De Cuyper: Albion are a family club

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Nick Szczepanik

2025-08-12T10:00+01:00

Maxim De Cuyper joined Albion from Club Brugge in the summer. 📸 by Paul Hazlewood.

Maxim de Cuyper believes that the family atmosphere at the Albion has helped him to settle into the team and the club.

The Belgium defender has given increasingly impressive performances in pre-season, adding a final flourish with what proved to be the winning goal in the 2-1 victory over Wolfsburg - a rifled finish after Mats Wieffer's low pass across goal had been pushed out by goalkeeper Kamil Grabara.

“I needed some time,” he said. “We already had a long preparation, so I really needed a time to know my teammates. It's not from the first friendly I'm playing like this, so I start to know my teammates now, the way we want to play, so it's growing every week.

“This is really a family club. Everybody likes to help each other. It's not that we have individuals in the team. That was so clear from the beginning. I'm really taking advantage of that, because it's really a team. They really helped me from the first day, and that's what makes it a lot easier to have a move like this.

“I also enjoyed playing [against Wolfsburg]. In general I guess we can be happy about it. I think it was a little bit similar with the game last week [against Southampton].

“We had a lot of control over the game. We had a lot of possession. We did some great things, also out of possession. The only thing is that we lost a little bit of control at the end of the game last week and this week, so there are points we have to work on.

“I think it's clear where the solution is to improve on that, so we will get better.”

Max’s interplay with Kaoru Mitoma against the Bundesliga side hinted at a successful left-wing partnership this season. “If you can play with a winger like this, I think everybody knows his qualities,” he said.

Maxim De Cuyper scored our second goal in the 2-1 win over Wolfsburg friendly. 📸 by James Boardman.

“If I can take advantage of his qualities and if he's pulling two defenders to him, it gives me more space to do something. I think we have good co-operation between each other and we can use it.”

Mitoma is known for scoring spectacular goals, but Max’s first goal for the club was also confidently despatched from a narrow angle. “It was just a good goal, nothing special,” he said, with considerable modesty. “It can be that I will be there often, but at the right time. Not every attack I will be there, so I'll have to take my moments and hopefully can score more goals.”