Julio Enciso’s career at Brighton & Hove Albion has reached a critical moment.
How Enciso trains and plays, if selected, during the Christmas period — against West Ham away on Saturday, Brentford at home on December 27 and Aston Villa away on December 30 — will have a major bearing on whether or not he goes out on loan in the January transfer window.
The 20-year-old Paraguay international forward is supremely gifted, but talent alone is not enough to fit into Fabian Hurzeler’s plans. The head coach made his stance clear during his press conference on Thursday when asked by The Athletic to explain why Enciso was omitted from the squad for two matches before starring as a second-half substitute in Sunday’s 3-1 home defeat by Crystal Palace.
It could not, after all, be connected to the availability of Danny Welbeck, Brighton’s top scorer this season with six goals. Welbeck was missing for the second time in three matches from the Palace defeat with an ankle injury sustained in the 1-1 home draw with Southampton at the end of November.
Welbeck sat out the game that followed the Southampton draw, a 3-1 defeat at Fulham, yet Enciso was not in the squad for that or for the following 2-2 draw at Leicester where Welbeck came on after 70 minutes.
Hurzeler used the same word four times to explain the change he has seen in Enciso. “Training, training, training, training,” the 31-year-old German told The Athletic. “His mindset in training. So, how he trained, how he behaved, how he acted. For me it’s so important to understand that the most important (thing) at this club is the success of the club.
“No individual player is bigger than a club. We have clear values here, clear principles, all the players have to stick to it. Success won’t come by individuals shining. Success will come if you stick together and, if you have success, individually you will shine.
“These are my rules and my principles. He changed his mind. He worked hard in training, he was really acting like a team player, like the success of the club is the most important thing to him. I am very open for that, I am a rational decision-maker.
“I see the arguments, the pros and the cons. When a player deserves to be in the squad and trains hard, I give every player a chance, because there is no player where I say I like him more than the others. It’s not about that, everything I do is to increase the percentage of the club’s success. Therefore I made the decisions and the most important change was his mindset.”
Statistics from FBref highlight the impact Enciso had against Palace as a half-time replacement for right-back Tariq Lamptey. That substitution prompted a change in formation by Hurzeler from a back four to a back three in a bid to turn around a 2-0 deficit.
Although only involved for half of the match, Enciso had the most shots on target (three) of any Brighton player, and the joint-most for both sides, shared with Palace’s Ismaila Sarr, who scored twice. Enciso also had the joint-second-highest number of successful take-ons in the match (the number of defenders taken on successfully by dribbling past them) with three, placing him behind only team-mate Kaoru Mitoma.
Had it not been for the brilliance of Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson, Enciso would have scored his first club goal since a spectacular effort against Manchester City in May 2023. That effort against City was voted goal of the season in the Premier League awards for the 2022-23 campaign and second in FIFA’s Puskas award for the best goal worldwide.
Last time @OfficialBHAFC hosted Man City, Julio Enciso did this. pic.twitter.com/j4xQxXmXb0
— Premier League (@premierleague) April 25, 2024
Enciso had more minutes under Hurzeler against Palace than in any other league game since the head coach succeeded Roberto De Zerbi in the summer. It was his eighth substitute appearance, bringing his total number of minutes played in the league this season to 129, and it was his first league involvement since the 2-2 home draw with Wolves at the end of October. His only starts (three) in the German’s reign so far came in the Carabao Cup.
Hurzeler, asked by The Athletic to discuss Enciso’s tendency to go it alone with the ball sometimes and how transparently his body language reflects his mood, said: “On the one side, I think it’s important we understand the character of the players.
“Especially Julio, he’s a very creative player. He creates by special things. He can create to score, assist. Therefore, it is important also to give him the freedom and also the support and the love he needs.
“That’s the one side. The other side is that every player has to stick to the principles, the values and the basic things that make us strong as as team. That’s the reaction to when you lose the ball, the reaction to when we lose the ball as a team, when we are out of possession, how we press together. Are we very disciplined? Not disciplined? They are things that are non-negotiable. If you don’t do things right, it’s difficult to shine with your individual character.
