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[Albion] Hürzeler’s (Brighton) Tactics



Deadly Danson

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Oct 22, 2003
4,592
Brighton
Thank gawd Steele wasn’t playing. The NSC lynching party would be combing Sussex.
Which is a really good point. Bart was poor yesterday but virtual silence on here which isn't a bad thing as there shouldn't be a pile on because he's a good keeper but we all know if Steele had done exactly the same he would be getting pelters.
 




Sarisbury Seagull

Solly March Fan Club
NSC Patron
Nov 22, 2007
14,992
Sarisbury Green, Southampton
Watching on TV, he looked as shell-shocked in the first half as I felt sitting on my couch!
I don’t know why he was shell-shocked though, we all knew before the game that playing those tactics and that high line against this Chelsea team was going to be suicide. And that was before we knew JPVH was out. It played out exactly as we all knew it would, that was the most frustrating thing.

I like Hurzeler and have generally been impressed since he joined but yesterday was infuriating and smacked of arrogance and naivety. The high line with that defence and wierd positioning and wasting of Hinshelwood were really bad decisions. Hopefully he’s learnt a lot from yesterday.
 


One Teddy Maybank

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Aug 4, 2006
22,956
Worthing
Which is a really good point. Bart was poor yesterday but virtual silence on here which isn't a bad thing as there shouldn't be a pile on because he's a good keeper but we all know if Steele had done exactly the same he would be getting pelters.

Definitely.
Has to do better on the 4th, both the pass out and shot, near post. Palmer only had one place to shoot.

Others not much chance IMO.
 


Albion my Albion

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 6, 2016
19,595
Indiana, USA
Life could be far, far worse.

Next!

I have a feeling Hürzeler will have a perfectly sound explanation for playing the high line on defence and in his mind it will be perfectly reasonable.
 


One Teddy Maybank

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Aug 4, 2006
22,956
Worthing
I don’t know why he was shell-shocked though, we all knew before the game that playing those tactics and that high line against this Chelsea team was going to be suicide. And that was before we knew JPVH was out. It played out exactly as we all knew it would, that was the most frustrating thing.

I like Hurzeler and have generally been impressed since he joined but yesterday was infuriating and smacked of arrogance and naivety. The high line with that defence and wierd positioning and wasting of Hinshelwood were really bad decisions. Hopefully he’s learnt a lot from yesterday.

Great post.

I posted elsewhere, Shearer said it last weekend, most of NSC said it all week.
If everyone else could see it etc…..

I thought Hinshelwood was disappointing yesterday, no doubting his work rate, but he chased down everything which left us exposed. I think he looked far better when he went to RB.

Don’t know if anyone else noticed, but Baleba picked up a knock in the warm-up, so that didn’t help. He still was the pick of our midfield though.
 




AZ Gull

@SeagullsAcademy @seagullsacademy.bsky.social
Oct 14, 2003
13,072
Chandler, AZ
I don’t know why he was shell-shocked though, we all knew before the game that playing those tactics and that high line against this Chelsea team was going to be suicide. And that was before we knew JPVH was out. It played out exactly as we all knew it would, that was the most frustrating thing.

I like Hurzeler and have generally been impressed since he joined but yesterday was infuriating and smacked of arrogance and naivety. The high line with that defence and wierd positioning and wasting of Hinshelwood were really bad decisions. Hopefully he’s learnt a lot from yesterday.
Indeed.

Six tough games coming up. We'll see what he's made of.
 


Justice

Dangerous Idiot
Jun 21, 2012
20,613
Born In Shoreham
Great post.

I posted elsewhere, Shearer said it last weekend, most of NSC said it all week.
If everyone else could see it etc…..

I thought Hinshelwood was disappointing yesterday, no doubting his work rate, but he chased down everything which left us exposed. I think he looked far better when he went to RB.

Don’t know if anyone else noticed, but Baleba picked up a knock in the warm-up, so that didn’t help. He still was the pick of our midfield though.
Hinshelwood was playing as a ten from what I could work out FH seems hell bent on squeezing him in to line up even if its not in his best positions.
We needed Enciso as a ten as he’s far more creative.
 










Han Solo

Well-known member
May 25, 2024
2,383
It was working really well for twenty minutes. We were pressing them and not giving them the time to calibrate passes through the offside trap. Even when Palmer hit the post, it would have been called off for offside.

The loss had a lot more to do with giving the ball away in super dangerous positions rather than Chelsea abusing our high line.

"Can't play like this if we don't have faster CBs boohoo".. well, where are we finding the CB that catches up with Jackson when he gets a through ball from Webster?

The first goal was a situation where Webster puts them in a 2v1 where they're going to score four out of five times.
The second goal is an unnecessary (and honestly rather cheap) penalty were giving to them.
The third goal is an insane free kick from 200 meters and there's no defending against that one. But again the free kick wasn't a result of high defending, it was a result of giving the ball away very cheaply and then fouling the player.
The fourth goal is a result of Bart giving the ball away.

