Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler believes his team’s intensity made the difference as their old-timers helped inflict more gloom on Liverpool.
Danny Welbeck scored either side of a Milos Kerkez strike to earn the Seagulls a 2-1 home Premier League win on Saturday afternoon.
Brighton outran Liverpool despite starting with 34-year-old Pascal Gross, 35-year-old Welbeck and 40-year-old James Milner. And Hurzeler said: “It’s no coincidence they have such careers because they are top professionals. They are role models.
“They do the simple things right and don’t complicate things. I’m really happy to work with them and that they still have those standards and levels.”
Liverpool were playing just 62 hours after their Champions League romp against Galatasaray in midweek, with injuries meaning they were unable to overly rotate.
But Hurzeler is adamant Brighton hadn’t targeted the weary legs of the Reds during a leaden-footed display from the visitors.
“The plan wasn’t to test them,” he said. “It was to be intense and press them and keep working to our principles. No matter where we play we want to play our style of football.
“We want to play intense football and it was about doing the things we are convinced we can do.
“It’s difficult to say. I think we played a really good second half, not the best first half.
“We played intense and created chances. I saw a team that was really connected and reacted well to conceding a goal out of nowhere and stuck to our principles.
“Overall I was pleased with the intensity and how we created the chances. I am proud of our boys.”
Hurzeler was under pressure after a poor run of form earlier in the season but believes their recent improved results are a result of not panicking.
“That’s what happens when you stay calm and don’t listen to the noise and get distracted by the noise with things you can’t influence,” he said.
“Now it’s about understanding how we created this winning run and this winning culture.”