Premier League club invite MMA fighter to training as 'innovative' tactic explained

A Premier League side reportedly invited a mixed martial artist to the club to teach their players some innovative corner-defending methods.

Set pieces have been defining in the Premier League this year, with the Rory Delap throw-in back in fashion and Arsenal's aerial threat putting them on course to break the record for the most goals scored from these situations.

But as one of the smallest clubs in the Premier League, best known for pretty passing play and free-flowing football, Brighton and Hove Albion have had to get a bit creative with how they cope with towering figures like Gabriel.

The Seagulls are far from the worst team at converting set pieces, with the likes of Danny Welbeck and Jack Hinshelwood popping up with headed goals.

However, quite surprisingly, Brighton have the best defensive record in the league when it comes to set pieces, ahead of Arsenal and Brentford, conceding just five times from dead-ball scenarios.

And it's all thanks to some intuitive decisions on the training ground from head coach Fabien Hurzeler.

Brighton used an MMA fighter to become the best set-piece defenders in the Premier League

With Brighton preparing for a physical battle on the road against Newcastle this week, the resilient side will be put to the test again, with threats like Malik Thiaw and Dan Burn hoping to find any way to turn around the Magpies' form.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live this week, young academy alumnus Jack Hinshelwood revealed that they trained with an MMA fighter a 'couple of months ago' to help deal with defensive jostling and man-marking.

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The unnamed fighter's influence has been evident, and ahead of their fixture, head coach Hurzeler elaborated on Hinshelwood's comments by saying he wanted to shift the stigma of them being a 'nice' team.

“We brought him in because we’ve spoken a lot about set pieces, blocking, and new trends in the Premier League,” Hurzeler said.

“We are trying to adapt to it because I don’t want this club to always be known as a club that is nice.”

Hurzeler was recently caught in a row with fellow set-piece enthusiast Mikel Arteta, claiming that his side were the only team trying to 'play football' in their fixture, mixing their dead-ball defence with fast-paced counter-attacks.

And it was clear to see Brighton excelled in their man-to-man contact, only being undone by an early Bukayo Saka strike.

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“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-on-one duels, especially in set pieces, and an MMA fighter always has one-on-one duels. Their job is to find a way to beat their opponent and we love getting ideas from other sports.

“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.

“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-on-one duels. This is why we’re trying to use different techniques from MMA as well.”

Brighton come into their fixture against Newcastle in a rich vein of form, being the final dagger in Liam Rosenior's Chelsea tenure by battering them 3-0.

As for Newcastle, a return to the pitch for Bruno Guimarães will add some positivity to a team reeling from some failed summer transfers.