Premier League strugglers Middlesbrough are desperate for a victory over Hull City as they fight relegation back to the Championship after just a year in the top flight.

The Tigers are four points ahead and they are the favourites to win the game but the underdogs hope to cause an upset.

Middlesbrough would be depending on Alvaro Negredo to lead the attack with Gaston Ramirez and Fabio Da Silva out due to ankle and head injuries respectively. Rudy Gestede is available as Victor Valdes,AdamaTraore– who has the most Premier League dribbles this season alongside Eden Hazard of Chelsea –, and the rest. Going away is a big test for Boro since they have not defeated the home team since April 2011 where they met in the Championship.

Hull have been decent in their home games since Marco Silva took over. Silva always churns good home results; from his time at Estoril, Sporting, Olympiakos and now Hull.

On the other hand, Steve Agnew’s side have failed to get a victory after 12 games in the league. They played a draw in five and lost the rest. In fact, in the last 28 away games, their only win was against Sunderland last August.

Hull City would be without right back Omar Elabdellaoui. The player, who is on loan at City, has been sidelined with back injury. Star player Tom Huddlestone would not feature in the match as he remains suspended following his red card. They have Abel Hernandez, Michael Dawson, OumarNiasse, Alfred N’Diaye and the rest to ensure victory.

Hull City has recently experienced a change in their managerial position as Mike Phelan was sacked after guiding the English club to 13 defeats, 5 draws and 6 victories.

Phelan was replaced by the 39 year old Portuguese manager Marco Silva and Tom Huddlestone has recently stated that even though Hull City is currently located in the bottom relegation zones of the Premier League, the team are starting to believe that with the guidance of the recently appointed manager Marco Silva, Hull City will be able to start climbing spots and be able to survive in the Premier League for at least 1 more season.

‘’He’s been on the training pitch with us every day, putting in a lot of tactical information into us. Wherever the ball is on the pitch, or wherever system we play, we know as players exactly what is required of us without and without the ball’’

“With the amount of information he’s put into us, there’s no excuses. If you don’t do well, it’s down to lapses in concentration because we know exactly where he wants us to be. The lads have bought into that and it’s showing in the performances’’

‘’We’ve always had the confidence. Even when results weren’t going for us, the performances have been decent. But the main thing is the results and hopefully now we’re combining the two.” Tom Huddlestone said as the 30 year old English midfielder stated that Marcos Silva has made a huge impact even though the Portuguese manager only arrived to the club around 1 month ago.

Whether or not Hull City do indeed start to win games on a consistent basis and rise above the relegation zone is something that only time will tell but the upcoming Premier League matches of Marcos Silva and his men are going to be very difficult as they have to face off with: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Burnley.

Those all are of the opponents of Hull City for the month of February and it will be a huge challenge for Marco Silva and his squad.

After finishing in one of the top spots of the English League Championship during the previous season of 2014-15, Hull City have earned their ticket to compete in the Premier League and so far things have been going very difficult for them as the English club which is currently being managed by Mike Phelan is currently positioned in the bottom relegation zone and some changes might need to happen in order for them to start turning things around.

Tom Huddlestone has been performing with Hull City since 2013 and the English midfielder has consistently been a regular starter ever since he joined a few years ago. The 29 year old player not too long ago stated that Hull City was not going to need to make a big amount of changes in the squad as Huddlestone was confident that they were still going to be able to compete against the other teams in the Premier League.

“I think we have the basis of a good squad and a good team. Everybody pulled together towards the end of last season, everyone gets along and there’s a great atmosphere in the changing room so hopefully we can continue where we left off last season. Any new signings would be welcomed into the group with open arms. Hopeful we can start where we left off, but it’s a difficult start to the season’’ This was a statement released by Tom Huddlestone a few months ago before the current season of the Premier League had kicked off as he voiced his confidence in the squad of Mike Phelan.

