Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler has explained why he enlisted the help of a German MMA fighter to help his side with their set-piece work.
It comes after 21-year-old midfielder Jack Hinshelwood revealed the head coach’s alternative approach to training in a interview with BBC Radio 5 Live.
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“It was a couple of months ago so Jack [Hinshelwood] has a good memory,” Hurzeler said in his pre-match news conference. “We brought him in because we’ve spoken a lot about set-pieces, blocking and new trends in the Premier League.
“We are trying to adapt to it because I don’t want this club to always be known as a club that is nice.
“In certain moments you have to be quite resilient in personal duels. There are different ways of using your body and skills to win one-v-one duels, especially in set-pieces, and an MMA fighter always has one-v-one duels.
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“Their job is to find a way to beat their opponent and we love getting ideas from other sports.
“If players are still remembering it now then it is obviously staying in their minds, which is a positive thing. It proves that we got some ideas from it which have been helpful for us as a team.
“As a club, we have never been known as being dominant in set-pieces or recruiting only for set-pieces, so we need to find ways to be innovative.
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“We don’t want to be beaten easily when we face taller teams. We might not be that physical regarding our height, but there are always ways you can defend and attack in these one-v-one duels.
“This is why we’re trying to use different techniques from MMA as well.”
