ALBION midfielder Adam Lallana says the squad “need to add more belief” which will come with time.

The international break could not have come at a better time for Brighton, after six defeats in a row in the Premier League.

Albion’s midfielder, who joined last season, maintained that the team is still “going in the right direction.”

The former Southampton and Liverpool man has played a more regular role in Graham Potter’s side this season, starting 18 Premier League games compared to his 16 starts last season.

He managed just six minutes in his last appearance, a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool on March 12, but has managed to stay largely injury free this season. Lallana said the club has helped him “regain his robustness” after being plagued with injuries for the last few seasons.

The 33-year-old told Brighton and Hove Albion’s website: “We do still need to add more belief but that comes with time, with the development of players and with confidence.

“The more times we play well, the more we’ll get that belief, and with that we’ll score more goals and get more wins, but we need to be a little bit patient.

The Argus: Lallana is just 75 minutes short of his total minutes last season. He managed 1592 minutes last seasonLallana is just 75 minutes short of his total minutes last season. He managed 1592 minutes last season

“We can’t expect everything all at once. Empires aren’t built in a day, but how we are building at the moment is really reassuring and we’re going in the right direction.”

In terms of the squad’s ambitions for the rest of the season, Adam Lallana said they want to see “gradual improvements” and finish with more points than last season, which was 41.

He said: “In-house we just want to stick to our fundamentals, our basics, how we want to work; and as long as there are gradual improvements, then that’s an important way for us to look at it.

“We want to see an increase on the total number of points we got last season, the total number of wins, clean sheets, data like that. If we can work towards that, a result will hopefully see us finish higher up the table.”

Albion host bottom-placed Norwich at the Amex at 3pm on Saturday, April 2. Potter’s side then travel to Arsenal on March 9, before another trip to London against Spurs the week after.