The City boss felt some of his players were distracted by transfer talk
Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic says the international break has come at the right time after watching his side lose 4-2 at Bristol City on Saturday.
Despite taking an early lead through Joe Gelhardt’s neat finish, the Tigers found themselves 4-1 down in the Ashton Gate rain before Kyle Joseph’s stoppage-time strike reduced the arrears for a City side that created plenty of chances, but were a shambles at the back.
Jakirovic felt City were impacted by some of the transfer speculation surrounding the likes of Ivor Pandur and Charlie Hughes, which led to a flurry of mistakes from his side.
The Croatian boss feels the constant stream of communication to players in the run-up to games is something that shouldn’t happen, and he hopes to stamp that out moving forward, now that the window has closed and both players have remained.
“If somebody is calling you every day before the game, clubs, agents, this is their period (it will have an impact),” Jakirovic said. “They are human, of course, but if you take the phone and your girlfriend texts you something or your wife, you can lose focus, and this, for me, is unacceptable, so phones should be out. But OK, this is my problem, and I will fix this.”
After successive defeats, the Tigers now have a couple of weeks to prepare for a hectic run of games heading into the October break, starting with a long trek to South Wales to face Swansea City.
While neither Semi Ajayi or Matt Crooks are expected back for the trip to the Principality, they are likely to return shortly after, while Liam Millar is set to return to Championship action at some point this month, which is another timely boost.
“This is good, to get together, to have a good recovery,” he continued. “We have some injured players, and I hope Luam Millar will start to train with us, and I hope everything will be good because we are not the same team when we miss some players.”
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