Every word from Fabian Hurzeler ahead of Liverpool at home

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Albion could move as high as eighth with a win on Saturday.

2026-03-20T15:00+00:00

Fabian Hurzeler's team have won three of their last four Premier League games. 📸 by Paul Hazlewood.

Fabian Hurzeler discussed the impact of Danny Welbeck and Pascal Gross as well as the terrific atmosphere at the Amex in recent matches in his press conference on Friday. The press conference took place prior to the England squad announcement, which saw Jason Steele called up to Thomas Tuchel's squad.

Is it a bad time to play Liverpool after their performance in the Champions League?

Flo ➡️ Mo ✨ pic.twitter.com/KVt7wYJZ3Y
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) March 20, 2026

That's football. I think we all know Liverpool are still one of the best teams with incredible individual quality. They always can have these special nights, especially at Anfield, and I think they came into a flow. When Liverpool comes into a flow, then it gets difficult for every team. So our responsibility is to not let them get into the flow. We need to be prepared. We need to be intense. We play at home, we play in front of our fans and therefore we are looking forward to it.

Where is your season now? Do you still think about Europe? Did you ever stop thinking about it?

I think I never stopped thinking about the process. I never stopped thinking about how can I improve the team, how we can improve as a club, how we can improve on and off the pitch. That's an ongoing process. I always emphasise how my team plays, how we stick together, how they react to lows, how they react to highs. It's very important to stay predictable, to keep working hard, to keep the standards high. We do this at the moment well and then we can see what happens at the end of the season. But the Premier League is unpredictable at the moment. So we go game by game. We need to play every game like it’s the last game of the season, like it's a final. That's our approach – then we see what happens.

Will Kaoru Mitoma return tomorrow?

Yes, Kaoru will be back.

Anyone else out?

No.

In the summer there was some speculation about Kaoru wanting to sign a new contract. He's got only one season left after this season on his current deal. Jan Paul van Hecke is another one who's in a similar position. Are new deals being discussed for those two?

Yes, you can be sure that we are in a very transparent exchange with the players. I think the players know where they stand. We know what we want from them. They know what we want from them. It's very important to be very transparent, to be clear about the future. But the most important thing in football is always to be in the present. The present is the only thing that we and the players can control. Every player has a vision, has a goal in their career, but it's not important to chase the dream. The dream will come to you if you are excellent today, if you're excellent tomorrow, if you keep controlling the things you can control and try to be the best version of yourself every day. And then you will see what happens. The future you can't influence, but you can impact the day to day. That is the only thing I focus on and the players focus on as well.

So could they sign new contracts?

In football, we all know that everything is possible. I think both know we really enjoy working with them. They both are very important players. As a club, we don't have to hide this opinion. We should be quite honest about this, but in the end you can only impact certain things and there’s always two sides, the club’s side and the player’s side. But I think they all know what they have playing for Brighton. They all know that Brighton gave them the opportunity to develop, gave them opportunity to play at the highest level in the best league in the world.

Two weeks on, we are still finding things to talk about with the Arsenal game. The Premier League panel said that Brighton should have had a penalty in that match. That was discussed afterwards and I think it was a common opinion anyway. How does it affect your thoughts on VAR?

Not too much. Behind VAR is still a human being who makes a decision by seeing the scenes and therefore it's about interpretation of the scene. It's just a human being making a wrong decision. I never judge the referees. I will never say that a referee is responsible for us losing a game. And I'm also a human being, I make a lot of mistakes. The past is gone. I shared my opinion [on the decision]. I had a lot of confirmations regarding the statistics now regarding this decision, but in the end we can only hope that tomorrow the referee will make all the right decisions. But again that's something we can't influence. We have to control the things we can control and then we still have a big opportunity to win the game.

Do you think VAR sometimes limits the decision making of the referee on the field? UEFA is also set to have a meeting with the top European leagues to discuss the best way to use VAR.

I have no idea how exactly the approach is going to be. I shouldn't share my opinion about that because I don't know how the process is, how the communication is between the referees on the pitch and the VAR. I'm 100 per cent sure that they will find the right decision. They will find the right solutions about handling it and managing it better than it might be in the past. For them it's a process. VAR is a new, innovative thing that came into the game several years ago and we can't expect that the thing immediately works. There always have to be small adjustments. Like me working as a head coach, you can't always have the same idea regarding your foundation, regarding your principles. You always have to stick to them, but you need to adjust because also the trends in the Premier League always present new challenges. Now it’s the set pieces, that's the new challenge. I think it's always an ongoing process. It's the same for the Premier League with the VAR. It's about adjusting, adapting things, finding right solutions.

