Fabian Hurzeler makes Roberto De Zerbi admission ahead of Tottenham vs Brighton
Tottenham vs Brighton in the Premier League at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - Saturday 5.30pm
Albion boss Fabian Hurzeler said Roberto De Zerbi made a big impact during his time at Brighton.
Hurzeler, 32, succeeded De Zerbi as the Brighton manager in 2024 after the Italian left for Marseille following a mostly successful spell at the Amex Stadium.
De Zerbi guided Brighton to their highest ever Premier League finish of sixth and then steered them to the knockout stages of the Europa League.
Hurzeler and De Zerbi will face each other for the first time in their managerial careers as in-form Brighton travel to relegation threatened Tottenham this Saturday.
The fiery Italian remains a popular figure with Brighton fans, which is something Hurzeler is happy to acknowledge.
"He deserves the praise," said Hurzeler in his pre Tottenham press conference. "He had a huge impact here.
“He had great achievements with the players. He reached Europe for the first time so he deserves this praise.
He added: “I came into an environment. I came into a group that had a really good understanding of football, being coached by him, by De Zerbi.
“I'm not De Zerbi, so I have also my principles, my style of play and my conviction, but these are just like small adjustments, small adaptations.
“I didn't want to come here and change everything because he had really positive success with the club and with his style of play.
“It was more about like adjusting small things and now we are playing with some players who didn't play under him so we needed to educate them in our style. It was more about adjusting small things.”
The Albion boss then stressed the importance of mental focus and intensity against a Tottenham side preparing for one of their most important matches in their recent history.
“On the other side, when the whistle blows,” said the German. “It's a game between Brighton and Tottenham and our approach is the same.
“We are there to achieve something, we are there to win this game. We are there to keep showing the right habits and therefore that's our main focus,” said the German as he hopes to continue Brighton's impressive recent run of five wins from their last six.
"[If we show that] we definitely have a big chance of winning this game,” added Hurzeler.
The Brighton boss was then asked if he was surprised to see Tottenham in a relegation battle. Hurzeler then said all of football is surprised and their situation underlines just how competitive the Premier League is.