Every word from Fabian Hurzeler's pre-Newcastle United press conference

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

2025-10-17T12:30+01:00

The head coach prepares his team ahead of Saturday's game against Eddie Howe's Magpies. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Fabian Hurzeler discussed the international break, Solly March and Nick Woltemade in his pre-Newcastle press conference on Friday morning.

Coming off another international break, did you get some time off to reflect on the season so far?

I think it's important to reflect, to analyse how the season went so far, where we have to improve and what we have to work on. But of course, you need to switch off, take some time off to refresh and to be ready energy wise for the next phase.

Can we get some checks on fitness? Brajan Gruda withdrew from the Germany under-21s and Diego Gomez came off for Paraguay. How are they?

Unfortunately, the players didn't come back the way we sent them to the national team. Some of the players came back with small issues, but overall we are trying to manage it. Brajan Gruda can't play tomorrow, he won't be available. The other players, including Diego Gomez, we will have to assess today, but there's a high chance that they're an option to start the game and to play the game.

Are Kaoru Mitoma and Joel Veltman ready to come back?

Kaoru Mitoma missed our last Premier League match against Wolves. 📷 by James Boardman.

Both are in training, but there's still a question mark over both. Therefore we have to wait to see how they're doing and then we can make a decision.

Is there any other team news?

Jack [Hinshelwood] is still out, he won't be available. But I think the other players should be fine.

Jason Steele has signed a new contract that runs until 2027. In the statement yesterday, you said that his influence in the dressing room is huge. He seems all in with Brighton, but what are the qualities he has as an individual that, as a head coach, you find so helpful?

Jason Steele will be with the club at least until the summer of 2027. 📷 Paul Hazlewood.

His qualities are that he's a connector. He's able to bring people together off the pitch. He has a very good eye and sense for the situation. He can observe quite well and that's why it makes him so important for us here, in this environment, because connectors are so important for good culture. He's a good observer and he's a good role model for the others. When he sees things, he's very direct. He communicates in a very positive way, and he's a role model in living the standards he wants to see from others. He has very good standards. He has great values inside of him and that's why he's so important for us off the pitch.

When we look at the cup games, he's like a fine wine. The older he gets, the better he gets. I'm impressed by his development, not only as a player, also as a person, as a character. We are all delighted. We all are very happy that he extended his contract here.

Speaking to Johnny Cantor, Tony Bloom said it’s been a steady start to the season, but there's room to improve. From those opening games, if you pick a few elements to improve on, what are the priorities that you want to see?

I think we just can pick the last game against Wolves. We started the game well and then we faced adversity by conceding a goal. When we look back at the goal and how we conceded it, it's just a small individual mistake from us. And it can be solved by a better connection.

Improving the small margins is the first thing. Then we have to work on how we react to facing adversity. It's important to not overreact, to not get distracted by your style of play, to keep doing the same things we did before. To stay calm, keep being good in our structure, keep having energy on the pitch. In some moments we had a lack of energy and structure after we conceded the goal. Then we always need some time to come back during the game. That’s what we have to work on. We have to work on the small margins, no matter if it's a set-piece, no matter if it's a throw, no matter if it's in open play. Our reactions when we lose the ball and then when we face adversity, because it's normal that you might concede the goal, you might get a setback during the game. In those moments you need to stick to your principles, to keep having good and positive energy on the pitch, to keep having the belief in yourself no matter how long the game is going on to believe that we are always capable of scoring goals. These are some things we have to improve. But overall, we are talking about small margins. We have to work hard for this, to get like these small margins on our side. Then we can get into our flow and that's the goal.

Carlos Baleba played for Cameroon during the international break, during which there was more transfer speculation. How do you look to get him back to his best in this next block of games?

I think we’re getting to a time now where it's up to him, where he has to take responsibility as well. He can't change the noise around him, he's a player for Brighton. No matter what the rumours are, he will be a player for Brighton until [at least] the end of the season. But now he has to take responsibility. Now he has to make a step up and show personality, that's his next step in his personal development for sure. Like I said in the last weeks, there are waves in development, but you can only get out of it if you take ownership and if you take responsibility, there are some moments where nobody can help you. You have to be your own support, your own help. He has the best environment here he can get, he has great teammates who are there for him and support him. But now it's also up to the player that he steps up, that he shows personality and takes ownership of his development. That’s what I demand from him in the future.

You had a great record against Newcastle last season and they've added Nick Woltemade. He's had a brilliant start but he hadn’t shown his potential as a top level goal scorer until last season. What were you when he was coming through when you were in Germany?

The best of Nick Woltemade in black and white ⚫️⚪️@NUFC 💥 pic.twitter.com/hmGW8vMvp0
— Premier League (@premierleague) October 15, 2025

I’ve known about him for a long time and my assistant coach Daniel Niedzkowski worked with him. I was really interested in his development because I think he is something special, how he plays with his height. Of course he's very, very tall, but he still has an unbelievably good technical execution in tight spaces and how he uses his body in a very effective way. He’s impressive. And these are all things you need to have to survive in the Premier League. He has adapted to the intensity, to the demand of the Premier League. I can speak from my own experience, it's really tough also for our young players, for our new players coming from a different league and how fast he did it, it's just impressive and it shows his quality. He will be a big challenge to face tomorrow. As a German I'm very pleased for him. Tomorrow though he can stop scoring and then afterwards I wish him well again!

