There is often talk of the honeymoon period being over when a new manager loses his first match at a club.
But right now, Brighton & Hove Albion’s hiring of 31-year-old German Fabian Hurzeler this summer retains the appearance of a marriage made in heaven.
They remain undefeated a month and six games into their 2024-25 season after edging past Premier League rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2 at the Amex Stadium on Wednesday to reach the last 16 of the Carabao Cup.
They made hard work of it after racing into a 2-0 lead in 31 minutes through fine strikes by Carlos Baleba and Simon Adingra, but an 85th-minute goal for summer signing Ferdi Kadioglu sealed their place in next week’s fourth-round draw.
An unbeaten start but plenty to work on
Fabian Hurzeler was named the Premier League manager of the month for August (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Six unbeaten games, four wins, 13 goals scored and four conceded, with three clean sheets. What is not to like about the start of Hurzeler’s reign? Especially as he has not had the opportunity yet to properly integrate six of the nine summer signings (the other three have been sent out on loan).
Well, quite a lot, actually.
In most of the matches, there have been sticky periods. Brighton seemed to be cruising against Wolves last night at two up, but they gave away a poor goal just before half-time when Jack Hinshelwood was left outnumbered on the right side of the defense for Goncalo Guedes to halve the deficit — Hurzeler described it as a “lazy transition reaction” and “something we cannot accept”.
Wolves were then the better side for most of the second half. The prospect of Hurzeler’s team blowing a 2-0 lead and being condemned to a penalty shootout persisted until substitute Kadioglu restored the two-goal cushion.
Even then, Brighton made heavy weather of going through by conceding another sloppy goal in added time. Jason Steele’s short pass to Mats Wieffer was intercepted by substitute Jorgen Strand Larsen and Tommy Doyle fired in via the underside of the crossbar.
Hurzeler struck the right tone afterwards by identifying the need for improvement. He told The Athletic: “Results are the most important (thing), but as I have often said, I judge the team by results and the performance.
“It was more like a learning game for us: how you manage a game, what you have to do to win games like this. We were not top (at doing this), especially at the end of the game. We didn’t manage the game like we should. We did not control the game like we should in certain situations.
“Of course, you need results, but I also try to focus on the process and there are still a lot of things we have to improve.”
Adingra makes his case for a Premier League start
Adingra continues to press his claims in the battle of the wingers.
The hero of Ivory Coast’s Africa Cup of Nations final win on home turf in February has been behind left-sided Kaoru Mitoma and summer signing Yankuba Minteh on the right for a place in the Brighton team so far this season.
Adingra has not started any of their four Premier League games, but he has still made an impact from the bench: he scored after replacing Minteh in the 3-0 away win against Everton on the opening weekend and followed that by providing the cross for Joao Pedro’s header in stopping time in the 2-1 victory at home to Manchester United in match two.
The pattern of pivotal contributions by Adingra has been maintained in the Carabao Cup.
He was on target in the 4-0 win at home against third-tier neighbors Crawley Town in round two, his first start of the season, and he struck again stylishly in the first half last night, cutting in from the left flank, away from two opponents, to double the lead with a right-footed shot into the bottom corner of the net.
Adingra’s influence did not end there.
He played a huge part in the third goal by Kadioglu, who converted the rebound from a Danny Welbeck shot, which was parried by goalkeeper Jose Sa. It was Adingra who started the move, releasing Welbeck after a lovely piece of skill. He flicked the ball away from Nelson Semedo on the volleyball to leave the Wolves substitute trailing in his wake.
Adingra can operate on either side of the pitch — he started on the left against Wolves, but he prefers the right.
Competition on the right flank will increase when Solly March and new signing Brajan Gruda are available after injuries, but Adingra is firmly in the mix.
How Lamptey became Brighton’s fifth-choice full-back
Tariq Lamptey may need to move to find regular first-team football (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
It is hard to see Tariq Lamptey getting much game time this season, with the capture of Turkey international Kadioglu from Fenerbahce for £25million ($33m) increasing the competition for full-back places.
Kadioglu was introduced to the Amex crowd at that victory over Crawley in the previous round. Although Lamptey started that match, he only came off the bench after 82 minutes of last night’s tie against Wolves.
That was despite Hurzeler making eight changes to the team that started Saturday’s draw with Ipswich. Lamptey did not even make the 20-strong squad for that game and did not have any minutes in the first four league matches. That is because Kadioglu, Pervis Estupinan, Joel Veltman and Hinshelwood are all ahead of the 23-year-old in the pecking order.
The are signs ominous for the lightning-quick Lamptey. Injury problems have contributed to just 13 league starts out of a possible 80 since the beginning of the 2022-23 season. Hurzeler, speaking to the media before the Wolves game about the Ghana international right-back signed from Chelsea in January 2020, said: “His most important weapon is his speed. It’s incredible, so he has to trust his body.
“He had some small issues in pre-season where he could not train fully, so now we try to integrate him. Now it is up to him to show it in every training session and show he deserves to play. In the end, we have four full-backs, plus Tariq, so five full-backs, and I only have two positions.”
With that last remark in mind, there is a good chance Lamptey’s future will turn out to be elsewhere in one of the next two transfer windows.
GO DEEPER
Brighton’s next step is to challenge for silverware – and they’re primed for it
(Top photo: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
