The Premier League season is just six games old, and already Oli McBurnie and Matt Crooks are one mistimed tackle away from a suspension.

Hull have had more yellow cards (20) than any team in the division, and McBurnie and Crooks have four each, with a fifth before the January 5 trip to Nottingham Forest leading to a one-match suspension.

At least McBurnie can say he has played in every game; Crooks has only played in four and has been substituted in the last three. The Leeds-born pair will have to watch their step at Fulham on Saturday.

With so much competition for his place, a ban for Crooks would be a personal blow. With none of the strikers signed to challenge him up to speed yet, one to McBurnie would really hit the side, despite his failure to find the net so far this season.

CAUTION: Oli McBurnie gets his fourth booking of the fledgling Premier League season against Everton last week (Image: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

placeholder image — CAUTION: Oli McBurnie gets his fourth booking of the fledgling Premier League season against Everton last week (Image: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

It would also sting coach Sergej Jakirovic, who has thought throughout his time in England that the former Bradford City, Barnsley and Sheffield United striker gets a raw deal from referees.

"Sometimes he is unprotected there, I am not happy with that because when I watch the games, you see obvious fouls on him,” he says.

"They (opponents) try to provoke him, which is also a tactic.

"In a live game I don't see everything, but when you watch there is a lot of pulling, a lot of pushing. And on the other side, it's always a foul or at least 50 per cent of (the time a) foul for the opponent.

COMBATIVE: Matt Crooks wins a header against Andrey Santos of Manchester United as Oli McBurnie watches on (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)

"So if you have this criteria, you have to keep the criteria all game. This is my opinion.

"His last yellow card (for a frustrated foul on Everton's James Tarkowski) is very naïve.

"You must have man-management as a referee as well, because you know Oli McBurnie, he's not a new guy here. You can say to him one more time, I will book you.

"Everything is about how you approach the player.

"It's football – sometimes your pulse is very high, you will say something that you don't mean and then they will book you.

"But he has also to control himself better. Of course he knows everything. He's not a baby."

Jakirovic is much more comfortable about McBurnie's scoring blank. Able to take hits as a targetman or drop deep and link the play, the 30-year-old has made a big contribution to Hull's good start to the campaign, just not the scoresheet. Others think it too, with McBurnie recently recalled by Scotland.

"We are speaking every day about this," says Jakirovic. "Don't be... that you didn't score the goal. Don't be, I don't know the word in English, but it infects you.

"You have to do your job, he is great, (that is) our assessment and the goal will come.

"For me it is very important that he is there, that we can create a chance for him. If we create a chance for him, he will score the goal."

According to WhoScored.com, McBurnie has had ten shots in this season's Premier League, three on target and three blocked.

But Jakirovic takes the same attitude to suspensions as his frustratingly long injury list.

Mohamed Ali-Cho, Nobel Mendy, Charlie Hughes, Matt Targett, Lucas Gourna, Ilyas Ansah and Jack Butland are all ruled out of the trip to west London but as far as he is concerned, that is why Hull have the biggest squad the rules allow.

"We have other players in this position if Matt Crooks get a fifth yellow," says Jakirovic, bluntly. "One day this fifth yellow will come (for McBurnie) and then he will have a suspension, and then we have (Robinio) Vaz or Ali Cho."

It would be better all round if it did not come to that this early.