Arsenal v Hull City: Sergej Jakirovic's plans A, B and C to avoid another nightmare against Europe's elite
Sergej Jakirovic will be relying on Hull City's mental strength to avoid a potential re-run of one of his most bruising days in football.
His Tigers take on Arsenal side who he regards as one of the two best teams in Europe on their own patch in Saturday's Premier League.
He has come up against Europe’s elite before, and found out the hard way how tough it can be.
Jakirovic was coach of Dinamo Zagreb when they faced Bayern Munich in the 2024-25 Champions League group stage and was on the wrong end of a 9-2 defeat which saw him sacked two days later.
At the time it was the biggest victory in Champions League history, although Como outdid that with Tuesday's 9-1 win at Lens.
"Especially this night, we were not at this level at all, and if you are not compact, if you are shuffling, especially when they try to play around you to pull you out of your position, they will use all these gaps between your players, because they recognise this immediately," said Jakirovic.
"In that game they had three penalties (all scored by Harry Kane), which is a little bit weird, but they will use every mistake, they will punish you, they will not miss their opportunities.
"We tried something this week. We tried everything – plan A, plan B, even C.
"But you don't have a chance if you sit back like 5-4-1 and if you are passive, they will destroy you.
"It has to be front foot, it has to be aggressive on the body especially because they have a very high quality in their roster.
"You can be more solid, more aggressive, especially in the challenge, especially the second goal against Ipswich (in last week's 2-1 defeat). We could stop this easily, we can make a foul at least. At this level, it's a goal.
"Arsenal are playing very good football, no matter Champions League or Premier League. They are very strong, they control everything not just against us, also other better clubs.
"But in football, we have a chance.
"Obviously, they are a big favourite, and we can start to try to create some difficulties for them."
Fortunately, Hull have already shown this season and last they are made of tough stuff if they concd arly.
"You need to be really mentally strong if this happens," said the former Bosnia player.
"Every goal is very important, especially for the goal difference, and also we have to show mentality like we always do.
"We already had this experience – Chelsea away game, Newcastle away – but we should try to avoid this 100 per cent.
"Our mental resilience is very important because of everything we did in the past – this team, together, chemistry, togetherness, team spirit, everything. So this is the main thing we have."
Asked what he would talk to Mikel Arteta about if he shares a drink with the Gunners manager at full-time, Jakirovic replied: "I will ask him to give me his budget!
"But he deserves to be at this level. He was (a coach) at Man City, now he's been at Arsenal (as manager) almost seven years, and it's progress every year.
"It's not easy to build a new team, but you have options to add more quality in your team, because Arsenal is a top-five team in Europe, in terms of everything.
"This a chance to show we can compete there. Maybe you can surprise them with something, and also you can compare where we are right now, because they are the best, it's not a secret."