Sergej Jakirovic has dismissed concerns about Hull City's slow starts after their 2-1 loss to Newcastle United at St James' Park. Newcastle scored twice in the first seven minutes through Joe Willock and Lewis Hall, taking advantage of errors in Hull's defence. Mohamed-Ali Cho scored for Hull in the second half, but they could not find an equaliser.
Hull also conceded early in last week's game against Chelsea, with Morgan Rogers scoring after seven minutes, but Jakirovic is not worried about that pattern.
"This is a high level, they will use every mistake," Jakirovic said. "We used their mistake for the first goal, we stole the ball and we immediately scored. This is the level, it's a very high level of players and they have individual quality to punish you."
He praised his side's second-half display. "I'm very proud of how we play especially in the second half. I'm aware that maybe we lose this game in the first half, in the first 10 minutes. That was not our plan, we did some mistakes, especially the first goal, we are in full defence there so we can control the space better. Second goal is a clear mistake is a clear mistake because they're just waiting, it was a trigger to play in midfield, they press you and they're very clinical in counter attack."
Jakirovic said the team changed their approach at half-time. "At half-time, we agree that we will push more, more pressing, more front foot, also to win first and second ball in challenges because we were very poor in the first half. I think the substitutions brought a lot of energy and quality and we had some nice chances but we couldn't put it in the net."
He added: "In one year and a couple of months we showed we will never surrender, we have a good mentality, a good character and we will play to the end. Unfortunately we just miss the goals."
Source: www.hulldailymail.co.uk — Read the original article
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