Brighton manager, Fabian Hürzeler has praised Amario Cozier-Duberry for his “great” brace in a 5-1 friendly win over Kashima Antlers.
Cozier-Duberry joined the Seagulls from Arsenal earlier this month on a free transfer, and scored twice as Brighton beat Japan’s Kashima Antlers 5-1 in a pre-season friendly – with Yankuba Minteh, Jeremy Sarmiento and Yasin Ayari also on scoresheet.
“I’m not the biggest fan of talking about individual players,” commented Hürzeler who felt compelled to praise Cozier-Duberry for his “positive” second-half performance on and off the ball.
“But of course today was a great performance for him. His performance was not only about scoring goals, but the most important thing is how we work against the ball and how he does counter pressing when we lose the ball.”
Hürzeler however urged caution about the 19 year-old as he iterated that Cozier-Duberry still has room for improvement at his young age.
“He’s still very young and we try to improve him every day. But it’s not only that we try to improve every day, I think it’s also important that the player wants to improve.
“He has this attitude and he has this character inside of him that when he’s coming to training, every time he’s listening, he’s trying to develop, he’s trying to improve individual things. So I’m very satisfied with his performance so far.”
Brighton conceded a late goal but Hürzeler believes that the victory and performance is more important, as he explained that there are areas that need development amidst a strong team spirit and unity on the pitch.
“It’s a win, and this win gives you self confidence. I don’t think everything was perfect – how we played and how we defended.
“But what I see is a team who suffered together, who showed a togetherness on the pitch. So when we lost the ball everyone did counter pressing and got behind the ball as quickly as possible.”
“There were quite a lot of positive things and the goal in the end makes me a little bit, not angry, but a little bit disappointed because I think a clean sheet every time is good, especially for Jason [Steele], but there’s still things to improve and we will continue tomorrow.”
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