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Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler intends to maintain his impressive record against Manchester City, even though they have a new manager.
Hurzeler, who joined Brighton in 2024, has never lost to City under previous manager Pep Guardiola and intends to continue that today against their new manager Enzo Maresca.
Hurzeler believes some ties with the players stay the same, but the German has noticed a few tactical changes from Maresca, Reported by Manchester Evening News.
“Of course, I think they [Guardiola and Maresca] work together so you see similarities,” Hurzeler replied.
“But you can see that Maresca has his own football style and ideals, but I believe you cannot alter players.
“For example, if you look at the connection between Nico O’Reilly and Jeremy Doku on the left side, I believe it existed even during Guardiola’s tenure.
But, of course, they have a defined formation, a distinct style of play, and are extremely successful.
“They press really hard, highly man-rotated, so that’s obviously a shift, and we need to be prepared for it.
“We not only face a good team, we also face really, really good individual players.”
Brighton has the unusual scenario of facing Manchester City again in the Premier League on Saturday. Hurzeler is expected to make several modifications and manage his team’s energy levels.
“We went through it a few years back when we played two games against Chelsea. So the plan is to compete tomorrow, then heal, adjust, and adapt before competing again.
“So it’s actually going from game to game. We only think about tomorrow; we don’t consider Saturday.
“We want to be the most prepared team for tomorrow, and that is our primary focus, so we don’t get sidetracked by the weekend game.
“We play a cup game tomorrow, it’s a do or die game so therefore it’s fully focused on this game.”