The appointment of Fabian Hurzeler raised a lot of eyebrows back in the summer of 2024. It was mainly because of his age, but also where he came from.
So nearly 60 games and a season later, what do people think of the gaffer now?
How is it going?
For me, I haven’t warmed to him fully. I don’t want him gone, but I don’t see much improvement or loads of evidence yet to suggest we can push higher up the table and go for Europe. I do, however, feel like, with time, we could get there, and if there is any club that is going to give a manager time, it is us!
Given how we have played all season, it is a wonder we are so close to the top still, but maybe that is a good sign in that we haven’t really got going and we are up there.
Speaking with friends and punters at the pub, opinions are very much divided. There are very few who think he is very good now. There are a lot of people who think he could be very good, and there’s also sadly a lot of people who do not rate him and think he is out of his depth. I’ve even heard and read that people want him gone already.
When it comes to loud opinions, sometimes it is best to ask why they feel that way as opposed to “you’re no Brighton fan if you don’t support xyz”…
Maybe it’s because of the post Roberto De Zerbi love-in, but it says a lot that almost a year and a half into Fabian’s tenure, he still doesn’t have a chant or a real connection with the fanbase.
It has been hard to warm to Hurzeler. Virtually every press conference and post-match interview is the same, the same answers, including the phrases:
“trust the process… intensity… values… work hard every day in training… win the personal duels.”
There doesn’t seem to be much personality showing; perhaps that is why it is hard for fans to try and connect with him.
There’s been the odd glimpse of touchline passion, which is what I love to see personally, but the rest of the time, he seems to be a bit bland. Maybe over time, he will come out of his shell. He is a young man in a very big pond, so maybe he is still finding himself.
Man management issues?
However, he has been hard done by this season, especially with the recruitment.
Despite spending loads of money and signing virtually all our players before the window opened, we have left ourselves with not filling obvious gaps in the squad, and are paying for it now.
Bar Maxim De Cuyper, there hasn’t really been a ‘first-team’ signing. There is still no first-choice right back, no back-up wingers, and no physical players, and it’s led to the same old problems.
So, in the respect of having a competitive and Premier League-ready squad, I feel he has been let down a bit by the powers that be.
The other part of the playing side that has not gone in his favour is that our two biggest and most important players have not really been an option for him all season. Mitoma looked knackered and in need of a rest, then subsequently got injured and had a layoff.
Then there is Carlos Baleba. What on earth has happened to him? After an incredible previous season, settling into 2025/26 has become an uphill battle.
Without our physical protection in front of the defence, we have conceded goals with ease. Without our best attacking threat, we have lacked goals. Two major parts of the game of football, we are short in. Stepping into Fabian’s defence, I don’t think it is all his fault.
I always hear Hürzeler talk about intensity, trying to drum that word into everyone, at every opportunity. So what I find really weird is that virtually every game, we start so slowly and lethargically, and it normally takes us going a goal down before we come alive. So if intensity is part of our identity and DNA, I am puzzled as to why we are so bad at showing it. The performance at Old Trafford highlights my point perfectly.
For me, he doesn’t seem to be too authoritative amongst the squad yet. He doesn’t seem to be the biggest motivator or able to make players believe in themselves more. There seems to be a lack of that winning mentality that the elite managers have; it’s not like the small club mentality and language that Potter had, but something isn’t quite there. As yet, he doesn’t seem to inspire full confidence in the fans that we can believe and dream big, and I guess that’s reflected in the players’ performances, especially against teams at the bottom of the table.
In the current squad, who has actually improved under the manager? Yasin Ayari for sure, Danny Welbeck too, other than that, I don’t actually know?
Have we improved under Fabian as a squad? That is debatable. The defence has been as leaky as it has ever been in the Premier League. The attack can blow amazingly cold sometimes. Patterns of play, easy on the eye to watch, have diminished a bit, too, but then we get those moments when it clicks and something magical happens and everything seems amazing again.
Players like Yankuba Minteh are exciting to watch, but when it comes to the final ball or decision, he still seems to make the wrong one 75% of the time. Is that down to the coaching team or the player? Maybe it is the coaching for me.
Consistency is key
I guess it is the total lack of consistency from the team that is frustrating our fanbase. If it clicks and comes together, the Hürzeler doubters will become quiet again, but being so up and down, you get arguments from both camps all the time.
There have also been things that I do believe are under Hurzeler’s control, and he has to take some accountability for. The lack of physical presence is killing us; we don’t win tackles or 50/50’s. It always seems hard for us to dominate the midfield, so I find it weird that in Weiffer we signed statistically one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe, so why we are persisting with the experiment of him at right back is beyond me. Although he is doing better than I thought he would, play to his strengths and get him in midfield, especially with Baleba being so poor!
Our defensive record has been pretty bad, too. The Leeds game was our first clean sheet this season, and let’s be honest, they were pretty terrible. Two clean sheets in the last 22 Premier League games, yet a reluctance towards changing our centre back pairing or goalkeeper. Boscagli may be one of those players who is getting better in the fans’ eyes, the more he doesn’t play, but he is first-team ready, and I think he needs to be given a chance.
The Arsenal cup game frustrated me loads as well. When both line-ups came out, I genuinely thought we could win; that was a very weakened Arsenal starting eleven. They were there for the taking. We started well, should’ve been two goals up, but in the second half, nothing seemed to happen. When we conceded, we didn’t look like ever getting back into the game. Again, maybe a lack of motivation?
So after all of that, I sit on the fence of Hurzeler in or out. He may well be the right man, but is this just too early in his career?
There isn’t a clear improvement as yet, but I do feel it could come! If we finish the season in the Top 10, I would consider that good, but is that a bit of a backwards step? Yes, I think so? Europe is the very public goal, but I just can’t see it happening this season.
Prove me wrong!
