Fabian Hurzeler has called for greater consistency from his Brighton players and admitted their fitness levels need to be improved despite a spirited second-half performance in the 1-1 home draw against chasing Arsenal of title.
Ironically, the Seagulls have been largely consistent with their recent results, having drawn six of their last eight Premier League games.
But such a series has not led to a championship victory since the end of November. And it proved to be a familiar result after Joao Pedro’s penalty just after the hour canceled out Ethan Nwaneri’s opener at the Amex Stadium on Saturday.
Despite a good start to the season, Brighton now find themselves at the bottom of the table. They currently occupy tenth place.
FT: Another well-deserved point against Arsenal. 🤝
[1-1] 📲 #BHAARS // #BHAFC 🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/Hvip9KAe8l
– Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) January 4, 2025
And Hurzeler, the Premier League’s youngest permanent manager at 31, admits he is frustrated after tackling the same issues every week.
“Yes, I think it should be more,” Hurzeler told Sky Sports after being asked if his side should have scored more than one point against the Gunners.
“I stand here after games and I feel like I have to repeat myself all the time and that is, of course, a disappointing feeling.
“The big word for us is to be more consistent. Trying to play with the identity you want to play for a full 90 minutes and then hopefully we’ll get the results we expect.
“It took a lot of investment to come back [in the game]. We came back but we weren’t clean enough in the final third.
“We had some big chances and I think against Arsenal you have to use the momentum to win the game and today we didn’t manage to do that.”
Opportunity for improvement
The Brighton manager believes one area of improvement that could help solve the consistency problem is his team’s fitness levels.
But he acknowledges that improving players’ physical condition is not a silver bullet and that it will take time to see real progress.
Hurzeler said: “[Fitness levels] Maybe that’s one of the reasons why we’re not able to play consistently for 90 minutes. The game we want to play is intense, the game has to be intense if you want to press high.
“You have to run a lot and at high speed. We’re not where we should be, but it’s a process. We needed a lot of physicality for this match and at times we struggled and couldn’t maintain that physical level for 90 minutes.
“That’s why we’re still working on it and using training time to improve it.”
Brighton are next in action when they travel to Championship side Norwich City in the FA Cup third round on January 11.
