When Ansu Fati made his last appearance in European club competition before last night, for Barcelona at Manchester United in February, he would not have imagined that his next one would be for Brighton & Hove Albion.
Seven months ago, Fati came off the bench in the 75th minute of a 2-1 Europa League play-off round defeat at Old Trafford – a result that completed a 4-3 aggregate exit for Barca and sent United on into the round of 16.
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Now on loan at the Amex Stadium for the rest of the season, courtesy of an audacious deal struck at the end of the summer transfer window following a meniscus knee ligament tear suffered by Paraguayan prospect Julio Enciso in training, Fati’s full debut for his new club also happened to be Brighton’s first game ever in UEFA competition.
A 3-2 defeat to AEK Athens in this Europa League group opener was not how he would have envisaged his home bow (he had come off the bench, also against United at Old Trafford, at the weekend) but, as head coach Roberto De Zerbi remarked afterwards, this still felt like an “important day” for Fati.
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“He played the 90 minutes; 90 minutes also can help him to improve the physical condition, to improve his confidence,” De Zerbi added.
Fati was still on the pitch at the final whistle not just after 90 minutes, but also an additional 13 minutes of stoppage time, and could even have ended the night as the hero if he’d got an instant shot away inside the box from Solly March’s square pass instead of delaying and being dispossessed.
These are tentative first steps for Fati as he attempts to rediscover his mojo.
A player billed as the successor to Lionel Messi as Barcelona’s No 10 has been beset by injuries and competition for forward places at the Camp Nou since his first-team debut, as a 16-year-old, in August 2019.
New country, new league, new team, new manager, new style… it may take a while for his obvious raw talent to flourish in a Brighton shirt.
Fati needs minutes, to get sharper and increase his fitness levels.
He scored twice in his most recent start for Barca, a 3-0 home win against Real Mallorca at the end of May after they had secured the La Liga title, but he only played 90 minutes for them twice last season: at Czech side Viktoria Plzen in a dead-rubber late in the Champions League group stage when the Catalans were already out and at home to Getafe in January, a game where Barca rested several key men in between a Spanish Super Cup final against Real Madrid that went to extra time and a Copa del Rey quarter-final with Real Sociedad.
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Indeed, of Fati’s 51 appearances for Barcelona across five competitions last season, just 14 were starts. A total playing time of 1,824 minutes was less than 12 Brighton players in the 2022-23 campaign.
It won’t be straightforward for Fati to get more minutes at Brighton.
De Zerbi regards his Nos 7, 10, 11 and 9 as the key players to release in his regular 4-2-3-1 system and his incoming summer transfer business was mainly front-loaded. Fati’s fellow new arrivals include Joao Pedro, the Brazilian forward who was Brighton’s £30million ($37m) club-record signing from Watford of the Championship, and winger Simon Adingra, who spent last season on loan at Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium after signing from Danish club Nordsjaelland.
They have featured in the early-season games, along with Danny Welbeck, Evan Ferguson, March, Kaoru Mitoma, Adam Lallana and Facundo Buonanotte, plus Enciso will be back in the new year. That’s a deep pool of attacking talent for De Zerbi to call upon, increasing the need to perform when you get your opportunities.
As the table below shows, Brighton have been the most clinical team in the Premier League, with the biggest margin between their expected goals (xG) figure and their actual goals scored.
Although it’s a small sample size, that’s a big improvement on their performance of minus 2.7 for the same metric last season, even though De Zerbi’s adventurous approach was rewarded with a goals total (72) that was comfortably the highest in Brighton’s six completed seasons in the Premier League.
They also have the top flight’s second-highest shot conversion rate this season, behind only West Ham. Again for context, the sample size is small, but the figure of 16.1 for Brighton is a substantial upgrade on last season’s average of 11.8.
De Zerbi paired Fati with Joao Pedro last night, with Welbeck left on the bench until the 82nd minute and Ferguson sent home from the stadium before the match as he was unwell. It’s a fresh alliance, and one that needs honing. Without Welbeck or Ferguson, Brighton were lacking a focal point. Instead, Fati and Joao Pedro operated as split strikers, the former left of centre, the latter right of it.
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Fati dropped deeper more often, collecting passes and trying to link the play. He also did lots of running and closing down, but scoring opportunities were rare. He did have a shot in the first half, an angled drive inside the area with his right foot, pushed away for a corner by Cican Stankovic. But the scoring was left to Joao Pedro, who converted two penalties he earned, both awarded after VAR reviews.
Brighton will be hoping to outscore the opposition more often than not this season. They’ve conceded 10 goals in the first six games and haven’t kept a clean sheet. All three AEK goals were poor from a defensive perspective — including the first from a corner and the second from a free kick — in the absence of influential captain and centre-back Lewis Dunk with a minor muscular injury.
It will be up to Fati, and others, to make up for that at the other end of the pitch.
This was a start but there is surely more to come from Brighton’s new recruit.
(Top photo: Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)
