There is often talk of the honeymoon period being over when a new manager loses his first match.
Right now though, Brighton & Hove Albion’s hiring of 31-year-old German Fabian Hurzeler as head coach retains the appearance of a marriage made in heaven.
They remain undefeated a month into the 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 the fourth-round draw on September 25.
An unbeaten start but plenty to work on
Six games unbeaten, four wins and two draws, with 13 goals scored and four conceded. 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 (three have been sent out on loan).
Well, quite a lot actually. In most of the matches there have been sticky periods. They seemed to be cruising against Wolves, but they gave away a poor goal just before half-time when Jack Hinshelwood was left outnumbered on the right side of the defence for Goncalo Guedes to make it 2-1 — Hurzeler described it as a “lazy transition reaction” and “something we cannot accept”.
The visitors were the better side after that 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 a two-goal cushion.
Even then, they made heavy weather of it by conceding another sloppy goal in added time. Jason Steele’s short pass to Mats Wieffer was intercepted by Wolves 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 did not manage the game like we should. We did not control the game like we should control the game in some 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
Simon Adingra continues to press his claims in the battle of the wingers.
The hero of the Africa Cup of Nations triumph for host nation Ivory Coast in February has been behind left-sided Kaoru Mitoma and summer signing Yankuba Minteh on the right for a place so far this season under Hurzeler.
He has not started any of the first four Premier League games, but he has still made an impact from the bench. Adingra scored after replacing Minteh in the 3-0 win at Everton. That was followed by providing the cross for Joao Pedro’s header in stoppage time in the 2-1 victory at home to Manchester United.
The pattern of pivotal contributions by Adingra has been maintained in the Carabao Cup. He was on target on his first start of the season in the 4-0 win at home to Crawley in round two. And he struck again stylishly in the first half against Wolves, 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 shot by Danny Welbeck, which was parried by Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa.
Adingra started the move, releasing Welbeck after a lovely piece of skill. He flicked the ball away from Nelson Semedo on the volley 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 will increase when new signing Brajan Gruda and Solly March are available after injuries, but Adingra is firmly in the mix.
How Lamptey became Brighton’s fifth-choice full-back
It is hard to see Tariq Lamptey getting much game time this season, with the capture of Turkish international Kadioglu from Fenerbahce for £25million ($33m) increasing the competition for full-back places.
Kadioglu was introduced to the Amex crowd at the 4-0 victory over Crawley. Although Lamptey started that match, he only came off the bench after 82 minutes of the tie against Wolves.
That was in spite of Hurzeler making eight changes to the team that started Saturday’s draw with Ipswich. Lamptey did not even make the squad for that game and he has not had 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 signs are ominous for the lightning-quick Lamptey. Injury problems have contributed to just 13 league starts out of 76 games across the past two seasons. Hurzeler, speaking 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 be elsewhere in one of the next two transfer windows.
(Top photo: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
