Sheffield United: What the Blades can expect from Hull City

Hull City, managed by former Blades boss Nigel Adkins, arrive at Bramall Lane tomorrow night for a first-round Carabao Cup clash.

They were in the other half of the city on Saturday and will have been pleased to leave Hillsborough with a point after a 1-1 Championship draw with Sheffield Wednesday.

I was at that game and here's what United can expect to face.

The Tigers are a newly-assembled, developing side and will be energetic. They lacked nothing in effort against the Owls and could have been 3-1 ahead, rather than 1-0 in front, at half-time as the home's side's defence took a while to sort themselves out.

After the break, it was a different story. Wednesday took the game to their visitors and could have had another three goals to go with Fernando Forestieri's penalty strike.

Hull opened up Wednesday with some smart passing early on and attackers Evandro Goebel and Jarrod Bowen looked lively.

However, it was backs to the wall in the second half and the Owls were able to create chances on the ground and in the air against a young centre-half pairing of Jordy de Wijs and Reece Burke. The Tigers struggled to stop crosses and looked vulnerable when the ball was in the box.

Overall, they weren't bad and they weren't great. There are better teams in the second tier.

Adkins, meanwhile, was giving nothing away about his return to the Lane, where he was a less-than-popular figure during his time in the hot-seat in 2015 and 2016.

"I'm looking forward to going back," he said. "They're a great club."

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