Brighton and Hove Albion manager Fabian Hürzeler has revealed how the club reacted to the 7-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the beginning of the February.
The Brighton manager has been speaking to Hamburger Abendblatt about his time at Brighton so far, which has largely been a positive one.
The Seagulls currently find themselves on a five-game unbeaten run, winning four in a row against Chelsea, Southampton, Bournemouth and Fulham before drawing 2-2 with Manchester City before the international break.
That came after losing back-to-back games for the first time this season before then, the most notable one of those being the 7-0 loss to Nottingham Forest on February 1st.
That result was one that shocked many as Nuno Espirito Santo’s side ran riot at home, with goals from Morgan Gibbs-White, Chris Wood, Neco Williams, Jota Silva and an own goal from Lewis Dunk seeing Brighton sink without a trace.
It was Brighton’s third heaviest defeat in their history and their biggest since an 8-0 defeat all the way back in November 1966 and their worst since making it to the Premier League.
Managers don’t tend to survive such results but there was no danger for Hürzeler, who praised the club’s reaction afterwards.
“Very quiet and stable. Games are often analysed here using data, which takes away the whole emotional,” he said when asked how the club’s leadership responded.
“Accordingly, the reaction was rational. There were certain reasons for the defeat that we were already aware of before the game, which, of course, should not spark this scale.
“However, the analysis was extremely process-oriented. We said to think about solution-oriented, and we immediately implemented that.”
It’s been an impressive run of results since then as Brighton have continued a strong first season under their new manager and continue to push for Europe. Hürzeler, though, insists they didn’t change all that much.
“Not too much, because I don’t let myself be blinded by results,” he added.
“It is important to remain stable and predictable rather than showing crazy overreactions. This is a part of the truth.
“The second is that we have players who have assumed a lot of responsibility and knew directly that we can only show our reaction on the pitch, not by talking about it. They have managed to focus on the content right away. Compliments to my players.”
