Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Fabian Hurzeler says he will “never hide” from his critics in the fanbase.
Hurzeler has come under fire from some supporters during a run of one win in 13 league games, but he has been heartened by backing he received in the city on a day off on Thursday.
“I was jogging on the streets and I was recognised even more than I was before, so I was thinking, ‘Maybe it’s because of the negative results’,” Hurzeler told The Athletic during his media briefing for Saturday’s game at Brentford.
“I am in the press even more. It might be a bad thing, but then I saw the reactions from people and I immediately recognised it as a positive thing because of how they speak to me, how they react to me. It’s just an unbelievable feeling. I feel the support from them as well.”
Hurzeler was grilled by supporters with a cross-section of views at a meeting in Hove on Thursday evening.
He said: “I received a lot of positive feedback, a lot of positive messages, a lot of sentences like, ‘We have to believe in you’. That is something that also gives me the confidence and the belief to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep giving the best for this team.”
Some fans booed and shouted, “You’re getting sacked in the morning” when Brighton lost 1-0 at home to rivals Crystal Palace recently. That has been followed by further defeats in a bleak February at Aston Villa (1-0) and at Liverpool (3-0) in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
“I understand the frustration,” Hurzeler said. “I definitely understand if people are frustrated when we lose to Palace in a bad way, with one of our worst performances of the season, and it’s part of the job to handle this criticism.
“I will never hide from these kind of things. I really want to face them, I really want to face criticism. I really want to face the feedback. I think it’s important to get that, to still exchange with them, because on the one side I know that they are booing me but, on the other side also when we get the results back they will be there for me, they will push me, they will be happy with me and the team.”
Brighton owner-chairman Tony Bloom will not be at Brentford due to a prior family engagement. He usually joins travelling fans in the away end for the fixture due to a soured relationship with Brentford owner Matthew Benham, a former employee of Bloom turned bitter rival in the sports betting industry.