City’s boss has a big decision to make in the Tigers’ engine room
Barry Cooper Hull City correspondent
12:00, 25 Nov 2025
Matt Crooks picked up his fifth booking of the season at Loftus Road(Image: Ian Tuttle/Shutterstock)
Sergej Jakirovic will be forced into at least one change to his starting XI as he looks to mastermind a sixth home win for Hull City on Tuesday night.
The Tigers host one of the fancied teams for promotion in Ipswich Town at the MKM Stadium, aiming to bounce back from Saturday’s disappointing 3-2 loss at QPR in a game where they twice led.
Matt Crooks will be unavailable for the visit of the Tractor Boys after he picked up a fifth yellow card of the season in stoppage time at Loftus Road, which opens up the possibility for Darko Gyabi to possibly come in for a rare start.
Jakirovic could be tempted to shift on-fire Joe Gelhardt into a more central position and hand Mohamed Belloumi a first start since returning from a hamstring injury, though the Tigers boss admits he needs to be careful with the Algerian.
He may also consider the back-three option he’s used previously this season, and therefore push Ryan Giles and Lewie Coyle into the wing-back roles.
John Lundstram is still not fit enough to be considered for selection, having not returned to training on Monday so he will remain sidelined with Oli McBurnie, Liam Millar, Kasey Palmer and Eliot Matazo.
Given City have conceded seven goals in their last three games since the clean sheet at Norwich City, Jakirovic may also opt to make a change in defence with Semi Ajayi pushing for a return to the starting XI, but his issues lie further up the pitch when it comes to controlling games and defending from the front, so he’ll want more from those in front of the back four.
City’s predicted XI: Pandur, Giles, Hughes, Ajayi, Coyle, Slater, Gyabi, Joseph, Ndala, Destan, Gelhardt.
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