Everything Fabian Huerzeler said in his Brighton press conference

Here is what the head coach told us in the non-embargoed section of his Thursday morning press conference.

Any injury news?

Hopefully everyone will come healthy back from their international games, we haven’t seen everyone yet. I don't know exactly about Julio [Enciso] and Pervis [Estupinan] – they are the latest arrivals. We will see them today and then we will know more.

The injuries for Matt [O’Riley] and Joao [Pedro] will take a little bit more time. With James Milner we have to be more patient. The rest of the squad will be available. Adam Webster is another player who will miss the game against Newcastle.

Jan Paul van Hecke will be an option.

Thought on Thomas Tuchel. What do you make of that appointment?

I'm happy for him, I really admire him. I think He has proved that he can be very successful with his teams and he can build a successful team quite fast. That's also a challenge, especially for the national team. When we look at his former clubs, he always was able to be successful after a short time. That's exactly the challenge he will face for England. I'm very happy for him and his team and I wish him all the best.

He is a coach who has the skills to build a successful team in a really short time. That's a special skill and not everyone is able to do this and on top of that for me, he is able to make the players better. He plays with a clear structure. He has tactical intelligence, I saw especially also in the Champions League games last season against Arsenal, for me also against Real Madrid, where my opinion they deserved to get to the final and the only can win this games by being tactically clever.

I know there are different opinions already in the public [about his nationality] but in my opinion he's a good choice for the English team.

It will be interesting. We have in Germany a good coach with Julian Nagelsmann, now we have a very good coach also for the English federation. So that will be for sure two nations, two countries who will fight, who will compete for the world championship.

I know there are other good countries and nations to compete for the world championship, but with these two German coaches, I think percentage is high that some of them might win the world championship.

How are your supporting Sam Baldock after the tragic news about his brother George?

I can only say that we as a club, myself, we feel really sorry for him and also for the family. We as a club, we give him the support he needs and we will give him the time he needs. It's a bad situation, especially for him and his family and we are here to support him.

I think Brighton prove it all the time, also in the in the last year, when things happen, the club is there for the players, but also for the staff members. We want to support the family, support Sam and to stay together and to give him the time he needs.

The international break?

There are always advantages and disadvantages of an international break. It's the schedule, we have to accept it and we try to make the best out of it. Now it's about getting back all the players as quick as possible, trying to immediately bring in their mind again. All the different national teams, they experienced different things. But here when we come together, we immediately try to build again the identity, what we had before. Hopefully we can manage this in these two days. It's a short time to prepare for the match against Newcastle, but I'm sure we will, we will manage this in a good way. Now we try to get the mindset in the right way to be ready for this tough game.

Surprised by Danny Welbeck’s form?

I am not surprised, no, because I see him working every day and he’s a special character, a special player. I already mentioned this a lot of times how important he is not only for the club, but also for me and for his teammates. And that's why I'm not surprised, because I'm always convinced if you work hard, if you have a passion for something, if you are disciplined and are passionate for something, then you will be successful in the long term and you get what you deserve and at the moment he gets what he deserves.

Have you met Eddie Howe before?

Unfortunately not [come across him before], but of course he's a great coach. He's already been a Premier League coach for a long time and been quite successful. That's why I have a big respect for him. I'm really looking forward to competing against him. I know it will be tough there because Newcastle is a team which plays quite intensely.

The stadium, what I heard is one of the best atmospheres in the Premier League. So we are really looking forward to it and I have a huge respect for Eddie Howe and his team.

Been to Newcastle before?

I haven't been, no, but I'm really looking forward to it. I hear now all the time it's one of the best atmospheres in the Premier League. After the Amex though, I think St James’ is the second best. So we are really looking forward to going there. It will be a big challenge for sure. It will be intense.

It's important to have a cool head there, it will be emotional and I think emotions are important for a football game, but in the most important moments, you have to stay calm and you have to think rationally without emotions. That's why it will be a mix between having a cool head and an emotional head. Trusting the player’s own quality, trusting the process, focussing on the things you can control, focus on the small things. Then you will gain your self-confidence. That will be the challenge for the Newcastle game.

