Brighton are entering uncharted territory in the 2024/25 season. For one, their new manager, Fabian Hürzeler, is the youngest ever in Premier League history. More importantly, the 2024/25 season is Brighton’s first season in the Premier League without Pascal Groß.
The Seagulls sold Der Kaiser to his boyhood club Borussia Dortmund for £8m. Groß scored the club’s very first Premier League goal and left as their all-time top Premier League goalscorer and assist man.
Not to mention his versatility. Groß played every position apart from goalkeeper during his seven-year spell as a Seagull.
Replacing a player like Groß is impossible, but I think Brighton have done the next best thing by signing Brajan Gruda.
Brajan Gruda, the Groß replacement
Out of all the skills that made Groß great with Brighton, his chance creation was the best of them. Groß had 10 assists in the Premier League last season. Only Bruno Fernandes had more key passes than the Brighton legend.
Gruda isn’t nearly the level of Groß yet, but he has all the skills to blossom into a similar attacking player as Pascal Groß.
While playing on a worse team than Brighton and as a less important player in that team, Gruda averaged more shot-creating actions per 90 minutes than Groß last season. He also had more expected assists per 90 minutes and nearly the same number of key passes as Groß.
The 20-year-old was also incredibly versatile for Mainz in the Bundesliga last season. He played a significant amount of his minutes as a right-sided attacking midfielder and even occasionally as a right wingback/midfielder.
From these positions, Gruda was able to get into the right half space and create havoc with well-timed slipped passes and direct take-ons. He also showed promise as a crosser.
Gruda was a designated corner taker for the German U21s and was never shy about whipping in a cross when the ball came to him slightly deeper on to his preferred left foot. Gruda is also not afraid to try his luck with long-range shots from outside the box in those positions.
Brighton have plenty of wingers, holding midfielders, and shadow strikers. What they don’t have are players who can do a bit of all three roles. Groß was one of those players, and Gruda is too.
What to expect from Gruda at Brighton this season
If you can’t tell, I am very high on Brajan Gruda at Brighton. I think he can go on to be a serviceable Pascal Groß replacement, but we shouldn’t expect 15+ goal contributions this season.
Right now, Gruda is only truly elite as a tricky wide player. He has a good eye for the right pass and is more comfortable in the half-spaces than a lot of wingers, but there are aspects of his game he needs to improve on before I would call him an elite attacking midfielder. Decision-making is the number one thing he needs to improve on.
As he put it in his introductory Brighton interview, Gruda is “a dribbler.” His first instinct is to always take players on. To be fair to the 20-year-old, this strategy usually works out for him.
He averaged 8.13 take-on attempts per match, which was more than Kaoru Mitoma, Yankuba Minteh, and Simon Adingra attempted per 90 last season. He completed more take-ons than each of those three, except for Mitoma.
The problem with the Gruda’s strategy is that dribbling isn’t always the best option. There were plenty of times last season where he chose to take a defender on when the better option was to pass the ball or to get a shot off.
This tendency to overdribble will cause Brighton fans headaches this season, especially if Gruda is deployed in the midfield where he’ll have less space to operate than he’s used to out wide.
His work rate out of possession is another area I can see causing problems this season. Gruda isn’t a bad defender, just an inconsistent one. Gruda doesn’t always track back and sometimes it looks like he’s not sure when to pressure the opposition.
Gruda is probably a weaker defender than any of Brighton’s current winger options. However, with his physicality and work rate, this is something he could improve on relatively easily.
This season for Gruda will be all about working out these kinks and developing as a player. How he develops will be up to Fabian Hürzeler though.
Where will Gruda play?
My projection for Gruda to become Brighton’s Pascal Groß replacement is based on the assumption that he will go on to be a No. 10 or a playmaking No. 8. I believe in this assumption in the long-term, but it’s admittedly a big assumption for this season.
Gruda has said himself that he can play as an eight or a ten, and Hürzeler has talked about playing him in the midfield, but we haven’t seen enough of him in these roles to know how he will transition to playing as a midfielder in the Premier League.
Gruda played just 10% of his matches last season in a 4-2-3-1. And he didn’t play as a midfielder in all those matches. Given the limitations I already discussed, it’s hard to see Gruda adapting to life in the Premier League as a midfielder right away.
Gruda will definitely get his chances to play as a midfielder, but we’ll probably see more of him as a right winger. He could even play his favorite right-sided attacking midfield/forward role if Hürzeler decides to use the 3-4-3 he frequently used at St. Pauli.
Wherever he plays this season, Gruda has the potential and playmaking ability to give Brighton something no other player in the squad has right now. He is definitely a player worth watching closely this season.
