Hurzeler: Young players building up resilience

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Charlie Hanson

2025-02-22T08:00+00:00

Carlos Baleba joined Albion from Lille in August 2023. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Fabian Hurzeler believes that this season is proving to be vital for the progress made by a number of his young players.

The likes of Carlos Baleba and Yasin Ayari – both 21-years-old – have made 21 Premier League appearances each, and those numbers have impressed their head coach.

"We have to get players on the pitch that have this resilience, that are able to play three games in a row, but that is a big step in their development especially of young players," said Hurzeler ahead of today's trip to Southampton.

"Take Carlos Baleba. It's his first season where he plays game by game and really has to [be ready] perform every week. That is a big, big change for a young player, not only physically but also mentally, to always be ready to give the best you have inside of your body.

"We have a lot of young players who are at this stage. Not only Carlos, also if you take the (number) sixes, with Yasin Ayari, Jack Hinshelwood, Diego Gomez. These are all very young players in the early stages of their careers, so it's about us building with them this mental and physical resilience so that they can go and play three games in one week.

"That is something we have to work on in training. It's a journey, it's a process. It doesn't come overnight, it's the same with consistency. It's a thing we have to work on to get the resilience into the players."