2024-25 Brighton Season Recap: The Good, the Bad, and What's Next
The Premier League season is over. Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a broad look at the season that was with four positives and negatives that stood out to me from the 2024-25 campaign.
The Bad
Missing Out Europe Hurts
There’s no way to talk about Brighton’s 2024-25 campaign without talking about Europe. Before the season, many Brighton fans—including myself—said that finishing in the top ten was the goal.
As the season went on, though, it became clear that Brighton had a real opportunity to secure European football for next year. There was even a time when it looked like qualifying for the Champions League was in play.
In the end, the club just missed out. We go again next year, but this will hurt for a while, especially since Brighton missed Europe at the expense of a certain South London club that beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final.
Defensive Issues
Brighton conceded too many goals this season. There’s no question about it. The Albion conceded the seventh-most goals in the Premier League this season and had the fourth-worst defensive record away from home.
But, as Marshal Henshaw pointed out in his piece comparing Hurzeler and Roberto De Zerbi, Brighton kept more clean sheets this year than they did in De Zerbi’s last season at the club. They also conceded fewer goals this season than in the 2023-24 campaign.
If the numbers are better, why does it feel like this year was so much worse? Well, because Brighton made a lot more mistakes this season.
For one, Bart Verbruggen was statistically one of the worst goalkeepers in the Premier League. He finished the season with the seventh-worst save percentage in the league (65.7%). No keeper had a lower post-shot expected goals minus goals allowed (PSxG-GA) than Verbruggen. His -5.0 PSxG-GA meant he conceded five more goals than expected, which is almost a full two goals more than the second-worst Premier League goalie—Danny Ward, who had -3.2.
The players in front of Verbruggen weren’t much better. Brighton made 29 errors leading to an opponent’s shot this season. They made 22 last year and just 15 in the 2022-23 season. Penalties also show how reckless Brighton have been this season. The Seagulls conceded nine penalties, joint-worst in the league. Last year, they allowed just six.
Brighton’s issues dealing with counterattacks were also worse this year than last. Per FotMob, the club conceded ten goals from counterattacks this year. That accounts for 20.4% of the goals Brighton conceded in the 2024-25 season. In the 2023-24 campaign, the Seagulls conceded seven goals from counterattacks, just 12.7% of all goals conceded.
There are plenty more stats that tell the same story.
To quote from Marshal’s piece again (please read it here), “One of the main selling points of Hurzeler was that he was going to arrive and be more disciplined defensively than De Zerbi. We haven’t seen that.”
Marshal is right. If Brighton want to qualify for Europe next season, they Hurzeler needs to deliver and Brighton need to improve defensively.
Injuries Were a Problem
No team in the Premier League suffered as many injuries as Brighton this season (48). Even if you exclude James Milner, who missed almost all of the season and likely would not have played a big role if he were healthy, Brighton still had 139 more cumulative days missed with injury than the second ranked club (Tottenham).
I’m not a doctor, so I won’t even try to speculate about whether Brighton’s injuries were due to Fabian Hurzeler’s intense training sessions, the club’s lackluster medical staff, the food being served at Lancing, or the numerous other theories bouncing around on social media.
What I will say is that injuries were a problem. I hope it was just bad luck. If it wasn’t, I hope the club identifies what went wrong this season. I don’t think Brighton can finish in the top half again if they have another year with so many injuries to key players.
Lack of a Consistent Identity
This point ties in with the Defensive Issues section above, but it’s much more vibes-based than stats-based, so I felt it deserved a separate section. Basically, one of my biggest takeaways from this year is how dull it was at times.
Under De Zerbi, every match felt like a battle. With Hurzeler, certain teams seemed to just have our number, and the players didn’t know how to deal with it. At best, it looked like they were going through the motions. Other times, the squad seemed to just roll over and let the opposition dominate them.
Maybe it was the mistakes in key moments (see the 2-2 draw with Wolves), all the injuries, or just the fact that this is a young team that needs more time to adapt to Hurzeler’s tactics. Whatever the reason, something felt off this season, and I hope it doesn’t feel that way again next year.
