PREVIEW | Hull City vs Blackburn Rovers - team news, lineups, predictions

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·21 August 2025

PREVIEW | Hull City vs Blackburn Rovers - team news, lineups, predictions

Hull City host Blackburn Rovers at the MKM Stadium this Saturday lunchtime, with kick-off at 12:30 and live coverage on Sky Sports+.

The Tigers have made a decent start, earning a point on the opening weekend with a 0–0 draw at Coventry before snatching all three in dramatic fashion against Oxford United, thanks to a stoppage-time winner in a 3–2 thriller.

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Blackburn, on the other hand, are still waiting for their first points of the season after back-to-back defeats to West Brom and Birmingham.

When the two sides last met, Hull edged it 1-0.

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Joe Collins (To Hull and Back Podcast): It has been a significant week off the pitch (again) for Hull City. Our three-window fee restriction has been reduced by to two windows on appeal, meaning we can spend a transfer fee on a player next summer.

The players were told in pre-season to expect a reduction, but the club believed they had a good argument to get the restrictions further reduced than by one window or lifted/suspended entirely.

For fans and the club, it is nice to have some clarity on the situation. The minutes and EFL documentation of the appeal hearing will also be an interesting read when released.

On the transfer front, it has been a quieter week for a change. There is still an expectation that Abu Kamara will depart. The appeal verdict looks to have delivered a resolution to the cases of Gustavo Puerta and Reda Laalaoui too.

Both were signed for transfer fees this summer before the restrictions were put in place. Neither transfer was ratified by the EFL, and both players have been in limbo ever since.

The expectation is that Puerta will return to Bayer Leverkusen as if nothing ever happened, and the club are seeking a loan agreement with Laalaoui's former club with a suspected gentleman's agreement that he will become a permanent Tiger for the previously agreed £400k transfer fee once we can pay fees for players again next summer.

Anyway - on the pitch things are looking promising. We've got goals in us, in stark contrast to last year. Both McBurnie and Gelhardt are off the mark in the league early, which is promising. The two goals we shipped to Oxford were sloppy, both coming from long throw-ins that we failed to clear. Sort that sloppiness out, and we can beat anyone in this division.

The best news is that Mohamed Belloumi is, at long last, ready to return from his ACL injury.

Prediction: 3-1