Team Focus: N’Doye Signing Gives Hull Boost but Bruce Should Aim Higher

It might seem obvious to state it in such simple terms but here goes anyway: Steve Bruce will never be England manager. Not just because he is one of the least glamorous options going, nor of the blanket indignation across England’s fanbase if he were to be appointed, but because his talents do not seem to stretch far beyond the ability to pinpoint and sign players able to make a difference to his teams.

That is, Bruce has always had a fair amount of financial backing as a manager and has a decent enough track record in the transfer market (see Simon Mignolet, Stephane Sessegnon, Curtis Davies, Tom Huddlestone and Andrew Robertson for but a few success stories to Bruce’s name). However, all too often Bruce seems to rely on the impact of a new signing to solve problems in his team.

A criticism of sorts, yes – he might struggle at a club where he does not have money to spend or if he were in charge of a national team – but in terms of what is asked of him at Hull, there is little to truly hold against him. He seems to have pulled it out the bag once again, as well.

After crashing out of the FA Cup without so much as a whimper in a 2-0 defeat at the Emirates, Bruce’s team went 3 more games without a goal. Strikers Nikica Jelavic, Abel Hernandez, Sone Aluko and Yannick Sagbo had managed a meagre 3 goals between them in the club’s 16 matches before the end of the January transfer window and the club clearly needed inspiration. Bruce dipped his trusty hand back into the transfer market and came back with Senegal forward Dame N’Doye.

Aged 30 and only genuinely prolific for a couple of seasons in a professional career spanning 12 years, N’Doye was certainly a risk but moreover, his signing marked significant shift from Bruce’s usual ploy of paying slightly over the odds for proven Premier League players. In recent years he has brought in the likes of Jelavic, Huddlestone, Jake Livermore, Shane Long, Robert Snodgrass, Michael Dawson and Hatem Ben Arfa, and has enjoyed mixed results. Hernandez made a bright start to life in Hull after his club record £10m move from Palermo, but with only 3 league goals in over 17 hours of action and not a single one since October, the decision to make that signing has rightly been called into question.

There is no guarantee that N’Doye will keep Hull up, but the impact he has had already looks to have galvanised the team somewhat. He made his debut from the bench in a resolute defensive display at the Etihad Stadium and while he had no effect on that game, it wasn’t long before he was running things up front for the Tigers.

He was the star man in the 2-0 win over Aston Villa, scoring one and setting up the other of the goals, attaining a WhoScored rating of 8.17. A look at the position of his touches in that game shows the range of his play, with the striker dropping deep to try and find space in which to link play but also more than willing to run the channels. His debut saw him have 46 touches, the third most on his team, and fourth most by a Hull striker in any Premier League game all season. He completed 5 dribbles, had 4 shots, set up another chance and won 4 free-kicks, a constant menace to the Villa defence. Villa didn’t play particularly well, but this was the kind of match in which the Hull of old might well have passed up a fantastic opportunity to pick up a crucial win.

Buoyed by results in the two games, Hull went on to win yet again last weekend, N’Doye scoring the winner with a well-placed header shortly after being denied by a brilliant Rob Green save. Hull have won both games N’Doye has started with he and Jelavic netting a goal apiece in each game.

They look to be striking up an exciting partnership, and given that Jelavic does not boast much to his game other than being a lethal finisher, the variety to N’Doye’s game is coming in handy. As indicated by WhoScored strengths of finishing, through balls, aerial duels and headed attempts, he certainly isn’t the complete forward, but he seems to be the right fit for Hull.

Incredibly, the wins over Villa and QPR were Hull’s first back-to-back victories all season, and those 6 points have fired the Tigers out of the drop zone and into 15th place. All of a sudden they are 4 points clear of relegation and only 2 points off 12th placed Everton. The form of N’Doye could mean they are now looking up the table rather than over their shoulders.

The question is, however, whether the transfer strategy employed by Bruce, particularly with regards to strikers, remains sustainable. Hull do not boast the financial power to afford Hernandez being an expensive flop, and though they made a profit on Long, he was certainly a pricey risk when they signed him. N’Doye has not cost as much it will be interesting to see how long the manager can keep him firing. Bruce certainly hasn’t been thrifty in his spending at the KC Stadium and with a more than capable Premier League squad, he should be aiming for more than mere survival.

Do you think Bruce has the managerial skills to fire Hull further up the table? Let us know in the comments below