The Good
Europe is the Expectation
Not to sound too much like the older fans who say things like, “You should be happy! We were in League One 20 years ago!”, but Brighton have grown leaps and bounds in the last few years. We should celebrate that.
The fact that so many fans are disappointed—and even outraged—about missing Europe is a good thing. I’m more inclined to feel this way because it’s not a wild expectation. Brighton fans aren’t delusionally demanding to finish in the top four like Manchester United fans do. Europe is a realistic goal for Brighton, so it’s fair to expect it and to be disappointed when we miss out, especially this season.
In most years, Brighton’s 61 points would be enough to qualify for Europe. They are just the second club in the last 11 seasons to earn more than 60 points and miss out on Europe. Not to mention the fact that Brighton had just 62 points when they finished 6th and qualified for the Europa League in the 2022-23 season.
To sum up this point, yes, it sucks to miss out on Europe this year, but Brighton are good enough to finish in the top eight consistently. If we keep up at this pace, the Seagulls will be in Europe again soon.
The New Signings Look Promising
Brighton’s recruiting team is rightfully recognized as one of the best in the world, but they seem to have really hit it out of the park last year.
Diego Gomez looks like he could become a world-class midfielder, Yankuba Minteh is already one of the most dangerous young players in the Premier League, and Brajan Gruda grew into a solid option at the No. 10 position as the season went on.
Georginio Rutter lived up to his price tag almost immediately, playing as a second striker and left winger. Now he just needs to stay healthy. Matt O’Riley became a go-to option in Rutter’s place after recovering from his own injuries.
Eiran Cashin is the only player I’m still not optimistic about, and it’s too early to make a call either way for players like Mats Wieffer and Ferdi Kadıoğlu. Overall though, Brighton invested wisely last year, which bodes well for next season.
Injuries Were a Problem
I know I just said this was a negative, but if Brighton’s best players can stay healthier than they were this season, the club should be a lot better next year. At a minimum, it would help Hurzeler implement his identity on this squad.
Having a cohesive midfield is key to Hurzeler’s system. Injuries forced him to chop and change all season long, but especially down the final stretch. Brighton used the same midfield trio in consecutive matches only once during the last two and a half months of the season. Those matches were the final two games of the year, and I’m not even sure that should count since Brajan Gruda was playing more like a false nine against Tottenham.
Mats Wieffer playing out of position at right back is another issue that can hopefully be avoided next season if the squad can stay healthy.
So, even if Brighton don’t sign anyone, there’s a good chance they are better just by having fewer injuries. That said, it looks like Brighton will reinforce the squad this summer.
Bloom is Ready to Invest Again
I track Brighton transfer rumors every week. Based on what Tier 1 sources are saying (Andy Naylor, David Ornstein, etc.), it looks like Tony Bloom is set to have another big transfer window. Maybe not £200m big, but reports indicate that Brighton will bring in defensive reinforcements and probably some more young attackers.
In addition to Olivier Boscagli—which looks like a done deal—the club has been concretely linked to Olympiacos wonderkid Charalampos Kostoulas, Botafogo left back Cuiabano, and Hellas Verona defender Diego Coppola. If Brighton get these deals done, the club will be in a lot better shape next year than it was this season.
The players who the club has already signed look good too. Tommy Watson showed his class in the Championship Play-off Final for Sunderland, Greek forward Stefanos Tzimas looked promising at Nürnberg, and loan players like Malick Yalcouyé and Ibrahim Osman look ready for the next step up in their careers.
Looking Ahead
Overall, I think this was a positive season. Yes, there were negatives—I wrote nearly 1,000 words about them!—but I didn’t see anything that makes me too pessimistic about next year. I’m actually very optimistic.
You can accuse me of falling for a gambler's fallacy, but I don’t think Brighton will have as many injuries next year as they did this season. Even if they do, some of the new players the club has been linked to make me believe we will be able to cope better with injuries next year.
I’ll hold back on making a prediction until after the transfer window closes, but I don’t see any reason why Brighton can’t challenge for Europe again next season.