Have you been doing anything different in training this week to deal with his height?

I was searching for all two-metre-tall staff members, but I couldn’t find one! Actually, Harry Wood, one of our kit men is about that tall. We couldn't really replicate Woltemade in training, but for sure there are some patterns from Newcastle that we have to take care of and for sure, he's a target player, so every time they play a long ball in their own half, he's the target player. Every time they attack the box, he's a danger in the opponent's box. We need to defend our box well. We need to be really tight on him. We shouldn't put him in a one-against-one against our defenders. We always have to double up on him. But it’s not only him, I think Newcastle has unbelievable offensive quality with Gordon, Elanga, Murphy and Barnes. So it's just incredible quality they have. We have to defend well as a team, we have to stick together and to our principles. I always repeat it, we are also a strong team with good quality. We are able to beat every team in the league this season.

You've not been able to name the same starting 11 in consecutive games this season. Is that a bit of a frustration for you or is that kind of just working with the talent you have and dealing with it?

It's the same issue we had last season. You will never hear me complaining about these things. We always try to find solutions. Some injuries at the moment are quite unlucky. I think also that the national teams have a responsibility with how they send the players back and unfortunately not every country did so in a hundred percent professional way. We have to deal with it. We have to find solutions for it. That's what our job and my job is.

And just in terms of Newcastle so far this season, what have you made to how they've started?

A little bit similar to us, very positive performances. I think also they’ve had performances where they might deserve more points. When I look back against Arsenal at home where they’re looking like a winner for almost the whole duration of the game. But then you see how competitive the Premier League is, how unpredictable and how important the small margins are. I think it's a similar situation. They have had, like us, pros and cons, things to improve. But the main thing is we have to focus on us. We have to do our job. We know that Newcastle is a top, top team. We have to keep our standards and our limits really high. Then let's see what happens.

How is Solly March doing and when could we maybe expect to see him back in a match day squad?

Maybe the end of the year. He's doing well. He's progressing. I’ve see him running on the pitch and that's always very positive. I think we have to be very patient with him. It's not his first injury with the knee, but he's doing well. He's progressing well. He seems to be in a good mood, so hopefully he will be available by the end of the year, but I can't see into the future. So let's see what happens.

How important was it for your players to get minutes during the international break, to build up that strength and speed? The likes of Kostoulas and Tzimas scored…

It was very important for both, for Stefanos and for Babis, I wasn't happy about who Stefanos scored against. When they faced Germany he had a very good pressing game and he scored against my country. Then afterwards I received a message from him and he said, ‘sorry for scoring against your country’. I accept that apology. Overall I'm very happy, how they performed, how they both try to improve everyday things that are important for them to get game time. You could feel it when they arrived back in training, they're in a positive mood, they're ready to go again. They're getting closer and closer to the team. I said at the beginning of the season we need to give them time. We don't know how long it takes, but now they're doing really well in training. They did well for their country, they're scoring goals. They look sharp, they look physically ready. So they're getting closer and closer. They both will be in the squad tomorrow. Let's see if they can get game time.

Jason Steele is a part of your leadership team. What does it take to be a part of that?

For me, especially for a club like Brighton, you need to create a high performance culture. The culture is driven by behaviour and the actions from the players. The main players for these things are experienced ones who have the right values, who have the right standards, who have great experience, who achieve things, who have special character profiles. Jason is one of them. The group has about six or seven of these players. We have a regular exchange where we share things, where we're quite honest, where we share what I expect and demand from them, what they demand from me or from our coaching team. It's quite an honest exchange. Then it's always about what does the team need, it's always about how we want to make the club successful, the things we have to focus on to make the next step. These meetings where we can exchange our thoughts are always very important. The main thing is to really drive the culture, because Brighton is not a team who will always beat others just by the individual quality. Brighton will beat others by good togetherness, by having the right behaviours every day, by sticking together, by having the right characters in the team. You need the right culture to do this. You need the right players that really live it. And that's why I created this leadership group.

Newcastle have picked up five clean sheets in their last seven Premier League games. How difficult is it going to be to pick apart their defence? Do you go about that differently to how you have done against other teams?

They are a very physical team, very man orientated with a good intensity. They make a lot of high tempo runs. Therefore they can cover a lot of space in quite a short amount of time. If you try to break against them, you have to be very quick with the execution afterwards. You need to finish the attacks. Otherwise they always have transition moments that are very strong.

You need a good structure, you need good positioning, you need good technical execution, fast technical execution in tight spaces because they are very quick in transition moments in both directions. They can cover a lot of space in a quite short amount of time. Our technical execution has to be to a high standard.