The Super Eagle may have returned to the national side this season, but his Tigers side are in grave danger of dropping out of the Premier League
Sone Aluko and Hull City have only two matches left to preserve their top-flight status, but things are looking worse than ever
The optimism of last season, the joy of a run to the FA Cup final,and the promise of a swathe of new summer signings have all faded, disappeared completely now, and Steve Bruce’s Tigers are looking firmly down the barrel of a gun.
While Queens Park Rangers and Burnley beneath them are guaranteed to return to the Championship next term, Hull could still survive.
However, with only two games to play, Aluko and his teammates sit inside the bottom three.
They are two points from safety, and while, in principle, four other sides could still be dragged into the drop zone, Hull’s inability to pick up points means that the other troubled quartet will be confident of preserving their top flight status.
Defeat at home to Burnley last weekend eviscerated any faith that existed in Bruce’s squad and certain key individuals—players who were so central in the club’s rise last season have, regrettably, been wholly complicit in its demise.
Similarly, Hull’s upcoming fixtures look ominous—far tougher on paper than those of their other relegation rivals Newcastle United, Sunderland, Leicester City or Aston Villa.
They travel to White Hart Lane to face Tottenham Hotspur this weekend, before rounding off their campaign against Manchester United at the KC Stadium.
With Newcastle, one place and two points ahead of Hull, facing already-relegated QPR on Saturday, Bruce’s side could be confirmed in the second tier by the end of play this weekend .
Encouragement can be found in the form of their upcoming rivals, Spurs.
Tottenham, who appear hell-bent on avoiding Europa League qualification next term, have won only one of their last six, losing to Aston Villa, Stoke City and Manchester City in the process.
Bruce will know that a trip to White Hart Lane this weekend, against a Lilywhites side who appear to be on their holidays already, represents his side’s best chance of EPL survival.employers.
The coach may well hope that the many Tottenham rejects in his squad—Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore were all axed by the club—will be spurred on (pun intended) to secure an upset against their former employers
Huddlestone | Lost his hair and lost his way...
Failure to beat Spurs, and Hull’s top-flight status will be hanging by a thread.
The Tigers’ slump this season has been disastrous, and certainly from my point of view, totally unexpected.
Admittedly, Bruce has had difficulty with motivating teams to end dreadful runs in the past—notably with Sunderland—but the club’s achievements in the league and cup last term seemed to demonstrate that he was getting it right.
The signings this season—notably, Dawson, Livermore, Mohamed Diame, Abel Hernandez, Hatem Ben Arfa and Dame N’Doye—sought to both increase the EPL experience in the squad and increase the club’s attacking options, resolving a problem from last term.
Ben Arfa and Tom Ince departed, while Livermore and Huddlestone, stars last season, have both wilted. Dawson has impressed—particularly when paired with a hero of last season, Curtis Davies (an early-season absentee)—but too many others; Diame, Gaston Ramirez, Hernandez and Robert Snodgrass—have made a contribution too scantly and too rarely.
Of course, there have been off-field problems as well; fans have protested against the Egyptian owner Assem Allam, there have been desperate injury problems, while perhaps the failure to make the group stage of the Europa League created a wound that hasn’t healed.
I believe that too many of Hull’s recruits were made with mid-table progression and possibly Europe in mind, and Bruce—perhaps fairly—wasn’t banking on another relegation battle, and therefore didn’t bring in some of the ‘characters’ required to fight against the drop.
Too often, Aluko and his teammates have been accused of lacking heart, desire and determination—with Huddlestone and Livermore coming in for particular criticism.
The Tigers have wholly lacked the tenacity and the togetherness that characterised their return to the top tier last season.
Aluko | One goal in 24 Premier League outings
It has been a mixed year for Aluko.
Both at international level and for his club side, the Nigerian has been given an opportunity to impress—a chance that hasn’t always been forthcoming in the past.
Admittedly, Stephen Keshi barely gave him much of a look in during the ill-fated Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, but it was at least an improvement for a player who has so long been on the outside of the squad.
At club level, Aluko has played more this season than he has for any campaign since 2011, when he was still representing Aberdeen in the Scottish Premier League.
However, despite making 24 league appearances this season—of which 13 have been starts—Aluko has only managed a dismal one EPL goal. He has also failed to contribute a single assist.
Having so long craved the opportunity to show what he can do in the top flight—without being affected by injuries—the Super Eagle has failed to take the opportunity presented to him.
There have been flashes of Aluko’s quality—the inventive, creative play, the desire to hassle and harry—but his guile has too rarely resulted in a tangible threat.
It would be blinkered to simply blame the Nigerian’s lack of goals to the injuries to his teammates—after all, Aluko has featured enough as a forward to have bagged a few more in England—but it is fair to suggest that both he and Hull would have enjoyed a more prosperous campaign had Nikica Jelavic been fit, or had the signings of Gaston and Yannick Sagbo worked out.
However, Aluko is a player for whom confidence is very important.
When things are good, he is capable of shining, but when his side are struggling—as they are now—his form risks a major decline.
N’Doye and Aluko have shown signs they can impress since the former arrived in January, but trying to kindle a striking rapport in the midst of a relegation battle has proved too much for these two West Africans.
Sadly, Hull fans have begun to turn against Aluko, whose poor goal record leaves him open to criticism. Some Tigers supporters on Twitter even suggested that his sister Eniola—who player for England and Chelsea Ladies—would have scored more than her brother in the Prem this season!
The Super Eagle will surely get the opportunity to impress once again over the final 180 minutes of the campaign. If he can make a crucial, tangible contribution against either Spurs or United, if the Tigers can secure four, maybe three, points, the woes of the last year, the misery of Hull’s campaign, may just be forgotten…
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