“It is always a togetherness of these things. When you do the basic things right, Julio is a player who could help every team in the world. He has special skills, he can decide a game by one situation, but it’s not only this one situation in a game. It’s a fluent game, one where you have to be consistently into it, show consistent reactions, consistently disciplined against the ball. Otherwise you have no chance in the Premier League to win games.”
A torn meniscus in his left knee sustained in training, which required two operations, ruled Enciso out between August and February last season. He returned to make 15 appearances in the rest of the campaign without scoring for De Zerbi in the Premier League, Europa League and FA Cup. He then represented Paraguay at the Copa America in the United States in the summer, scoring in a 2-1 defeat by Colombia as his country finished bottom and pointless in a group that also contained Brazil.
The Paraguayan Football Association (APF) had indicated that players involved in Copa America would not be available for the junior squad (under-21s) at the Olympics in France. However, it was not expecting such a disappointing tournament, and had also not appreciated Enciso’s determination to become an Olympian.
He successfully lobbied Brighton’s owner-chairman Tony Bloom to be allowed to play for his country at the Olympics instead of taking part in the club’s pre-season tour of Japan under the newly appointed Hurzeler. Although Enciso helped Paraguay reach the Olympic quarter-finals in Paris — where they lost on penalties to Egypt — it left him playing catch up to impress Hurzeler amid fierce competition for forward places after the summer signings of Yankuba Minteh and Georginio Rutter.
In his desperation for more minutes on the pitch, Enciso requested to play for the under-21s in a November fixture against Anderlecht. Hurzeler watched him for 45 minutes in that 2-0 victory and praised him afterwards, saying in his press conference before Southampton’s visit: “First of all, I think it’s a great thing when a player came by his own to me and ask me if he can play for the under-21s to stay in the rhythm. That’s a great signal and a great thing that he wants to improve, no matter in which team.”
After Enciso, an unused substitute against Southampton, was left out of the squad against Fulham, he put a message on his Instagram account alongside a selfie taken in the gym at the club’s training centre in Lancing: “Let no one extinguish your desire to achieve your dreams.”
Although Hurzeler played down Enciso’s social media message when asked about it by The Athletic at his post-match press conference at Fulham, Enciso was left out again at Leicester before his eye-catching contribution in the second half against Palace.
So, what happens next? A source close to the player, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, told The Athletic that Enciso’s return to the fold against Palace has changed everything, but that much will depend on what happens between now and the transfer window opening on January 1.
Enciso had been keen on the idea of a loan move, preferably staying in England in the Premier League, rather than going abroad. That desire has been shaped by the success so far of Argentinian attacker Facundo Buonanotte’s loan move from Brighton to Leicester and the contrasting shortage of game time for Buonanotte’s left-back compatriot Valentin Barco, another Brighton player out on loan, at La Liga side Sevilla in Spain.
Enciso’s national team manager Gustavo Alfaro, speaking to ABC TV in Paraguay on December 10, prior to Enciso’s appearance against Palace, said: “I was talking to Julio about everything that happened. He knew this was coming, because he spoke to the coach (Hurzeler) and the coach expressed his point of view. We talked when he came here (to Paraguay) about having the chance to leave. So, hopefully, he can find a place where he can continue.
“We have to wait and see these next couple of weeks, they could be important because they could make a difference. It could also be that the player wants a change of scenery and the coach doesn’t want to let him go, or the club doesn’t want to loan him out.
“Brighton need Julio to get some minutes and I think that between the agent and everything else we will try to get him the chance to stay in Europe to get minutes and have continuity. He is a very important player, the more minutes he gets the better he will perform.”
The next three games over the next 10 days will give a clearer indication of how Enciso’s future at Brighton plays out.
(Top photo by Mike Hewitt via Getty Images)
