After failing to make the grade at parent club Everton, striker Oumar Niasse is beginning to resurrect his Premier League career at Hull City. Two emphatic finishes from the Senegalese powerhouse ensured the Tigers earned a valuable three points against fellow strugglers Swansea City.
The double took his Hull tally to four and the impact of the striker has not gone unnoticed by teammates Sam Clucas and Omar Elabdellaoui.
"You can see the confidence he’s gained from playing and scoring goals"
Niasse failed to net in seven appearances for Everton, despite scoring 126 goals in 230 games in Senegal, Norway, Turkey and Russia. Yet four in ten for Hull is allowing the 26-year old to prove he still has the magic touch.
Central midfielder Clucas has noted how quickly Niasse's demeanour has turned around. “He came here looking to play football, and you can see the confidence he’s gained from playing and scoring goals. It’s great to see". Clucas, who netted his first senior goal a fortnight ago, added “he has been massive for us since he arrived and we’re all delighted to see him amongst the goals".
However, the youngster and his teammates are aware that the whole squad needs to score more to keep Hull afloat at the end of the season. "We know we need to get more goals from different areas of the pitch. We can’t just rely on Abel [Hernandez] and Oumar to come up with the goals all of the time. It has to be a team effort. We all need to chip in and put the ball in the back of the net".
Scoring goals has been a focus for manager Marco Silva in training, with Clucas stating "it's something we have discussed in recent weeks. We’ve been working hard on that in training and hopefully we’ll see a reward in our remaining games".
"It's always good to see strikers scoring goals"
Right-back Elabdellaoui arrived at the Club in the January transfer window with Niasse and also reserved praise for the striker. “It’s always good to see strikers scoring goals and I think Saturday showed how important it is to have a strong bench. Oumar came off the bench to score twice and that was great".
Elabdellaoui believes "our confidence is good and I feel that the confidence and belief has always been there". The defender suggested this was down to their most recent performance where Hull were "compact and solid defensively, and scored the goals that we needed to win the game".