Everton enter the game after a poor 1-0 loss to newly promoted Leeds United, whilst Brighton come off the back of a 1-1 stalemate with Fulham, thanks to a penalty from Matthew O’Riley. Hurzeler first spoke on being more ruthless as a club and gave a lengthy but telling answer.
How can Brighton be more ruthless?
“I'm not the biggest fan of these kind of things. I also had it after the game where you say you need to kill the game. Of course, we need to kill the game. Of course we want to score goals.
“Every player wants to score a goal. Every player wants to make assists. I will never say to a player, ‘you must score’, because every player wants to score. If you say ‘you must score’, it's just putting pressure on him on what he can't control, and that brings stress into him.
“You can put pressure on the players when they can control something. For example, how much they run, how many personal duels they win, how good they react when they lose the ball. These are all things they can do and must do. But scoring goals is for me – of course it's important to win games, but regarding the last game against Fulham, if you keep the clean sheet, nothing will happen and you win the game.
“The key thing is to defend until the end, to keep the focus high, to not be lazy, to do your job, to be awake when there's a restart, a throw in or a corner. These are all things you can influence, and they are my main focus.”
Everton's first home game at the Hill Dickinson Stadium
This will be Everton’s first game at their new stadium, which will be a major boost to The Toffees who will use the home crowd to their advantage. Hurzeler admits this could play a huge part in the game and looks forward to such an atmosphere.
Hurzeler added: "Everton supporters are known for being very emotional. They're known for being great supporters, for being great supporters for their team. So we are looking forward for this atmosphere. We are looking forward to seeing the new stadium, but we are not there to be that nice club, we are there to win points and that's our goal."
Encisco's departure
Finally, he spoke on Julio Enciso’s move away from the side to Chelsea owners BlueCo, which is a huge blow for The Seagulls.
“There are some rumours, there are some talks, but nothing is done yet, so we can't comment on that.
“When I worked with Julio I was very pleased. He's a young guy with big potential. He showed it, I think during his time with Brighton, he showed it also when he played for his national team. So overall it was very positive. Of course, there were also some moments where he had a setback with his injuries. But overall, he’s a young guy who wants to play football, you can really feel the passion. It's very nice to work with him.”