Tuesday 10th January 2016 Kickoff: 2000hrs
Manchester United v Hull
Football – England – League Cup
We’re not just over a month away from the final of the first domestic trophy in England and this week sees the penultimate step for the last remaining four clubs in the League Cup. Manchester United are overwhelming favourites to reach the showpiece at Wembley as they prepare to host relegation threatened Hull City in the first leg of their semi-final at Old Trafford on Tuesday night. The game also pits two Portuguese coaches against each other with the vastly experienced Jose Mourinho coming up against the Tigers’ new man Marco Silva.
Jose Mourinho’s time in charge at Old Trafford could be split into two halves. The first half was pretty uninspiring and essentially a continuation of Louis Van Gaal’s time in charge with little excitement and a dearth of positive results. The last three months have been much more like the thing, however, as United have lost just once in their last 17 games in all competitions. They come into this game on the back of eight straight wins and looking every bit a Jose Mourinho side, turning in efficient display after efficient display. Their good run really started with an important win over rivals Manchester City in this competition back in October and they will be looking to continue it by taking a big step towards the final with a win over Hull tomorrow.
After winning promotion to the Premier League via the Championship playoffs last season, Hull were always likely to struggle. Little to no investment from their board and Steve Bruce departing before a ball was kicked as a result was never a good recipe. Mike Phelan took the reins but despite a positive enough start the situation has gradually declined and Hull find themselves at the foot of the Premier League and on to another manager in the shape of the aforementioned Marco Silva. The new man got off to a perfect start by winning 2-0 at home to Swansea in the third round of the FA Cup and he will hope to have similar success in the other cup competition – one which the man he succeeded was able to produce wins in. Tuesday reperesents a much greater test than anything they have faced thus far in the competition having accounted for teams including Stoke and Newcastle, but they have little to lose and even less expectation on them.
Manchester United v Hull City Betting Tips
It is about as big of a mismatch as you can get at this stage of the competition and the vast majority of people will fully expect United to have too much for their opponents over the course of two legs. The League Cup is also a favourite of Mourinho who has won it three times over the course of his two spells with Chelsea. He has targeted it this term as well, choosing to play stronger teams than most managers. Tomorrow will be no different and you can expect the hosts to have an array of their star players to try and make the second leg as redundant as possible as the games begin to come thick and fast for United.
Hull have done well to reach this stage but they are limited and will find it difficult against United who are in red hot form.
The return leg is in just over a fortnight but I’m taking Mourinho’s men to put this tie to bed tomorrow. United have won four of their last five by two goals or more and that’s the selection I like in this encounter.
Manchester United -1 1/2 @ Bwin
