The alarming trend which Hull City must stop ASAP | OneFootball

Hull's run of games without a clean sheet has sent alarm bells ringing

Hull City's weekend defeat to West Bromwich Albion continued an alarming trend for those of a Black and Amber persuasion.

The Baggies' lack of goals in the lead-up to the encounter of two sides struggling for form had been well-documented, which included a run of zero wins in the previous eight games, as well as firing blanks in five of those.

However, Karlan Grant's deflected effort, which was swiftly followed by Josh Maja's ninth goal in the first 15 games of the Championship season saw Carlos Corberan's side continue to add to Hull's defensive woes, which have become a recurring and unsustainable theme in the last two months.

Hull City must address their numerous defensive mishaps

The start of the Tim Walter era in East Yorkshire has been well-documented, with City currently nowhere near the position which ambitious owner Acun Ilicali would have envisaged the club being in when he made the decision to install the 48-year-old in place of Liam Rosenior back in June.

Whilst there was a verdict from Germany that Walter would deliver a brand of football which goes against the grain, in comparison to what numerous other managers across the EFL and Premier League look to deliver, it has certainly come at a defensive cost - although there have been a handful of positives in this regard.

Despite Ivor Pandur being one of the club's standout performers in the first 15 encounters of the campaign, what doesn't exactly read well for the former Fortuna Sittard man and his defensive colleagues is the distinct lack of clean sheets, having kept just one clean sheet all season, which came in the drab 0-0 draw against Millwall on August 24th.

Unsurprisingly, when it comes to clean sheet percentages, Hull rank joint-bottom with Plymouth Argyle with a tally of just 6.7%, despite the aforementioned Croat, who has been an ever-present under the German boss, being forced into action on 17 fewer occasions than those in the Pilgrims net, as well as conceding just 65 shots on target across the opening 15 games.

However, it's no surprise that, as a result of Hull's expansive nature - which was highlighted by Corberan, that Pandur has made the eighth-highest average save total across the Championship with a total of three per game.

Furthermore, more worrying statistics such as the concession of seven shots and three goals from self-inflicted errors showcase a lack of defensive confidence, despite recently seeing the highly-regarded Charlie Hughes continue to build on his own individual performances with each passing game.

Tim Walter puts Hull City's recent defensive record down to luck

The under-fire boss, who made yet another defensive change on Sunday, with Cody Drameh coming back into the fold in place of Ryan Giles, stated post-match that lady luck hasn't exactly been shining down on his rearguard in recent outings.

"We are conceding unlucky goals. It's more of a coincidence how the opposition are scoring," he said.

"But, all you can do is work and fight against them, and that's what the boys did again today. They proved their character and tried to involve the fans."

This may come as a surprise to many, given the aforementioned defensive issues, but Hull, at present, according to FootballWebPages, are only projected to concede 51 goals in total this season, despite currently underperforming their xG conceded by 0.8, as well as having the joint-fewest amount of clean sheets alongside Cardiff City.

That would see the Tigers hold a better defensive record than Liam Rosenior's side, which finished seventh last term and had a solid centre-back base of Alfie Jones and Jacob Greaves to rely on.

But, such stability has since been lost, meaning that the aforementioned projection feels rather unrealistic at this moment in time.

However, with just under two weeks until a pivotal encounter with fellow strugglers Luton Town, it's pivotal that Walter, or whoever is in charge amid fresh reports