What makes the game more lively? What makes the game more of an event, so that the supporters spending a lot of money for tickets can enjoy the game, that they can enjoy the 90 minutes. I think that everyone needs to understand it's the highlight of the weekend. They're waiting for this game and they want to be entertained. That has to be the main message of all the decisions we try to do. How can we entertain them? Because that's what everyone is about. Football is about entertainment. It's about bringing energy to the fans. It's about giving them a really good weekend, and therefore I think we all have responsibility to make sure this happens.

We’re talking before the England squad announcement, slightly awkward timing. Danny Welbeck, we've asked you about him lots of times. Have you had any conversations with Thomas Tuchel in the last week?

No. And if I had a conversation, I wouldn't say it. Let's see what happens. I think Danny's performing well. Danny is in a good shape. I think it's not only Danny, I want to emphasise that we still have a great second-choice goalkeeper in Jason Steele, who although he's not playing is in incredible shape, when I see him training every day, he’s impressive. And every time we need him, he's there. He showed really good performances in the cup games. He's a really good candidate as well. I also like Jack [Hinshelwood] at the moment, so there are several players who might have the opportunity to play for England. I am a 100 per cent they all would be very proud playing for their country. But let's see what happens.

On Danny, we know what he can do on the pitch and the experience he has. What would he bring to the squad off the pitch?

Germany head coach Julien Nagelsmann had a press conference talking about Pascal Gross, there's a phrase in Germany, ‘he's the longer arm from the coach’, and he makes players around him better. That's a 100 per cent also the phrase I would give to Danny Welbeck. He can be a longer arm for the coach in a different way. What I mean is in a different way than Pascal. Pascal is more in the game regarding tactics. Danny Welbeck is an unbelievably great connector. He can connect different ages, he can connect different cultures and I think that's something that really helps the coach. That really helps, especially when it comes to the World Cup, to bring the different ages together to make sure everyone is aligned, to make sure the team is heading in the right direction. He's blessed with some unbelievable skills and I like to talk about Danny off the pitch, but I also like to talk about Danny on the pitch. He’s a hard worker, he’s scoring goals. Let's see what Thomas decides – or he might already have decided.

Pascal has played every minute of your last seven matches. What conversations did you have with Julien Nagelsmann in the build-up to him being selected and what positives have you seen from his time at Brighton that have got him back into the national squad?

Pascal Gross returned in January from Borussia Dortmund. 📸 by James Boardman.

First of all, I'm really happy for Pascal and he deserves it because he's working hard, he's training hard. He's there for me. He's there for the team. He has put in really good performances since he's been here. He deserves it. You don't always need a big exchange with the coach. I think sometimes performances, actions and behaviours on the pitch speak for themselves and therefore I don't always need to have an exchange. I think Julien saw Pascal’s games and saw how he's performing. He knows what great personality Pascal has. He always puts the team first and that's crucial for every national team. I think with Pascal is you can't replace him even if you wanted to – this ability to build a connection together in a group. I think this can be key or a game changer to winning something.

Has Pascal helped you in terms of game management?

At the moment I'm leaning on the old players because I think they brought the stability, but it doesn't mean that the young players won't have any opportunity anymore. I think we are able to manage the key moments of the game better and therefore Pascal plays a very important role. But I also want to emphasise, we speak a lot about the experienced players, the leaders at the moment, and they did an unbelievable job in the last few weeks. They were leading by example. They were leading by performance. But I think it's very important also to take care of the young players like Carlos Baleba, Georginio Rutter, Babis Kostoulas, I can mention now every name because they also played a very important role for us so far in the season. At the moment they need to wait for their opportunity. But that's what I emphasise. The club is about developing young players. The club is about giving young players the chance to perform. I think it's very important to not forget these young players. That's what I try to do as well, to keep speaking to them, keep talking to them, keep working with them. When they get the chance and when they get the opportunity and these opportunities, they a hundred percent will come. Then they have to be there.

The bleep noise was doing overtime for your post-match speech against Sunderland [as seen in Brighton Unlocked]. Do you do a similarly passionate speech before matches as well?

Brighton Unlocked in partnership with @mpbcom. Buy, sell and trade used camera gear. https://bit.ly/MPB457

I think it depends. It's very important to understand what the team needs, to understand the situation we are in and I choose my voice because I think you can't always be loud as a coach. You have to find a good balance. You have to also give responsibility to the assistant coaches and to other coaches to give them a voice, to give the players a voice as well. It's not always that I do the post-match talk or the pre-match talk. So overall there has to be a good togetherness. It has to be a good mix, I don't always do it like this. It has to be a good balance.

