Gull-Mouth Action podcast: How Pascal Gross will help Brighton
All the reaction from Brighton’s 1-1 draw at Manchester City in the Premier League from the Etihad Stadium
Fabian Hurzeler said Kaoru Mitoma is still not 100 per cent after the winger’s fine strike sealed a point for Brighton at second placed Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola’s team took the lead just before the break as Erling Haaland fired home a penalty after Diego Gomez clattered into Jeremy Doku.
Brighton though created chances throughout and were good value for their point as Mitoma cut inside and fired home a classy second half finish beyond Italian international goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It was Mitoma’s second goal of the season but his first since returning from a lengthy ankle injury and illness.
“I think we all know that he can make the difference in the game, that he can be a game-changer.” said Hurzeler after the match.
“For us, he's still not at 100 per cent, but we need to push him to 100 per cent, we need to get him involved more and more into our game.
“We need to give him time. But I think in the second half he showed that he gets back on track and he tries to get back on track as quickly as possible.
“But we have to be patient with him and then we all know what impact he can have on our game.”
Hurzeler: We made too many mistakes
Both teams missed big chances on the day in a free-flowing match that could easily have ended 4-4. The point takes Brighton to 11th in the table and Hurzeler admits there is still room for improvement.
”We started really strong in the game, we created three big chances, where at least we should have scored one goal and I think the penalty came out of nowhere.
“It changed a little bit the dynamic of the game. City started the game better in the second half, we came back out of nowhere, then afterwards I think we had two or three big chances to go in front in the game.
“City had their chances, their opportunities. So overall it was an up and a down when we were only focusing on the performance.
“We are pleased how we performed, how we defended, how we created chances. We are not pleased how we gave away the chances.
“We did too many easy mistakes, too many mistakes where we invited them to score goals and that's something we have to improve.”
Continue Reading