Goals have dried up for Brighton & Hove Albion and Fabian Hurzeler’s side have stopped winning as a result.
A 0-0 draw against Brentford at the Amex Stadium on Friday night stretched their barren run without a Premier League victory to six matches. They have only scored six times across this period, compared to 11 goals in the preceding six games.
Hurzeler made five substitutions in the second half, including three attacking changes, but they could not find a way through against opponents who secured only their second away point of the season. So, what is going wrong in the final third of the pitch?
Hurzeler turned to Julio Enciso against Brentford, giving the 20-year-old Paraguayan international his first league start of the campaign at the expense of £40million record signing Georginio Rutter.
Enciso is back in Hurzeler’s good books after a change of mindset in training but he missed an opportunity to shine.
Enciso attempted eight shots in the first half, the most by a player in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League game since Luis Suarez for Liverpool against Aston Villa in March 2013 (also eight).
No player has tried more shots in an entire Premier League match this season than Enciso had in the opening 39 minutes. Some were better than others.
He was unfortunate to curl a right-foot effort against a post early on after a pass out by Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken was intercepted by Carlos Baleba.
By contrast, a horribly skewed volley from just outside the penalty area approaching half-time went closer to the corner flag than the Brentford net. Enciso’s best chance should have rewarded the initial momentum for Hurzeler’s team, but he headed tamely at Flekken from Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to the far post.
Argentinian Daniel Garnero, Enciso’s former national team manager, said after he attempted 14 shots in 253 minutes of game time at the Copa America in the summer: “Julio is a player who still has to understand where and when, even if he does have the individual ability to change games by himself. He takes charge of the moment, but believing that he has to change everything can hurt his game; he doesn’t need to ‘save’ anyone.”
Was Enciso trying too hard to get Brighton back on the goal trail? Hurzeler told The Athletic: “We have to analyse the chances and the shots from him. There were open shots, there were clear chances, and he needs to take the shots. You always want to finish the attack and he tried that, so we will analyse it with him.
“One principle is to make the chance bigger if possible and therefore we try to help him and give him the advice to improve.”
Although Hurzeler’s team had 24 shots in the match, they did not create a big chance, or at least not one that met Opta’s criteria (a situation where a player should reasonably be expected to score).
Fashioning more clear-cut chances is pivotal to regaining the winning thread, as the bar chart below shows. (In the graphic below, green bars are the victories, yellow are draws and reds are defeats).
Hurzeler said: “This might be possible, but I think what I would define as a clear chance, I could see several clear chances, so I think it is more the definition. The statistics are one side, the other side is always what happens on the pitch.
“If there was a clear chance or not, there were still enough possibilities to score and enough possibilities where we were around the box and had situations, but the last consequence was missing.
“So, how we attack the box, where we are positioned in the box, these are things we have to improve.”
Danny Welbeck is a big miss. He is Brighton’s top goalscorer this season with six in his first 14 outings prior to an ankle injury which has restricted him to 20 minutes as a substitute in the last five matches. Welbeck is not expected to be back for Monday’s visit to Aston Villa.
No one in Hurzeler’s squad plays the No 9 role with the same capability of knitting the play together, but should they be relying on the 34-year-old former Manchester United, Arsenal and England forward to such an extent?
Joao Pedro, Evan Ferguson and Rutter have all been used as the No 9 during Welbeck’s absence. Joao Pedro, who wants to become Brazil’s No 9, has gone four games without a goal contribution after returning in November with a bang following an ankle injury with two goals and three assists in four outings.
His mounting frustration was evident when he threw out an elbow at Yehor Yarmoliuk after the Brentford substitute tugged his shirt from behind. The incident was checked by Chris Kavanagh, the video assistant referee (VAR), and Joao Pedro avoided a red card from referee Andrew Madley, rightly so, according to Hurzeler.
Brentford manager Thomas Frank disagreed. Speaking to Match Of The Day, he said: “As I understand the rules, if you swing your arm to want to hit someone, if you hit the person or not it’s a red card.”
Joao Pedro escaped punishment for this…
Was he fortunate to get away with it?#PLonPrime #BHABRE pic.twitter.com/x9NhJpwd6i
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 27, 2024
Rutter, a 78th-minute replacement for Enciso, is going through a quiet spell, while Ferguson — one goal in his last 35 appearances in all competitions — was not part of the squad due to injury.
Hurzeler said of the goals shortage: “I wouldn’t say it’s confidence or belief. It’s more like the luck. We hit the post. Against us, the goalkeepers seem to get better and better.
“We have to work hard. I am sure the momentum will come back and the game luck will come back, but in the end, it’s our responsibility and our fault. We are not searching for any excuses. We have to be honest and critical of ourselves. We have to admit it’s not good enough at the moment.”
(Top photo: Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images)
