Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler will not rush teenage striker Stefanos Tzimas into Premier League action following his debut double in a crushing 6-0 Carabao Cup success at Oxford.
Greece Under-21 international Tzimas, who cost £20.8million from German club Nurnberg, came off the bench to strike twice in seven second-half minutes at the Kassam Stadium.
Fellow debutant Tommy Watson sealed the Seagulls’ first win of the season after goals from Olivier Boscagli – another newcomer – Brajan Gruda and Diego Gomez set Albion on course for round three.
Brighton have picked up just one point from their opening two top-flight fixtures ahead of hosting Manchester City on Sunday, with their only goal coming from the penalty spot.
“There are different demands in a Premier League game than the game today,” said Hurzeler.
“He (Tzimas) came into a game where it was already 3-0 so it’s not the intensity you can expect in a Premier League game.
“For sure he’s closer with the step today but I’m not sure if he might be an option for the weekend, we have to see how he reacts.
“But it’s positive. It’s step by step, it’s not like going all-in from the start. It’s giving him a step and then the next step, that he can adapt and he has a positive feeling.
“He showed today that it’s very important for him that he scores goals because he was quite happy in the locker room.
“That’s a really good step and we have to be not that euphoric, we have to be very patient with him and let’s see what will be the next step.”
Hurzeler changed his entire starting XI from Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Everton, while Oxford made eight alterations.
Despite the emphatic scoreline, Albion only escaped with a clean sheet thanks to a string of saves from goalkeeper Jason Steele and some last-ditch defending.
“We scored goals but we could also concede goals,” said Hurzeler.
“We were quite sloppy in some moments, made some bad mistakes and invited them to shoot.
“Overall of course positive but there are still a lot of things to improve. In some moments we are just too lazy.”
Oxford slipped to another loss after beginning the campaign with three successive Championship defeats.
Frustrated U’s boss Gary Rowett felt the final score flattered the visitors.
“We’ve created probably four or five big chances for ourselves, their keeper’s made a couple of good saves,” he said.
“It’s probably more than we’ve created in a lot of our recent games. We make silly, silly mistakes for the goals and they’ve got that quality of finishing, which was the difference.
“My opinion is that game could be 6-4, or it could be 5-3, it could be 4-2 and we play our part in an exciting game with lots of goals and lots of chances.
“As it was, we’re not ruthless enough and they punish every mistake we make.”
