Fabian Hurzeler has called for more consistency from his Brighton players and admitted their fitness levels need improvement despite a strong second-half performance in their 1-1 home draw against title-chasing Arsenal.
Ironically, the Seagulls have been largely consistent with their recent results, drawing six of their last eight Premier League games.
But such a run has not produced a league win since late November. And it proved 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 strong start to the season, Brighton now find themselves slipping down the table. They are currently in tenth place.
FT: Another 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 dealing with the same issues every week.
“Yes, I think it should have been more,” Herscheler told Sky Sports after being asked if his side should have taken more than a point against the Gunners.
“I stand here after races and I feel like I have to repeat myself all the time and that’s, of course, a frustrating feeling.
“The big word for us is to be more consistent. Trying to play with the identity you want to play for the whole 90 minutes and then hopefully get the results we’re looking for.
“We had to invest a lot to get back (in the game). We came back but then we weren’t clean enough in the final third.
We had big chances and I think against Arsenal you have to use momentum to win the game and today we didn’t do that.
Room for improvement
One area of improvement that the Brighton manager believes can help tackle the consistency problem is the fitness levels of his squad.
But he acknowledges that improving players’ fitness is not a quick fix and that it will take time to see any real progress.
Hurzeler said: “(Fitness levels) might be one of the reasons we can’t play consistently for 90 minutes. The game we want to play is intense, the game must be intense if you want to step up.
“You have to run a lot and at a high speed. We’re not where we need to be, but it’s a process. We needed a lot of physicality for this game and at times we struggled and couldn’t maintain that physical level for 90 minutes.
“Therefore, we are still working on it and using the 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.
