MMA fighter helped Brighton shake off ‘nice’ tag

Fabian Hurzeler says he does not want Brighton to be “known as a club that is nice” after they enlisted an mixed martial arts fighter to help them improve at set-pieces.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live last week, midfielder Jack Hinshelwood said the fighter – understood to be German Christian Eckerlin – had been brought in to help players “block from corners better” earlier this season.

Brighton have conceded 13 goals, a third of their overall total, from set-pieces this campaign and travel to Newcastle United – the fourth-most prolific scorers of set-piece goals and one of the Premier League’s tallest teams – on Saturday (15:00 BST).

“It was a couple of months ago. We brought him in because we spoke a lot about set-pieces, blocking, new trends in the Premier League. Therefore we tried to adapt to it as well,” said Hurzeler.

“I don’t always want to be known as a club that is nice. In certain moments you need to be quite resilient in personal duels.

“There are different ways of being resilient, of using a block, different techniques to win one-v-one duels – especially at set-pieces.

“An MMA fighter always has one-against-one duels. They always need to find a way to beat an opponent. We try to get ideas from other sports and this was an idea we used. If it stays in a player’s mind then that’s always a positive thing.”

Only four teams in the Premier League have scored fewer than Brighton’s 13 goals from set-pieces this season.

“As a club we’re not known as being so dominant in set-pieces,” Hurzeler added.

“We’re never known as recruiting only for set-pieces so therefore we need to find ways to be innovative. We need to find ways that we can’t be beaten that easily against taller teams.

“That’s what we face against Newcastle. We might not be that physical but there are always ways you can defend and attack in one-on-one duels at set-pieces and that’s why we try to use techniques from MMA as well.”

Hurzeler himself has previously trained with British boxer Harlem Eubank.