What is it like playing for the youngest permanent manager in Premier League history?

Not much surprises Jason Steele as he prepares for his 16th season in English football, but he was stunned by Fabian Hurzeler’s first meeting with Brighton & Hove Albion’s players.

The 33-year-old goalkeeper is one of five members of Brighton’s first-team squad who are older than their 31-year-old manager, Hurzeler. “After the first day I went back home to my wife and said there is no way I am older than the boss, which is credit to him,” says Steele. “To be able to capture the room and have that aura and charisma… he has definitely got that.

“The moment he took his first meeting it was, ‘Wow, this guy is here and he is ready’. Everything about him screams boss and that is the biggest compliment I can give him — the respect we have had instantly for him.”

Hurzeler’s early weeks in charge of Brighton have provided an indication of the characteristics that the youngest-ever permanent head coach or manager in Premier League history will bring to the competition.

He has spoken about challenging the establishment and outperforming bigger clubs with greater resources. He did that at St Pauli, leading the Hamburg-based side with an average budget to the 2. Bundesliga title last season.

One of the ways he believes this can be achieved is by making everyone at the club feel they have a part to play. An ability to remember the names of staff — even those that work behind the scenes with whom he has limited contact — has gone down well.

So did a hand-written open letter introducing himself to staff at the Amex Stadium, buying them all cookies and conducting a question and answer session in the build-up to Saturday’s opening fixture away to Everton.

Hurzeler also wants the squad to be unified. In his first meeting with the players on a two-match tour of Japan in July, which yielded wins against Kashima Antlers (5-1) and Tokyo Verdy (4-2), he talked about “positivity” and “being the best team-mate”. For example, if Steele or goalkeeping rival Bart Verbruggen make a big save, the new manager urged them to “cheer, support”. Hurzeler added: “You have to live it and that’s what we need to be successful.”

This philosophy extends to the technical area and the bench. Hurzeler is a tracksuited coach and if you removed his peaked cap that faces forwards, not backwards, then you could be forgiven — considering his tender age — for mistaking him for a player.

Hurzeler at a press conference last month (Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images)

Hurzeler has added former Augsburg assistant Jonas Scheuermann to the backroom team as his No 2 and also Marco Knoop, who worked with him at St Pauli as a goalkeeping coach and defensive set-piece specialist.

Hurzeler often applauds with his hands above his head on the touchline during games, even when a pass goes astray — so long as the intention is right. There were celebrations by Scheuermann in the dugout with existing members of the backroom staff when a goal was scored from a corner in Japan. Hurzeler and his two fellow countrymen combine attention to detail and efficiency with a good sense of humour in appropriate environments.

The only slight concern about Hurzeler internally as he settles into the job is that he is too much of a workaholic for his own good. Further down the line, when the novelty of the Premier League has worn off, he may need a release valve from the all-consuming diligence. It is no coincidence that he is a big admirer of Marcelo Bielsa and former Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi.

Hurzeler instructing his players in pre-season (Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)

Hurzeler says: “I don’t need one thing to relax, because what I do is not like work for me; it’s my passion. I love to work for the players, create new ideas and develop the process. If I get home and watch another football match it’s because I want to do it — I don’t have to do it. Learning has no finishing line, that’s my motto. I always want to improve as a person, individually and also as a character.

“And if I really want to switch off then I go and play a little bit of Padel, meet some friends and go to restaurants.”

Hurzeler’s reign will be defined by what happens on the pitch, not the environment he creates around it — however helpful that may be to the cause. Although it will not be quite as deliberate, there has been little change from Steele’s perspective about the way De Zerbi used the goalkeeper in building the play from the back.

“The structure and style is very similar in the build-up,” Steele says. “It’s very similar when I have the ball; similar pictures. We tweak little things here and there, but that is normal every time you get a new boss.

“They want to put their own stamp on things. His (Hurzeler’s) comments have been incredible in terms of his demands, his intensity. He has been a breath of fresh air.”

Hurzeler’s ideas were shaped by the time he spent at Bayern Munich. Born in Houston, Texas, he was only a young boy when the family left the U.S. for Zurich in Switzerland. One of four children, his mother and father work in dentistry. Freiburg was the place they moved to first in Germany before settling in Munich.

Hurzeler spent several years as a teenager in Bayern Munich’s youth academy and reached the second team. The experience has left an indelible mark on him. He says: “I spent 10 years at Bayern, so it’s in my DNA to want possession and to dictate the game. That belief is still deep inside me.”

The Brighton players are getting accustomed to Hurzeler’s way of doing things. St Pauli played a fluid 3-4-3, but he used different systems across the pre-season programme, affected in part by the players available. He switched between a back three and back four. In the second half against Tokyo Verdy the midfield shape was a diamond.

There are key messages, regardless of the formation, in order to have the ball and control matches. Defensive behaviour starts at the top of the pitch, so Hurzeler asks the attacking players to have a defensive mindset in order to score goals. They press high, with the intention of attacking at pace in advanced areas.

There are fewer passes in the build-up than there were under De Zerbi and they will sometimes be more direct, with twin strikers rather than a transparent No 9 and No 10. Hurzeler is also big on clean sheets and what happens without the ball. Again, attention is paid to intensity, regaining possession quickly when it is lost and a rapid reaction to turnovers of possession. He wants his team to always be on the front foot.

Hurzeler on the touchline during the tour of Japan (Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images)

Hurzeler is obsessed with training, based on the premise that you train the way you play. Sessions have been “really intense” and “really hard” according to central defender Adam Webster.

The day before the second game of the Japan tour against Tokyo Verdy, the players were put through a lengthy and gruelling open training session in front of spectators in the heat and humidity of the capital city. De Zerbi’s training placed a bigger emphasis on tactics, with lots of stopping and starting.

The physically demanding sessions under Hurzeler are designed to make the players as fit as possible to implement his style, but there is also plenty of debriefing. Webster says: “We review every training session every morning. We go through what was good and where we can improve, so the level of detail is fantastic.”

Fun elements in training are still carried out with a purpose in mind, such as using a tennis ball passed around by hand, two against one, in a small space. The exercise tests sharpness of movement, changes in direction, anticipation and interceptions.

Hurzeler is the youngest of the five managers/head coaches who are new to the Premier League this season. Kieran McKenna (Ipswich Town) and Russell Martin (Southampton) are 38, Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca is 44 and Arne Slot of Liverpool is 45.

It should be noted that Hurzeler is much older than his years when it comes to football management. He moved into coaching at the age of 23, starting out as player-manager of FC Pipinsried in Germany’s fifth tier and he is more experienced than Martin and Maresca.

Owner-chairman Tony Bloom does not see hiring Hurzeler as a risk. The sports betting entrepreneur says: “I wouldn’t talk about it as a gamble at all. We look at everything; we put a lot of effort into the appointment of any head coach, like other clubs do. We think Fabian is the best fit for the football club. He’s the least-risk option we had.”

(Top photo: Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images)