With the Premier League getting underway later this week, The Athletic is tactically profiling the three promoted sides. We started with Coventry City, followed up with Ipswich Town, and today it’s play-off winners Hull City under the microscope.Once again, Hull City head into a season battling the odds.With pundits, fans, and computer simulations filling out their Premier League predictions, there is an overwhelming consensus that the Tigers will be relegated, with most expecting them to finish bottom.The fact that they are even listed on the ballot is a testament to their remarkable turnaround under head coach Sergej Jakirovic, who inherited a club in turmoil when he took charge last summer. Hull had narrowly avoided relegation to League One, surviving on goal difference on the final day, and were serving a transfer embargo that limited them to free transfers and loan dealings.Against this testing backdrop, Jakirovic guided Hull to an incredible promotion, defeating Middlesbrough 1-0 in May’s play-off final after finishing sixth in the regular campaign.Here, The Athletic examines Jakirovic’s tactical approach as Hull brace themselves for the rigours of Premier League football for the first time since 2016-17.Sergej Jakirovic’s pragmatism has helped Hull return to the top flight (George Wood/Getty Images)A direct, robust styleUnder Jakirovic, Hull typically line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. They used the system 35 times last season, but more important than formation was their approach: Jakirovic shifted Hull away from a sometimes sterile possession game towards a more direct, aggressive style. The graphic below fleshes that out, with Hull averaging just 2.6 passes per sequence while recording a ‘direct speed’ (how fast the ball moved straight upfield) of 1.53 metres per second, the eighth-highest in the league.This more robust approach may not be Jakirovic’s preferred vision for how football should be played, but he is not a dogmatic idealist. Instead, he tailors his approach to the players at his disposal. “My football philosophy is to adapt as soon as possible to the team, to develop them,” he said at his unveiling. “I like attacking football, but we need such a profile of players.”Jakirovic’s style is a natural fit for the squad, particularly after Hull signed centre-forward Oli McBurnie on a free transfer last summer, arguably the division’s signing of the season.