Hull v Sunderland: Goals forecast for Sunday's showdown | OneFootball

EFL Championship

Sunderland have made an excellent start to life under Regis Le Bris' watch

Improving Hull face high-flying Sunderland in Sunday's televised Championship action. Betfair writer Mark O'Haire is backing a goal-heavy game on Humberside...

Hull v SunderlandSunday October 20, 15:00Live on Sky Sports

Hull creating but lacking clinical edge

Hull boss Tim Walter has called on his side to be more clinical in front of goal as the Tigers prepare to return to Championship action on Sunday afternoon. The German watched on as City eased to a comfortable 2-0 success against Alanyaspor last Friday, thanks to goals from Matty Jacob and Mason Burstow, rounding off their week-long Training camp in Turkey.

The margin of victory could have been greater, but Joao Pedro, Marvin Mehlem and Chris Bedia all passed up a flurry of golden chances. And while Hull were outplayed at Norwich in their last outing before the international break, they still passed up good opportunities at key moments and Walter has demanded a sharper edge to their attack going forward.

Walter said, "I've been really pleased with our progress since the summer, though Norwich were a lot more clinical than us and took advantage of our mistakes while we didn't take advantage of theirs. We also created a lot of chances against Alanyaspor, but we also missed many, and that's what we've said before; we have to start being more clinical."

Le Bris only "scratching the surface" with Sunderland

Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris has claimed that he has "only scratched the surface" of the club's potential during the early stages of his tenure on Wearside. The Black Cats have started the new season at an imperious pace, taking 19 points from their opening nine matches (W6-D1-L2), topping the Championship table going into the international break.

Much of Sunderland's early form has been attributed to Le Bris' impact since taking over in the summer, with supporters embracing his side's positive, high-pressing style with a squad of first-team players all under the age of 30. It's also involved a slice of luck as the Black Cats levelled late on against Leeds in their last outing following a calamitous goalkeeping error.

Le Bris said, "Football is always unpredictable, so we can't anticipate that kind of mistake. We pushed until the end, so it was possible. In the end I think we deserved that draw. Even if the goal is lucky, for the whole balance of the game, the way we played and the way we adapted our structure it was a good point for us against a very strong team."

Black Cats favourite for Sunday's away day

Hull and Sunderland have played out a balanced W4-D6-L4 across their previous 14 league meetings over the past decade, although only one of the last nine head-to-heads have seen the home side triumph. The away side were 1-0 winners in each of last season's dates, whilst the draw 3.80 has paid-out in five of the most recent eight encounters.

Hull 2.86 were comfortably beaten by Norwich before the international break, snapping the side's three-game winning streak that had brought the Tigers up into mid-table. The Humbersiders have now lost all three match-ups with current top-half teams, failing to score on each occasion, whilst only two clubs have faced more shots thus far this season.

Sunderland 2.48 have proven almost flawless at the Stadium of Light, but the Black Cats have suffered two defeats in their first four away days under Regis Le Bris. However, performances have remained relatively strong with the Wearsiders ranked second for away Expected Points (xP), generating the third-best Expected Goals (xG) output on the road.

Back goals on Sunday

The Championship is only avergaing 2.51 goals per-game this season with just 45% of second-tier fixtures featuring three strikes or more. Nevertheless, Sunday afternoon's fixture has the potential for goals with Hull having plundered 10 in their past four league outings and Sunderland nothing twice or more in six of their nine Championship matches.

Over 2.5 Goals is trading at 1.8 and holds plenty of appeal having paid-out in four successive Tigers tussles - in fact, all bar one of their overall encounters have produced a minimum of two goals. Meanwhile, Sunderland have seen the Over 2.5 Goals threshold covered in four of their last six, as well as three of their four games as guests thus far.

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