Maxim De Cuyper Scout Report At Brighton 2026/2027: From Club Brugge Prospect To Premier League Difference-Maker - Player Analysis
Maxim De Cuyper started the season like a house on fire.
He had two goal involvements in 18 minutes and a hand in a third in the opening 4-0 win against Aston Villa.
Matty Cash spent the whole first half caught between two jobs: following De Cuyper inside or holding his line.
Fabian Hürzeler had moved De Cuyper into the front line, and it paid off straight away.
That afternoon was a sign of what was to come.
Brighton sit third in the Premier League with Pascal Groß back running their midfield.
They have scored the most goals in the league and conceded the second fewest, which shows how balanced Hürzeler's side has become.
One of the less obvious reasons is De Cuyper, who did not seem destined for this role 12 months ago.
The 25-year-old came through the Club Brugge academy into their first team and moved to the south coast in the summer of 2025 for €20m.
He has improved since, at the Amex and with Belgium, and is now a mainstay on Brighton's left wing.
In his first Premier League season, he made 30 appearances, scored twice, added three assists and created 32 chances, the third-highest total at the club.
This season, he has already matched that goal tally, with two goals and three assists from nine league appearances.
The graphic shows that Maxim De Cuyper is the only defender featured among the Premier League's leading goal contributors.
Surrounded almost exclusively by attacking players, his presence on the list underlines an exceptional start to the season and growth in his attacking output.
This Maxim De Cuyper scout report and player analysis sets out his profile, his strengths and his weaknesses.
It explains why Hürzeler values him and how he fits the head coach's model, and it considers what he could become from here.
Maxim De Cuyper Player Profile
The "left-back" label next to De Cuyper's name does not describe him accurately.
He is an attacking player who was moved back into defence, and both his best qualities and his biggest flaws come from that.
His career shows it.
At Club NXT, Brugge's reserve side in the Belgian second tier, he scored five goals in 20 games, mostly from advanced positions.
He then spent two seasons on loan at Westerlo, from 2021 to 2023, playing as an attacking left-sided player.
That is where he learned to attack the penalty area, which is now at the centre of his game.
Against Sunderland, De Cuyper (No. 29) exploits the space on Trai Hume's blind side, receives the pass, and calmly slots the ball low into the corner.