It will be a fight, you have to work for the game. You have to work for the momentum and you work for it by winning duels. You have to go into the duels and you have to win them. You have to be ruthless. Then when you win the duels, you can gain self-confidence and then you will get the momentum and then also the quality. from us.

You might be shining if you have the confidence and can play football, but before that it’s working, working, working, fighting, fighting, fighting.

Both of you want to achieve big things?

We want to achieve great things and I think Newcastle is a big club and they want to achieve great things. we don't try to hide from anyone and we try to go forward. We try to play with courage, we try to act with courage and that's why we also try to go there and win the game.

But Newcastle is a big club. It's a big challenge for us and I'm really looking forward for this challenge and I'm looking forward to seeing if we can manage the challenge.

Learned from the last international break?

I learned something, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the same for this break. I learn every day. Players learn every day. We as a club, we learn every day. But for sure, it's a challenge if you have a lot of national players away. The players experience different principles, different games.

Now we have to bring them all back and immediately get in their mind the Brighton & Hove Albion identity and this will be the biggest challenge. Therefore I'm hoping that we learn from the from the international break last time, but for sure the results weren't there [after the break], but the performances were quite good. So I think we always have to see this in relation and that's how we learned from it.

Hopefully The methods we tried, or we will try, will work, but I can't see in the future. Data science, getting the information from so many different players across the world, how fit they are. It's not the best time to be honest, it's a challenging time and it's part of the schedule. If you want to be a top team, you have to manage these exact things.

When we look at the top teams in the Premier League, they, they have the national players all the time away. They are able to manage it over a long period. That's also the next step for us as a club to, to manage exactly these international breaks in a good way without losing the results afterwards, or without needing too much time to get back to the performance we showed before the international break.

Number of goals conceded needs to settle down?

It must settle down if we want to be successful. I always say – although it's an old fashioned sentence – but I'm convinced that the defence wins championships. We have to prove the way we defend, it starts with the striker, it ends with the goalkeeper, but it's always a togetherness.

I know there's a big quality, individual quality in other teams. We faced Chelsea, we faced Tottenham with big individual quality, but we will face the same individual quality now against Newcastle. And the challenge will be, or the most important thing will be that we don't concede a goal and that we are all on the same page.

It’s all clear that everyone has a responsibility to defend. If you have this mindset, I think that the first step is done. But then we have to behave tactically in the right way. I was quite happy how we defended against Tottenham the second half. I think that was the togetherness, it was clever how we defended as a team and this has to be the benchmark for us because you can't concede that many goals if you want to reach your goals.

The latest on Solly March after his appearance for the under-21s?

We need to give him a lot of time because being back after such a long injury, it’s not a comeback which will go in a linear way, it's more like a comeback with waves – there will be up and downs. You need to accept the up and downs, not only we as a staff or we as a coaching team, but also Solly as a player, he has to accept these up and downs because they are normal after a long injury. But he's doing quite good mentally and physically and he is in a good way. He has the right mindset. He's a positive guy and we have to be patient with him, but I'm sure we're on the right way.

Yasin Ayari scored for Sweden – does he offer your something different in midfield ?

I'm very happy for Yasin. we followed his games for Sweden and he just confirmed what he has already showed for us. Not in the games because he didn't get the match time maybe he deserved in the last games [for us]. But he shows in every training, his development in the last weeks here and he has a special ability for sure. He can play intense in both directions. He can attack the opponent's box. He can defend our box. He can train every day really intensely, he can turn in different or in special spaces in the opponent's half.

He has a good feeling for the space there and that makes him a special player and I'm really happy for him and his development. There's still things to improve and hopefully we can give him the match time he deserves. But there’s a big competition in our squad to gain or to receive this game time and he is part of it.

Isak might be available for Newcastle – does it change anything?

Not really because they're all fast. If you measure them sprinting, they're all maybe on the same level, it doesn't matter who plays as a striker. I think the last game was [Anthony] Gordon and [Harvey] Barnes played on the left. So no matter who is playing there, they have all the skill and ability to hurt a back line in the Premier League. They have all the individual quality to make the difference in one situation.

We have to take care all the time, no matter who's playing. Of course, Isak, he's a striker with special skills. I already know him – I knew him in this time when he played for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. He's a great player, he has a great skillset and will be a big challenge for us to defend him.