Sergej Jakirovic was left deeply frustrated by the way in which his Hull City side sat off against Ipswich Town in the first half of their 2-2 draw last weekend, and does not want a repeat at Arsenal on Saturday.
Jakirovic was forced into a tactical reshuffle against the Tractor Boys, after watching his side camped on the edge of their own box and barely able to get out of their own half.
That, he says, at Arsenal, would be a disastrous approach, and he wants his players to be braver both with and without the ball, as he looks to inspire a positive result against the champions.
City’s popular, charismatic head coach even joked he could do with Andy Dawson back in the fold, given the club legend and member of the Croatian’s coaching staff was in Phil Brown’s side that famously won at the Emirates way back in 2008.
While all the focus is on Arsenal’s dangers and obvious quality, City are not without their own threats and have posed problems throughout their opening nine games, but he says that must all start from his side being far more aggressive than they were at Fulham, and early on a week ago.
“One hundred per cent, it’s a counter-attack transition; if you win some balls there, if you are compact and aggressive, you can attack the ball, press the ball, because they will not kick the ball around. They’re always trying to play on the ground and also set pieces, so they are very strong in set pieces,” the Croatian told Hull Live.
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“We need Andy Dawson. He’s with us, which is good,” he joked. “We will see. I watched a lot of games this week of Arsenal trying to find something, but they are brilliant.
“They are a brilliant, really very, very strong team, no matter who will play. I watched Slavia (Prague) away, so you have (Martin) Odegaard on the bench, you have (Riccardo) Calafiori, you have (Kai) Havertz. I expect all of them will play against us, and no matter who is on the pitch, they will create a lot of difficulties for us. We have to be very solid, very aggressive, compact in challenges and duels and try to use some moments when we win the ball or some counter-attacks and also to be very, very responsible in set pieces.”
It remains to be seen whether Jakirovic opts to go with the 5-4-1 shape that has served his team so well in the early weeks of the season, or his favoured 4-3-3.
He does, however, accept that his side cannot simply go and park the proverbial bus. He knows they will have to try and be positive; otherwise, it could well be a long and chastening afternoon in north London.
“We tried something this week,” he continued. “We tried everything, Plan A, Plan B, even C, so we will see, but you don’t have a chance if you sit back in a 5-4-1. If you are passive, they will destroy you. You don’t have a chance. It has to be on the front foot; it has to be aggressive on the body, especially because they have a very, very high quality in their roster.”
“I don’t know if we can sit back all the time because when you watch the Ipswich game again, in the first half you don’t have a lot of chances with this approach. We will try to be higher on the pitch, but we will see on Saturday. We will try to do something there, and it’s about moments. We will try to go from being compact and organised in defence to go forward and use these moments.
“They have a very good defence, and they are capable of playing one-vs-one in wide spaces with the striker, which is excellent quality, to be honest.”
After a few years of near misses, Arteta finally got the league title last season and, after beating Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, saw his side return to the top of the Premier League. Already they’ve won three and drawn one of their four Champions League games this term.
Jakirovic believes Arteta’s men are playing the best in Europe, alongside Paris Saint-Germain, who overcame the Gunners in last season’s semi-final.
“He’s (Arteta) been there for seven years. He’s doing a great job. You can already see on the pitch that they control everything, and sometimes when it’s not going well with substitutions, he can add a lot of quality. I think, currently, they are playing maybe the best football, together with Paris Saint-Germain,” the Croatian continued. “They are playing very good. You try to make some difficulties, but they will control everything.”
“We will be aggressive, front-footed, try to close those gaps, because when you watch them, they create space by themselves. They have, in open play, some mechanisms there, but they are the best team in the league with their combinations. It will be very, very demanding.”
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