David Moyes has praised the job Sergej Jakirovic has done at Hull City, but warned that life will get tougher in the Premier League for the newly-promoted Tigers.
Moyes watched City take a second-half lead against his Everton team at the MKM Stadium through Joe Gelhardt, before Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Thierno Barry turned the game on its head, only for Mo Belloumi to rescue a deserved point for the hosts.
The experienced Everton manager spoke positively ahead of Sunday’s meeting, and he was impressed by what he saw from Jakirovic’s men in just their sixth game since winning promotion through the play-offs.
“Well, I think that he’s done brilliantly well,” the Scotsman told Hull Live. “By the way, he’s done brilliantly well to get the team up because it’s not an easy job to get out of the Championship and do that.
“Hull have brought teams here, and they have found it very hard. They’ve also gone away and made it difficult. I think they’ve started the season brilliantly well. It’s how you maintain that. The Premier League becomes pretty ruthless and you don’t know what part it does do at the moment.
“I’m not saying it’s the honeymoon, it’s far from the honeymoon at the moment, but they’ve made a brilliant start, Hull, brilliant start, and sometimes you need those points to cling on as you go on because it’ll not get easy. The level of the opposition of the teams you play is so, so good normally.”
Jakirovic joked he was impressed by Moyes’ calmness on the touchline, suggesting it was like the 63-year-old was sat at home watching television in his living room.
“It’s a very big test for me because I’m new here and David is one hundred years old,” the Croatian said with a huge grin. “I can be more and more calm. When I see him, he’s very calm, like he’s in the living room, so this is very interesting. This is experience. I’m young, 49 years old now, 50 in December, so I’m not so young, but if I compare me with him, I’m younger and I have to learn, of course from every game. For me, it’s an honour to be his opponent and try to beat him or surprise him, which is not so easy.”
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