Sergej Jakirovic says he needs to improve all areas of the pitch as he looks to turn Hull City into a team capable of challenging in the top half of the Championship.
The Bosnian was forthright in his assessment of the struggles that blighted last season, which almost saw the Tigers relegated from the Championship, only surviving on the final day by virtue of a better goal difference than Luton Town.
City also finished the season with just 44 goals from their 46 games, which ended up as the lowest goal tally across all 24 teams, something he says has to improve.
Jakirovic also wants to add pace and power to his midfield engine room and though he accepts he must get the best out of the squad he will inherit, he has stressed the need for more new additions.
Three have so far arrived, and that number could triple in the coming days. A deal for Louie Barry has been agreed with Aston Villa and now City are in talks with the 22-year-old over personal terms, while they hope to snap up striker Oliver McBurnie.
A deal for Nottingham Forest’s Lewis O’Brien is no longer on the cards due to the financial demands on the table. The club are in talks with a replacement from the continent and various other options are being pursued elsewhere, but he says adding in the engine room is crucial.
“This is the main thing,” he told Hull Live. “It’s about the speed, it’s about power, especially in the midfield zone, because of the first and second ball. This is the heart of the team. If you cannot win challenges in the middle, first or second ball or 2nd ball (you will struggle). You cannot play just with the ball.
“The average in the game for how many times you have the ball is around maybe two minutes. So we need better players or stronger players.
“The defensive line is OK We can fix that during the training. It’s OK. When you need to jump out, when you need to drop, when you switch sides. We have been struggling with the strikers because we had just six goals from our ex-striker. And wingers, but because of the injuries (we struggled).
“Maybe October and November were very good for this team. They played good, but mostly struggled during the season because of injuries, because the players were not in the right place.
“They played midfield players, some midfield players, some strikers played as wingers, so maybe we can change the system, but this is the past. For me, this is a new season, new challenges. We will try to improve everything.”
Jakirovic, with a steely determination, says he will adapt to help the players get used to his methods. Having new signings, coupled with Liam Millar, Mohamed Belloumi and Eliot Matazo back at various stages over the next few months, will help, as will new arrivals.
“I’m very much looking forward to seeing a better Hull City than we saw last season,” he continued. “My football philosophy is to adapt as soon as possible to the team, to develop them. I like attacking football, but we need such a profile of players. We will train always bhow we want to play. For me, this is the main sentence. During the training sessions, we will work a lot on build up through the middle zone to the finishing zone to create a lot of chances. I like high press, energy, intensity but we will see what the future brings
“It’s 50/50 (between his staff and the players). First of all, we will adapt to them. We expect some new players because we need them. Last season, we had very bad luck with injuries. Three very good players got ACL injuries, which is very hard. I hope they (Millar, Belloumi, Matazo) will come back on the pitch.
“In every line, we need better options. There is a lot of space to improve. This team was not compact; there were very big spaces between the lines, between the players with the first and second ball in midfield. We need power in that part of the pitch. Also, numbers in front of the players, we need the system, we need the goals, so a lot of work to do.”
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