Unfortunately for Tom Huddlestone, his prediction has not gone as initially expected as Hull City are clearly struggling and with the winter transfer window approaching, it might be time to start taking a look in the market and see if any potential players could be signed.

Tom Huddlestone has been criticized by some pundits for lack of fitness on the pitch.

This was evident in the match against Liverpool where the midfielder seems lost amidst Liverpool athletic players. The player who currently plays for Hull City admitted that he is short on fitness and that he needs some more training session to get back to his best level.

Phil Babb who currently works as a pundit was the one who pointed out the problem with Tom Huddlestone. The former Liverpool player said that Tom Huddlestone was not fit enough to get on the pitch in the match between Hull City and Liverpool. Babb said that this lack of fitness was evident in the player’s physique and that he needs some more intensive training to get back in shape

Phil Babb said that Tom Huddlestone is a talented player and that he undoubtedly have some good skills but his physical condition is hindering him. The former Liverpool defender said that the Hull City man should spend more time working on his fitness and make sure he is back to his best level before playing on the pitch.

Babb said that Tom Huddlestone was the weak link in the Hull City side that faced Liverpool as he lost the ball time and again due to poor physical condition.

Huddlestone agreed that he is currently in poor form and that he needs to work harder to regain his fitness. He said that he is only back from injury and that he will need some time in order to come back to his best form. He has accepted the criticism and said that he would use these words to motivate himself and to come back stronger. He has vowed to fight for his place in the team.

Hull City have been one of the major surprises and the start of the Premier league 2016-17 season.

The team was expected to struggle from the opening weekend, as they did not have a permanent manager nor a fully fit squad. Caretaker manager Mike Phelan was dealing with only 13 fit players while the club had signed no new names in the summer. Former manager Steve Bruce left the club just before the start of the season after his fall out with the owners. The club has been crumbling due to the owners being unhappy with the fans’ constant complaints.

Despite those issues, the club started out in the campaign with an unlikely 2-0 win over reigning champions Leicester City. This was followed by yet another remarkable victory over Swansea City last weekend. As a result, they have already taken six points out of their objective of 40 for the campaign. The target of 40 was going to be extremely tough to achieve at the start, but the players will now feel a major burden off the shoulders. Midfielder Tom Huddlestone has been in fine form and was influential in the game against Swansea. He has backed caretaker boss Phelan for the role as the permanent manager.

Phelan was the assistant manager at Manchester United for more than a decade.”I think he’s done well. He’s got a few new ideas which the lads have adapted to. If he is to get the job it’s just a shame he wasn’t given it straight away.The players and staff just want clarity whichever way the chairman goes. You just want things decided as soon as possible. You even see teams in the Championship spending dozens of millions every few weeks on players and we’re yet to bring one in,” said the midfielder.

Tom Huddlestone reckons Hull City’s signings must have the striking ability because that’s a department the team was not the strongest the previous season and had to look up to Abel Hernandez all the time whenever a goal was required.

As per Huddlestone, the signings, not essentially, have got to be the forwards. They can be playmakers or wide men, it doesn’t matter, but, they must be the players with the nag of finding the net so that all the pressure doesn’t happen to be on Hernandez again.

Huddlestone said, “We had almost 30% of our goals coming from Abel only. Ideally, we would want others chipping in with the goals too. So, maybe, we can look around for genuine scorers who can score every now and then even if they play in the centre or wide. To have a couple of them will be good.”

“No other department, I believe, desperately needs additions. It’s only the scoring department to be honest. We are not selling too many players and will have the same crux which always helps. Obviously, we would all like to pull our socks up for the highest level and it would be nice to begin just in the manner we finished the previous season.”

In 2015-16, Hernandez was ahead of the other attackers of Hull City by some distance in terms of scoring. No player even scored half as many goals as him. In fact, only two players managed to take their scoring tally into double figures. One was Hernandez and the other was the playmaker Mohamed Diame.

The forwards like Sone Aluke and Adama Diamonde who played more than 20 games apiece had striking rates of one goal per 8 games almost and it was so, so poor.