Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic admits he’s not too concerned with the standard of opposition at this stage of pre-season, as he looks ahead to Tuesday night’s meeting with Rizespor.
City kicked off their summer campaign with a convincing 3-0 victory over Konyaspor on Saturday, and in truth, the scoreline could well have been stacked much more in the Tigers’ favour.
Konyaspor, who finished ninth in the Turkish Super Lig, delivered a fairly sub-standard display, and it’s hoped Rizespor, who finished a place above Saturday’s opponents last season, will provide something of a sterner test at Maribor’s Ljudski vrt
The Tigers had been trying to set up a mouthwatering showdown with Galatasaray just across the border in Austria this week, but were unable to make their respective schedules work, so Rizespor have stepped in to provide the opposition.
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Irrespective of the level they face, Jakirovic is keen for his players to focus on their own progress as they get ready for their first Premier League game of the season against Manchester United on August 22.
“We tried to play the second game against Galatasaray, but something went wrong, and then we chose Rizespor,” the Tigers head coach told Hull Live. “It’s not easy to find an opponent at this time of pre-season because the championship has already started in some other countries. European games are also going on with the Conference League, Europa League and Champions League qualifiers, so the games here are not easy to find.
“In Turkey, their season starts like ours in the Premier League. It’s OK. I’m always looking just at us. It’s what we have before the game, what the tactical plan is, and our demands. As always, everything is on us.”
Tuesday night’s game will see Jakirovic flip his starting XI, with the team that finished the weekend’s win starting, and it’s hoped Mo Belloumi, Darko Gyabi and Matty Jacob will be fine to play.
“Yes, I’m happy (with what he saw against Konyaspor),” he continued. “The plan was to give minutes to everyone, and we also trained hard regardless of the game.
“There were lots of heavy legs, you can see that, but I’m very happy because we have our principles, we have our basics, of course, we switched a little bit because of those minutes and on Tuesday, we will turn on everything on the opposite end.
“The lads who played 30 minutes (against Konyaspor) will start the game, so we will split the minutes. They’ve had a good workout and 60 minutes into them, which is important.”
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