Brighton & Hove Albion is a club that exports an extraordinary amount of football talent to elite clubs after players elevated themselves playing for the Seagulls.
It tends to be the same for managers such as Graham Potter, Roberto de Zerbi, and now, Fabian Hürzeler.
Potter built the foundation and helped to get the club on its feet, but the two managers who came in after found it easy to build on that groundwork.
Tony Bloom’s project is a place for careers to thrive, as opposed to most of the other pressure-cooker environments in the league that hit the panic button after losing a few matches.
Think about the players that have come out of Brighton in seasons gone by: Moisés Caicedo, Marc Cucurella, Alexis Mac Allister, Leandro Trossard, and João Pedro.
Brighton is a talent factory, and the players who go on to elite clubs are often successful.
The money invested back into the club from these signings is done astutely.
The point is that it’s extremely difficult to be a consistent Premier League club, and Brighton have thrived in this regard for years.
One such player who has been really catching everyone’s attention since arriving is Yankuba Minteh.
Signed as part of the 2024/2025 summer spending spree that included splurging £187m on players like Mats Wieffer, Georginio Rutter and Ferdi Kadıoğlu, amongst others, Yankuba Minteh has emerged as the showpiece signing.
If Minteh keeps going at his current rate, the club may once again have to decide whether to sell another prized asset.
But what is the Gambian International excelling at to ensure Hürzeler and his Brighton teammates aren’t missing João Pedro?
This Yankuba Minteh scout report and player analysis aims to answer that very question.
Yankuba Minteh Killer Crossing
It seems like most of the Premier League lacks out-and-out wingers these days.
The big number nine, long throw-ins, and long balls may be back in as tactical trends, but traditional wingers are still far away from being implemented in many teams.
Yankuba Minteh may be the exception.
The former Feyenoord winger has the special talent of taking men on and fooling them 1-v-1.
The key is that after dribbling past a player, he doesn’t frustrate or overdo it like other wingers often do.
In football, the essence of crossing may have dissipated a little.
The team in the Premier League with the deadliest header rarely cross the ball to him (Erling Haaland).
Minteh is proof that there is still huge value in getting a good crosser on the ball.
It’s a huge reason why Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United haven’t been successful: They possess only one good crosser of the ball up the pitch in Bryan Mbeumo.
For two of Brighton’s goals this season, Minteh has been 1-v-1 with a defender, making a yard for himself before crossing it into a dangerous area.
He hasn’t crossed it into a dangerous area aimlessly, however.
The crosses have been pinpointed into the six-yard area for a striker or for Brighton to flood the box.
When you see wingers on the touchline, the number of times they beat a man but mess up the action or decision just after is frustratingly high.
Yankuba Minteh knows that when the yard of space is made, he should look to get it into the box and aim for a Brighton head.
Both examples are essential to point out because one is a cross aimed at a specific player, namely Danny Welbeck, and the other is a cross in a crowded penalty area.
He takes a couple of ‘playing possum’ touches, as I like to call them, in which he moves at a normal pace with the ball but moves towards the defender.
Then, with one more touch, he increases his speed, and the cross comes immediately after.
The space is created because the defender doesn’t anticipate how quickly the touch after the ‘possum’ touches will be, and by that time, Yankuba Minteh is getting ready to whip the ball in.
Many wingers possess the burst of speed, but the ability to cross isn’t.
Brighton should consider putting him on corners as he takes set-pieces for his national team (The Gambia).
Yankuba Minteh Relentlessness
Similar to how Marcus Rashford plays his game, Yankuba Minteh’s style of play is always to try and make things happen; there is an end product at the end of his dribbling, mazy runs, or at least an attempt to do so.
He will try to beat his man often rather than wait for another full-back or midfielder to go beyond him and attempt to exploit the space.
This does mean that on some occasions, such as the game against Wolverhampton Wanderers, he can be dispossessed often by a full-back, as he found out the hard way when coming up against Jackson Tchatchoua.
On other occasions, he can overrun the ball or try to over-dribble past two or three defenders, but that risk needs to be taken in order to produce the goods.
Against Chelsea, Brighton handed Minteh the ball several times, as no midfielder got back to double up on him with Malo Gusto, so Minteh drove at him time and time again.
It worked as he provided the assist for Welbeck’s goal, but what you may not have seen is the two or three other times before the goal when he drove at his man and perhaps wasn’t able to produce the needed cross, or the action wasn’t perfect.
Nevertheless, it feels like Yankuba Minteh himself and Brighton know this; otherwise, they wouldn’t have continuously passed the ball to him on the wing.
He isn’t afraid of drawing a defender and failing; he’ll try and try again, eventually tiring a full-back out.
Additionally, many of Brighton’s games or situations Minteh finds himself in tend to be transitional affairs.
This is important because it means he stays high and wide to completely isolate the winger, so he only has one man to beat.
Yankuba Minteh Pace & Pressing
In Arne Slot’s Feyenoord team, Yankuba Minteh was a promising winger but used predominantly in a forward line that counter-pressed intensely and with pace.
In Slot’s system, Minteh was aggressive and used his pace to press opponents.
The same is happening for Brighton in the Premier League, though Hürzeler’s side aren’t intense pressers; their forward line pushes up and presses the full-back as a trigger when they have the ball.
On Minteh’s side, in particular, the winger out of possession is keen to do this work with aggression.
If footballers are taught how to play a certain way out of possession, they take those skills with them.
Yankuba Minteh also doesn’t play for an elite team yet, so his pressing and work out of possession aren’t magnified.
Either way, his tactical awareness and ability to trap a full-back in a press can result in turnovers high up the pitch.
When Marc Cucurella receives the ball in the air, Yankuba Minteh quickly eats up the ground to race across 20 yards or so to chase him up and force a mistake.
Cucurella knew he was coming as the ball was played, so the touch needed to be good.
When it wasn’t, Minteh was on hand to pounce.
This burst of pace and acceleration is not only good in possession but also useful out of possession.
Hürzeler’s Brighton side were a high pressing team last season, and Yankuba Minteh will benefit from this if the same tactics are employed.
The Seagulls have faced several different sides with different approaches this season.
Against Manchester City, Hürzeler changed the tactics at half-time to press higher, and it worked.
Against Fulham and Everton, Brighton dictated the tempo and had most of the ball, looking to force the issue and pick the lock rather than press the opposition and pin them back.
Against Tottenham Hotspur, they were once again faced with Thomas Frank’s deep low block and insistence on progressing the ball wide rather than centrally.
Against Chelsea, the red card changed the game to the point where they were forcing the issue again.
When it comes to tactics out of possession, we still need more evidence to see how much exactly Brighton will press this season.
However, the evidence suggests that, based on last season, when you have Minteh paired with Danny Welbeck, Brajan Gruda, and Kaoru Mitoma, the Seagulls can be a lethal pressing team.
Conclusion
Brighton are at their best when maximising their quick, diminutive forward line, which can trouble any defence in the league with its depth and skill.
Yankuba Minteh is the showpiece in this attack due to his fearlessness, pace, and aggressiveness both in possession and out of it.
Whether he has the ball or not, Yankuba Minteh will be determined to create a moment for a Brighton attack that is used to inevitably spring surprises because of its quality.
This relentlessness, combined with the player’s physical and technical attributes, makes him a key playmaker for Hürzeler’s side in the 2025/2026 Premier League campaign.
