the KCOM this term and while Hull boast a statistically-calculated WhoScored.com strength of 'creating scoring chances', they no longer have the forwards to put these opportunities away. A downturn in form - Tuesday's 3-0 loss at Blackburn extended their winless run to six matches that means they now foot the form table having picked up one point from the last 18 available - has seen them slide to within 10 points of the relegation zone.
Swansea's trip to Hull, then, presents them with the perfect chance to get their play-off push back on track. A 0-0 draw with QPR at the Liberty Stadium was hardly ideal for the Swans and they will now be looking to heap further misery upon this downtrodden Tigers outfit.
Another clean sheet - Swansea's tenth of the season - is a solid foundation to build upon in this Friday night clash and given Hull's struggles in the final third, Marc Guehi will be out to put in another solid showing at the heart of the defence. The January arrival earned the WhoScored.com man-of-the-match award against the R's with a 7.61 rating in what was the 19-year-old's best performance in a Swansea shirt since his loan move to Wales.
And against a Hull outfit boasting the second longest current winless streak in the Championship, that star man display provides the perfect morale boost as the Swans seek a return to winning ways.
Boasting one of the better away records in the Championship, there will be no love lost from this Swansea side in the Valentine's clash at the KCOM with Guehi's statistically-calculated WhoScored.com strengths of 'ball interception' and 'passing' ideal in helping the Swans quick transition from defence to attack.
Indeed, Guehi's fine reading of the game belies his tender years and is another method at denying opposition attacks and having made 12 interceptions since he joined last month - only Kyle Naughton and Matt Grimes (both 13) have made more of all Swansea players in 2020 - he'll be confident of adding to that against this Hull outfit that boasts a statistically-calculated WhoScored.com style of play of 'attempts through balls often'.
What's more, one of Hull's WhoScored.com weaknesses is 'keeping possession of the ball' and with Guehi's approach matching that of Steve Cooper's demands, if he can maximise both traits of his game tonight, then he can instigate quickfire attacks to punish the Tigers.
And following the departures of both Bowen and Grosicki, the goalscoring burden falls onto Tom Eaves' shoulders. However, the 28-year-old has scored just four times in the Championship this season and at a rate of one goal every 414.3 minutes, Eaves has developed a statistically-calculated WhoScored.com weakness of 'finishing', which is far from ideal for a striker. The frontman has failed to score since his strike in Hull's 3-0 home win over Birmingham in December.
