Every word from Fabian Hurzeler's pre-Tottenham press conference

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Albion welcome Tottenham to the Amex on Saturday afternoon.

2025-09-19T10:35+01:00

Fabian Hurzeler's team have won one of their opening four Premier League games this campaign. 📷 by James Boardman.

Here's what Fabian Hurzeler said at his pre-Spurs press conference.

Team news?

Unfortunately we had two injuries in the game against Bournemouth. Jack [Hinshelwood] will be out for a longer time. With Maxim, luckily it's not that bad so we have to see. He might be available for the game, it's not a big injury, it was just a hit and hopefully he will be back soon.

Mats Wieffer is back and is an option, he is available.

It's not perfect with Jack, but overall we are still in a good place.

What's Jack's injury?

Jack Hinshelwood picked up an ankle injury in the opening minute of our 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth last week. 📷 by James Boardman.

He has a ligament injury in his ankle. It happened in a very unlucky way, but that's football. We have to accept it.

In terms of reflecting on Bournemouth have you done quite a lot of that this week?

Yes, for sure. We always do a lot of reflection, no matter if we win or lose. Overall we all agreed that it was not our best game. I think we lacked a little bit of intensity, we lacked compactness between our midfield and our strikers and our defenders, the distances between each other were too big. I think we didn't play our game. We only played it in some phases. Afterwards we were honest to each other. We analysed it and we all agreed that we can play a better match.

Looking ahead to Tottenham. They have a new head coach this season, what have you made of them so far?

Thomas Frank was in charge for over 300 games during his tenure as Brentford boss. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

They have had a good start. They play with good energy, have a good intensity. Most of the times they go man-to-man. They have some new high quality individual players, especially Kudus and Simons. Overall they seem to be in a good place.

They seem to very compact, have good energy in their team, so it will be a big challenge for us.

We've spoken about Thomas Frank before. What is it about him as a manager that you like so much?

I think he's very humble. He doesn't put his ego over the club. He always seems to be very respectful. I had a small chat with him in the summer and he's very friendly, very open-minded. I have a lot of respect for the work he did at Brentford. It was impressive and he keeps doing the same things at Tottenham. He's a great person, a great character, and obviously a great football coach.

Has he shown that he's different to Ange Postecoglou in his willingness to change his approach? Do you think that's quite a big difference between the Tottenham that you played last season?

I think that Tottenham at the end of the season made some adaptations to their opponents. I don't want to judge if they're a better side than before. I can only give my opinion on what I see and, at the moment, I just see a team that has a lot of energy, that seems to be in a good place, that are capable of doing some adaptations regarding their opponents. They have a big squad, so they're able to make some individual changes. It's a big challenge we face, but we seem to be ready for that.

We have had a good training week. It's very important that we focus on our strengths because we have big quality in our team and now it's about us proving it tomorrow.

Have you had any discussions with James Milner about how you are going to manage him and his time to get to the Premier League record?

James Milner made his first Premier League start in a year, in our 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth last weekend. 📷 by James Boardman.

No, that's never a topic he mentions to me. For him, it's not about reaching records it's helping the team, to be a professional, to be a leader. That's what he's showing every day, coming into the training ground and trying to be role model for everyone, trying to prepare for Premier League matches. We don't have this discussion.

Diego Gomez wasn't involved last week. Was that just precautionary after the international break - where's he at at the moment?

No, he was a little bit sick so unfortunately he wasn't available for the team. He will be an option for tomorrow.

You've got the option of Mats Wieffer coming back. Do you still see him as a right back?

Mats Wieffer is available to play against Tottenham. 📷 by James Boardman.

He's done well in that position. With Jack's injury, though, there are maybe more possibilities to give him a midfield role. I think it's important in this phase to keep the stability, to keep the players in their positions, to not make too many changes. I think that's something we really should focus on, our structure. We are still planning with Wieffer as a right-back.

What about Ferdi Kadioglu? He was out for such a long time, but he seems to be getting towards a hundred per cent. How do you feel that he's getting on and how much of a boost is it to have him back and playing again?

I think it's a big boost to have him back. He played a really good game against Bournemouth when he came in. He had really good actions. He was defensively very strong in one-against-ones. There will be another challenge tomorrow against Kudus but he seems to be in a very good place.

He's training very well. He is capable of doing a lot of physical distance at high speed. He is close to a hundred per cent and hopefully he can prove it tomorrow.

You operated in the final game of last season up at Tottenham with Brajan Gruda up front as a sort of false nine, which was a bit different to what you'd been doing most of that season. Is that something that is still sort of in the back of your mind? Not necessarily for this game, but just in general?

Yes, at one point he deserves to start, so let's see if it's tomorrow or not. But overall we still have big competition. Stefanos [Tzimas] is doing quite well, Babis has had a good training week, Danny [Welbeck] is of course strong, but is struggling a little bit, but firstly he's always good for a goal and is a big leader and a big personality, he's very important for us.

Overall we have a lot of players that played a good game against Bournemouth. So we have a lot of options there, big competition. Everyone has to fight for their position. Everyone has to be ready in every training session to show that he wants to start. Overall I'm quite happy with the situation. Now it's about making the right decisions and trying to give the players what they deserve in the right moment.

David Weir left the club this week, with Jason Ayto coming in. How was your relationship with David?

I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity to work with David. He was very loyal, always very supportive. He's not coming back, but we can carry on living his values - taking care of the people, being honest, being loyal. He brought in some values that I think are very crucial. Now it's about really focusing on the things we can influence and that the football side.

We have to put the noise away from us. We have to focus on the pitch and on the things we can influence and then when Jason comes in, we will embrace him. We will be very open-minded for him. We will try to integrate him as quickly as possible because I think that's also very important for new sporting directors coming in.

That's also our responsibility as a club to give him this chance. That's what we try to do. And then hopefully we can bring more calmness into everything and try to convince everyone on the pitch with our performances.

Have you had a chance to sit down with him and talk about the future? How did that discussion go and what are the priorities?

Jason Ayto and Mike Cave. 📷 by James Boardman.

I think at the moment it's really just to give him some insights, to give him some perspectives about the challenges that are lying ahead of us. What the dynamics are, what the processes in the different departments are, just an overview of the situation.

We have met each other. We have had some phone calls and it's also my responsibility to give him the most information, the best information, the best overview he can have when he starts next week.

Mike Cave is staying - the continuity must help the whole process?

I am very happy for Mike, it's well deserved. He is a great personality. He has great knowledge in the things he's doing. He's like David, very supportive. Now we have a new team with Jason and Mike, and I'm sure they will work closely together.

I'm sure that us three will have a good togetherness and we will try to support each other. We will try to communicate a lot so that everyone is happy, especially the fans and our owner because that's the main thing. The main thing is to be successful on the pitch, to reach the expectations we have of ourselves. That has to be the focus at the moment.