Pascal Gross Challenges Brighton’s Young Guns to Step Up
Pascal Gross stepped up to take his penalty twice against Strasbourg on Saturday – and buried it both times. It was a small moment in a pre-season friendly, but it said plenty about the role the Germany midfielder intends to play for the Seagulls this season. After a summer that stripped a stack of senior names out of the Amex dressing room, Gross has made clear he sees himself as one of the men who must hold the group together.
Speaking after the 4-3 comeback win in Vienna, Gross issued a pointed challenge to Brighton’s younger players. The Albion have lost leaders, goals and characters over the close-season, and it will fall on the rest of the squad – the emerging talent especially – to cover the gap. It is the clearest statement yet of how Fabian Hurzeler’s side plan to reset.
The characters Brighton have lost
Gross reeled off the names himself. Danny Welbeck’s move to Chelsea was only the latest exit, following Joel Veltman, Solly March, Adam Webster, James Milner and Jan Paul van Hecke out of the door, with coach Andrew Crofts also leaving the backroom staff.
“A lot of players left us and it is really important the new players coming in help us straight away and we do as much as we can to help them,” Gross told The Argus. “Some big characters in the changing room, some great team-mates, but also great football players left us. When you see Solly, Joel, Webby, Milly, Welbz, JP, Crofty on the staff, it’s a lot of characters. They basically helped Brighton be where they are now.”
The German knows exactly what walks out of the building with them. “Some have been more unfortunate with injuries, for example, but Welbz was top scorer in the last two years, so we also lose some goals,” he said.
What Pascal Gross wants from the young players
The answer, in Gross’s eyes, is a collective one – and it runs straight through Brighton’s crop of academy graduates and recent signings. “We only are able to save that as a team,” he said. “We have players and they need to step up. We have a lot of young players. They have already shown they are capable of really good things. Now, with more game time, they need to step up and help us.”
“And we try to bring them in the best possible opportunity that they can help us, and that’s what we’re working on now,” he added – a nod to the responsibility the senior men now carry in bringing the next generation through.
Leading from the front
Gross sees that leadership as shared between himself, skipper Lewis Dunk and goalkeeper Jason Steele. “It’s a big role. I lead the team with Dunky here, Steely,” he said. “We need to make the team on and off the pitch tick.”
On the evidence of Vienna – that twice-taken penalty, and a senior spine still setting the tone – the message has already been backed up on the pitch. For a young Brighton squad heading into a demanding campaign, the challenge from one of the club’s most trusted voices could not be plainer: this is your moment to grow up fast.
