“I’m a fan of the manager and I almost feel that there’s a little bit of indifference towards him,” pundit Jamie Carragher said of Fabian Hurzeler on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football pre-match show ahead of Brighton & Hove Albion’s 1-1 draw with Bournemouth last week.
“Maybe from Brighton supporters, people outside of the club. But, when you think of his age coming into the Premier League (31 then, now 32), finishing eighth last season, 12th right now, but six points off fifth, he’s got a game in hand.
“They’re playing at home tonight against Bournemouth, the home record is fantastic. I think there’s only Aston Villa who’ve beaten them there going back to last season. So, I think there’s a lot to be pleased about.”
Disgruntled away fans making their way home from Craven Cottage on Saturday night would beg to differ with Carragher after a 2-1 defeat at Fulham stretched the downturn for Hurzeler’s side to one league win in 10 matches (at home to surely-doomed Burnley).
Basing the run on wins alone is a bit misleading. It includes a point away to Manchester City among six draws (Hurzeler’s side are the draw specialists of the division on nine, joint with Bournemouth and Sunderland). The other defeats in the sequence have come away to Liverpool, away to Arsenal and at home to Villa — none of which are games they should be expected to draw, let alone win. During this period, there has been another victory, against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the third round of the FA Cup.
Yet the fact remains that their league position has slipped from fifth to 12th since away supporters last watched their team winning in the league, 2-0 at Nottingham Forest at the end of November. Brighton are now a point closer to Forest in 17th (five points clear) than they are to Liverpool in sixth place (six points adrift).
Kaoru Mitoma reacts to Fulham’s late winner against Brighton on Saturday (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Social media reaction — good or bad, depending on the performance and result — is an unreliable barometer of reality. Occasionally, though, a comment strikes at the nub of a narrative. That was the case after the Fulham defeat, with one fan claiming: ‘Any decent manager would finish top 6 with this squad’.
That is the biggest problem Hurzeler faces in winning over a seemingly growing number of detractors. They still pine for the football played under Roberto De Zerbi, which lifted Brighton to sixth place and European football for the first time in 2022-23. Any judgment they make on Hurzeler is coloured by the shadow of De Zerbi.
Hurzeler arguably has the best squad in Brighton’s history, but it is not a top-six squad and the first-choice XI that De Zerbi was able to field that season (with the departed Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister in midfield) was significantly better than any combination of players Hurzeler could pick.
Hurzeler’s best option in midfield, Carlos Baleba, has been a shadow of the player he was last season, both before and after distracting interest from Manchester United last summer. There were signs off the bench against Bournemouth and against Fulham for 81 minutes, on his first start since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with Cameroon, of Baleba rediscovering his powers.
Brighton did not lose at Fulham because Milner replaced Baleba after his second-highest number of minutes in the Premier League this season. They lost because Charalampos Kostoulas — one of five second-half changes made in total by the manager — conceded a needless foul in added time in a dangerous position, which was punished when Harry Wilson scored from the resultant free kick (one that Bart Verbruggen should have saved).
In that moment, Kostoulas (introduced for Danny Welbeck in the 88th minute) exhibited the true nature of Brighton’s squad, highlighted recently by The Athletic. It is made up, with the exception of a few old heads, of young players rich in potential but prone to the type of inconsistency displayed by the 18-year-old Greek forward. At Old Trafford a fortnight earlier in the third round of the FA Cup, the game management of Kostoulas was exceptional in helping to protect a 2-1 lead as a late substitute.
How is Hurzeler faring in the way he uses substitutes over the course of his reign? Well, Samuel Chukwueze’s equaliser for Saturday’s opponents was the 24th goal scored by a Fulham substitute since the start of last season. That is the joint-highest number of goals scored by substitutes for a team in the division over the period with… Hurzeler’s Brighton. That suggests, taken as a whole, that the changes he makes tend to pay off.
Hurzeler is not at the same level yet in his journey as a coach as De Zerbi. The Italian, 43 years old when he was appointed in September 2022, had worked in the Italian top flight with Palermo, Benevento and Sassuolo, and in the Ukrainian Premier League at Shakhtar Donetsk. Tony Bloom knew this when he picked Hurzeler after he had guided St Pauli to promotion from the second tier in his native Germany. The owner-chairman looked at what Hurzeler can become in the future.
Brighton’s players celebrate during their FA Cup win at Manchester United (Simon Stacpoole/Getty Images)
Bloom also appointed a coach prepared to operate within the framework of the recruitment structure. Namely, a mix of the aforementioned youngsters from all parts of the world, combined with group of experienced campaigners to guide them, because players proven at the top level in their mid to late twenties are not generally within Brighton’s spending capacity. De Zerbi was not that coach. He did not have the patience for a long-term strategy.
How Hurzeler uses the players at his disposal and whether he is getting the best out of them are justifiable areas for scrutiny. The choice of Olivier Boscagli at left-back at Fulham, for example, a contributing factor in Chukwueze’s equaliser, was strange. Inconsistent performances and an absence of clarity to the naked eye in the style of play are fair criticisms. But Hurzeler will make mistakes, he is learning on the job.
Sources at the club who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity to protect relationships say there is no diminishing faith in Hurzeler at boardroom level. In fact, there is irritation about the level of criticism and a faction of the fanbase intent on pushing the idea that his job will surely be on the line if results do not improve soon.
So, what are we to make of the state of play under Hurzeler? The club’s stated aims are to compete for European qualification and a first major trophy. They feed into hopes and dreams, which are the lifeblood of football fandom. That is all fine. But hopes and dreams are different from expectations.
If a supporter expects Brighton to finish in the top 10, expects to reach Europe more than once in a blue moon, expects to win domestic silverware when so much depends on the draw, they will more often than not end up disappointed.
The cold truth is that they support a club that, by any historical measure, is a lower-league club that probably reached a peak in that 2022-23 season under De Zerbi. A club that has consistently punched above its weight in the Amex stadium era — six seasons in the Championship, a ninth successive season in the Premier League.
If frequently bloodying the noses of the elite and regularly being in contention, or thereabouts, to achieve the ambitions is not enough to satisfy a Brighton fan, they are condemning themselves to perpetual frustration. It is easy to reel off nine or 10 clubs, based on financial muscle, that Brighton should not reasonably be expected to finish above. They will always be fighting to defy the odds.
How long the learning process takes with Hurzeler, and whether the inevitable bumps along the way extend to lasting and meaningful decline, will define his longevity. A pivotal period is looming in terms of how the rest of this season looks: home games against Everton and rivals Crystal Palace, followed by an FA Cup fourth round tie away to Liverpool.
The congested nature of the table is a telling reminder that the time to judge Hurzeler’s second season in charge is not on the 24th of January after an annoying loss on the banks of the River Thames but after the 24th of May — when Manchester United visit the Amex for the final fixture of the campaign.