Hull City coach lifts lid on team news and selection plans for Sunderland clash

Jakirovic has kept changes to a minimum over the opening weeks of the league season, with just one change coming ahead of Saturday's clash with Aston Villa.

However, Tuesday night's Carabao Cup clash at the Stadium of Light provides the head coach with an opportunity to make changes and give some of his new arrivals the chance to strut their stuff in black and amber.

Robinio Vaz, Christos Mouzakitis and Tim Iroegbunam are among the deadline day signings looking for a debut with the latter being left out on Saturday through precaution due to a groin injury.

Mohamed-Ali Cho, Matt Targett and Lucas Herrington will be hoping to get starts for City, too, and Sorba Thomas and Brooke Norton-Cuffy may well see Tuesday as a chance to impress following their eye catching debut against Villa on Saturday.

Matt Crooks is expected to play some part in the game after missing the last two games with a knock, while Joe Gelhardt will be keen to be involved, too.

"I don't know exactly [how many changes] but we'll see how they come through the session today," assistant manager Dean Holden told Hull Live. "There will be changes, Sergej proved that in the first game, he said it's a good opportunity to get minutes into players who need to get up to speed.

"There's a lot of players who have come through the door in the transfer window and they need valuable minutes.

"You saw in that first game, there was a lot of changes and we still got a positive result which has been great actually for the chemistry of the group."

Asked whether everyone came through the weekend's game, unscathed, Holden added: "We think so, we'll see who we've got this morning for the trip up to Sunderland this afternoon. There's one or two niggles and knocks but you get them in every single game so hopefully everyone has come through."

Whatever team Jakirovic selects this week, his XI for Chelsea on Saturday will remain at least relatively similar to the one that took on Villa, with perhaps one or two changes.

What the head coach really wants is a selection headache though and he'll have that if those involved at Sunderland take their opportunities.

"Going back to last season, Sergej will rotate and change depending on the opponent in front of us," Holden added. "The boys that have got the shirt at the moment are doing well enough to keep hold of it, but certainly everybody who gets a chance will have to stake a claim to get in and that's the exciting thing for us.

"We have a lot of new and young players who have joined the group who weren't with us last season but they have a fight on to get hold of that shirt. That's what you want, competition for places all over the pitch."