Hull City manager Sergej Jakirović believes his team were unlucky not to receive a penalty during the early stages of their 1-0 Carabao Cup defeat against Sunderland on Tuesday night.
Jakirović thought Luke O’Nien had fouled Robinio Vaz as the Hull attacker carried the ball into the Sunderland penalty area within the opening five minutes, but the referee chose not to award a spot-kick. The Tigers boss suggested that had the match been played in the Premier League, VAR could potentially have intervened and advised the referee to give a penalty.
“From what I saw, yes, it’s foul,” Jakirović said.
“So you have a kick in the calf and an elbow in the head. If it’s in the box, it’s a penalty. It’s not easy for the referees because it’s very fast, and maybe if it’s VAR [it gets given]. Maybe but we cannot change anything.”
Jakirović also singled out Chemsdine Talbi for praise after his excellent second-half finish proved decisive for Sunderland. However, he believed the final result was somewhat harsh on his players.
The Hull boss pointed to a lack of match fitness among several members of his squad as one of the main reasons his side struggled, particularly with energy levels as the game progressed.
“I think that we played a 50-50 game today,” Jakirović said.
“We had some good actions, Sunderland also had some good actions. Maybe this goal, what we considered, we have to be better organised there to win this long ball, but a great finish at the end. Maybe I think we had the best chance in the game tonight through Gelhardt, so maybe we can score there, but unfortunately we didn’t and congratulations to Sunderland for the victory.
“Maybe through all the game we had some good actions, but a lack of better decisions or finishing. But I know where the problem is, a lack of fitness and of energy specially with new players. They are playing for the first time together with official games, so it’s not easy and all these principles that we have but it will get better. So they have to work a lot on their fitness and then everything will be good.”