Brighton midfielder, Mats Wieffer feels that the team need to “fine-tune” their performances.
Wieffer has made nine appearances following his move from Feyenoord of which he has made just three starts, but he has found adapting to the intensity levels quite challenging as both a starter and substitute.
“If you start the game, you come into the rhythm more, but if you come on after sixty minutes, especially like at Liverpool, you really feel the intensity is high, you’re going up and down.
“You come in and it’s the heat of the moment so you have to be there mentally straight away, that’s the main thing.
“Also in the last few games when that happened I had to defend a lot, against Newcastle and Tottenham we were in front when I came on so you have to cover and run a lot, but if that’s what I have to do then I’ll do it.”
Wieffer however issued an honest admission that he needs to just keep adapting to the intensity and style.
“Of course I have to adapt a bit more and maybe it needs more time, I don’t know. Also the playing style is a little different from what I’m used to so I have to get better at some of the principles that we have as a team.
“We talk about it and we train together for it so it’s getting better already.”
The 25 year-old also spoke of his pride at how his team has beaten Manchester United, Tottenham and Manchester City at home, where they’re yet to lose a Premier League game this season underlining how difficult each match is.
“With us you see that we played against teams who are big teams on paper and we took the points and at home against maybe the lower-table teams, or who were lower-table before, we dropped points so you can see that there’s no easy games here.
“If you make a mistake they punish you directly. So that’s maybe something we have to improve as well as a team, to stay calm in those moments.
“I think until now we have had some good games and we play good football and we just have to fine-tune it a little bit.”
Wieffer added that fan frustration is a positive for the squad which he feels is young and in need of slower tempo at times.
“If the fans have been frustrated by certain results, then that counts double for the squad. “Yes, of course. We talk about it a lot, what we can do better and staying calm to manage the game more.
“We are a young team and we don’t have that many experienced players and we have to maybe delay the game a little, slow the pace a little bit. So yes, we speak about it but we have to do it ourselves.”
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