The Tigers are back at the MKM Stadium for the first time in a month
Sergej Jakirovic will come up against David Moyes for the first time
Sergej Jakirovic will come up against David Moyes for the first time
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Sergej Jakirovic is looking forward to pitting his wits against David Moyes when the pair meet for the first time in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
Moyes is edging closer to six hundred games in charge of Everton over two spells, having overseen almost 1,200 in his long managerial career so far and will arrive at the MKM Stadium with his Toffees side unbeaten in their five league games so far.
The Hull City boss jokingly refers to Moyes as one of the 'Old Folks' and says it's a great learning opportunity, but hopes he can come out on top and continue what has been a fine start to the new campaign for the newly-promoted Tigers, warning against the Blues' obvious threats.
Despite their summer struggles, Everton have started the season well and sit a place above City, who were beaten for the first time at Newcastle United before the three-week international break.
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The Merseyside club also saw three of their first-team stars on the pitch at Wembley on Tuesday night, as England brushed aside Czechia 3-0. Jordan Pickford started the game, while James Garner and Jarrad Branthwaite came off the bench in the second period.
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"Yeah, still unbeaten," Jakirovic said. "It's very difficult to stay unbeaten, and I think they are very pragmatic. They have a very high tactical discipline, good players, three international players from England, and also Jack Grealish is there, he can make the difference anytime.
"As a team, they have experience on this level. OK, they lost some players, who they sold, but I'm expecting a difficult game on Sunday, and they also have pros and cons, so we will try to use these cons.
"Of course, you can learn (from him, Moyes). I call this type of coaches, 'Old Folks', he joked. "They know everything. They know everything about football. They have a lot of experience. I don't know how many games (in total), at Everton twice already and almost 600 games (there), I think, so it's a big experience, but also it's good for me that I can compete with him, and maybe I can beat him."
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City go into the game eighth in the table after five games, a place below the unbeaten Toffees. Their only blemish so far is the 2-1 loss at Newcastle United last time out. Going 2-0 down inside the opening 10 minutes proved costly, before Mohamed-Ali Cho gave the Tigers hope in a dominant second half, but the mountain was too big to climb in the end.
Even after the tough experience in the first few minutes at St James' Park, Jakirovic believes the signs are positive for his newly-promoted side, who play their first home game since the beginning of last month and are yet to concede a goal.
"I think that we are growing in every game, that we have confidence that we can compete at this level, and we showed that," the Croatian continued.
"No matter home or away. We haven't played at home for one month now, so it's also a great opportunity for us on Sunday, but no matter where we are playing, I want us to always have a good performance, without respect, I can say like this. We are respecting our opponent, but we are happy with and without the ball, that we can compete.
"For me, this is excellent background information. Of course, we also have a lot of space for improvement. We are doing this every day. We are trying. Sometimes, one small mistake on this level is a goal. We felt this against Newcastle, two mistakes, two goals, but we didn't surrender. This is also very good information. We have to believe in ourselves and try to play our best."
One of the key battles will come in midfield. No player has covered more ground in the Premier League so far than Harrison Armstrong, though City's Regan Slater runs him close. With Garner and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall alongside him, and Grealish not too far away, the Tigers' engine room will be in for a thorough examination.
"As a team, always as a team, we know what Regan Slater is capable of," the City boss continued when asked by Hull Live about that particular battle. "Also, there is (Matt) Crooksy, there is Tim (Iroegbunam), so if these three guys are in the midfield, and they are ready for the game, we will see.
"We have Plan A and Plan B. I know that we can run, which is very important at this stage, and it's about energy like always. Energy, if you don't have energy, you don't have a chance. We know what our advantage is. As a team, we can defend as a team, we can attack as a team, and of course, we know they have a big individual quality, and we have to stop this with team effort."
It had been expected that Tim Iroegbunam would miss the reunion with his former club, but after initial worries, the 23-year-old returned to training late in the week and could be a surprise inclusion.
"He will be available, but he did his first training session with the group (on Friday). We used these three weeks to get him back because something happened with his knee in the Newcastle game. He jumped and damaged it, but thank God it's not ACL, it's MCL, so he got lucky in that moment."
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