We've seen earlier in the season, some people have criticism of you and Arne Slot. What have you made of him in the last few weeks and this season with Liverpool?

The criticism about me – I honestly have the feeling that my relationship with the supporters is closer than it ever was because we went through a tough period and I compared it a little bit to like a relationship with a girlfriend, a wife, a husband or to a normal friend. If you really share your emotions, if you really dig deep into each other and share how you feel and everyone is allowed to share the emotions, then you create a feeling of being even more connected, of being even tighter, even more unbreakable. That's what I feel at the moment with the supporters and what they created in the games against Arsenal and what they created against Nottingham Forest, this atmosphere was impressive and therefore I'm really grateful.

That's also what I want to say to them, we should be a team. We should be a club that creates a place where no one wants to come – I think they did it in an impressive way. They didn't only watch the game, they influenced the game. So anyone who is watching this press conference, just be as loud as possible tomorrow, be behind us, create an energy, because I think we can really create something in the Amex stadium. We can really create a place that no one wants to go. And this comes back to our intensity, to our performance. But also when I felt the fans against Arsenal. They were on it from the first second, they influence the game by their voice, by their emotion, by their energy. That makes me really feel connected to them. It gives me a really great feeling that we are tight, that we are unbreakable, and I am really grateful for that. Regarding Arne Slot, I think football sometimes is not fair. He won the Premier League. He's doing an incredible job. He has a real good style of football. He tries to develop the players now and against Galatasaray he played with a diamond which what was a great idea. It completely worked. So you always find good solutions in possession. Of course you sometimes feel for your colleague – I went through a tough period. So I can imagine how tough it is for him, but I'm 100 per cent sure that he will find a way out of it.

With Kaoru Mitoma available and Yankuba Minteh doing well, how difficult has it been, because you initially played with two out and out wingers quite regularly with those two on both flanks. How much would you like to go back to that or is the form of Diego Gomez maybe preventing that in terms of what he gives your side?

First of all, I'm happy that each of them is available. That hasn’t happened so often this season. My medical department has done a great job and I think Yankuba Minteh is a great example of giving the young players the opportunity. Again, he was waiting for his chance. He trained hard, he pushed his standards in every training session, and then when he got his chance, he used it very aggressively and he used it on the left side very impressively. I know that he also has his strengths on the right side, and we all know that Kaoru can be a game changer. For me it's great to have these three players available and in great shape. Before a small issue with his ankle, Kaoru was performing well. He played really good in the first half against Arsenal. So that makes us in general more unpredictable, so we can change during the game. We can change at half-time, we can change with a sub. It makes us more flexible and therefore it's competition. The competition is on. They have to fight for their places. Then I'm also sure that we can really benefit from different skills and different weapons they have in each position.

You've only conceded seven goals in the last eight games. Lots of people talk about your captain. Lots of people talk about Jan Paul van Hecke, but Ferdi Kadioglu just goes under the radar, doesn't he? How important has his consistency been in an important role, in particular putting in those sort of performances and not conceding goals?

Ferdi Kadioglu has made 42 appearances for Albion. 📸 by James Boardman.

He’s definitely very important. I think it's about consistency. What you just mentioned, about being there all the time, trying to be intense in wanting to win one-v-one duels, facing a lot of running. And he manages this in an impressive way. Now he gets more and more resilient. Not only out of possession, he also has a big impact on our game in possession. He can run a lot. He can fight, he can be very tough and like a small warrior, like a small terrier who's always there in personal duels. That's what we need. And again, I don't like to speak about one player in general. It's in general the back four, the back line, how they work together. Also when Olivier Boscagli was playing against Arsenal when Lewis was injured he put in a really good performance. They're doing a good job because they work hard in the training sessions. They're doing a good job because they put in a shift, they are intense in personal duels, and therefore I'm pleased with all of them.

Is this the best defensive unit that you've had since you've been here?

What are the statistics saying?

Probably, yes...

So sometimes we need to trust the numbers. Yeah I'm happy at the moment. How we defend and I think we put an emphasis on defending together. What I mean with putting emphasis on defending together is not only that now we talk about the back four, but the stats of my offense player, if they work hard for the back four. If they have this mindset of ‘I am the first defender’, it definitely helps my back four. It's a togetherness, it's teamwork. And in the end, it’s nice the back line gets rewards, because most of the time only the offensive player gets or got the reward so I'm pleased.