None of the goals are a consequence of the high back line. There's really extraordinarly little that indicates we'd have fared better if we had given Chelsea more time, ball and space on our half of the pitch.

Neither quicker defenders or lower defence line is going to prevent us from losing when repeatedly giving the ball to the opponent in super dangerous positions.
 




Paulie Gualtieri

Bada Bing
NSC Patron
May 8, 2018
10,578
I don’t know why he was shell-shocked though, we all knew before the game that playing those tactics and that high line against this Chelsea team was going to be suicide. And that was before we knew JPVH was out. It played out exactly as we all knew it would, that was the most frustrating thing.

I like Hurzeler and have generally been impressed since he joined but yesterday was infuriating and smacked of arrogance and naivety. The high line with that defence and wierd positioning and wasting of Hinshelwood were really bad decisions. Hopefully he’s learnt a lot from yesterday.
This

It wasn’t an unforeseen outcome
 


AZ Gull

@SeagullsAcademy @seagullsacademy.bsky.social
Oct 14, 2003
13,072
Chandler, AZ
It was working really well for twenty minutes. We were pressing them and not giving them the time to calibrate passes through the offside trap. Even when Palmer hit the post, it would have been called off for offside.

....
Not true - Ferdi was playing Palmer onside:-

NotOffside.jpg
 


Barnet Seagull

Luxury Player
Jul 14, 2003
5,983
Falmer, soon...
It's fascinating watching FH talk tactically in interviews. From what he says there are clearly some coached structural patterns to follow but key to the philosophy and approach is an element of relational fluidity. This ultimately means a lot of scope for the individual to determine position rather than the structural rigidity in coaching we are more familiar with from RDZ. It's a pretty similar approach to what Rydstrom who we were also linked with in the summer does with Malmo successfully.

As a result, what we are seeing in attack is the benefit of some of this relational play as we look incredibly dangerous in our overloads. This comes with the risk of leaving us unbalanced and this is why the Rest defense is so important. What we are seeing in defence (kindly) is that the defensive patterns and positioning haven't fully been got to grips with yet and also a truck load of mistakes across the team from front to back.

Switching from the highly structured approach of RDZ which tactically is slightly easier to negate (in the long term) to something so fluid and relational (See Fernando Deniz for the extreme version) will take some time but is a better long term approach as it's less easy to counter.

Despite yesterday's result and a slow start in tactical understanding and a number of costly errors, if we can get to grips with it and FH is able to balance it right there is better long term potential in what he's trying to do. Implementation wise, the players have to understand what they're playing against in the moment so theoretically at least, the players are more able to react to what is around them and therefore are less easy to beat and able to find solutions in attack.




 




Han Solo

Well-known member
May 25, 2024
2,383
Not true - Ferdi was playing Palmer onside:-

View attachment 189548
Fair enough. Not seen that angle.

Either way, high or low defense line - if we give the oppostion penalties and 2v1s against our goalkeeper, goals will be conceded.
 


Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
72,258
It's fascinating watching FH talk tactically in interviews. From what he says there are clearly some coached structural patterns to follow but key to the philosophy and approach is an element of relational fluidity. This ultimately means a lot of scope for the individual to determine position rather than the structural rigidity in coaching we are more familiar with from RDZ. It's a pretty similar approach to what Rydstrom who we were also linked with in the summer does with Malmo successfully.

As a result, what we are seeing in attack is the benefit of some of this relational play as we look incredibly dangerous in our overloads. This comes with the risk of leaving us unbalanced and this is why the Rest defense is so important. What we are seeing in defence (kindly) is that the defensive patterns and positioning haven't fully been got to grips with yet and also a truck load of mistakes across the team from front to back.

Switching from the highly structured approach of RDZ which tactically is slightly easier to negate (in the long term) to something so fluid and relational (See Fernando Deniz for the extreme version) will take some time but is a better long term approach as it's less easy to counter.

Despite yesterday's result and a slow start in tactical understanding and a number of costly errors, if we can get to grips with it and FH is able to balance it right there is better long term potential in what he's trying to do. Implementation wise, the players have to understand what they're playing against in the moment so theoretically at least, the players are more able to react to what is around them and therefore are less easy to beat and able to find solutions in attack.




Lot of over-thinking going on there, looks like. Would imagine that the majority of players, not being particularly bright, would benefit most from being given specific instructions as to their roles and responsibilities
 


eastterracemike

Active member
Jan 31, 2008
249
De Zerbi had no plan B - tippy tappy, work it up the pitch and pass it into the goal. This worked well and drew lots of praise untiil teams worked us out.
Huerzeler is in danger of also having no plan B- high line, lose the the ball upfield and slow defenders get sliced apart.
Its all very well having a philosophy but more than one is needed, not blind subservience.
 






Barnet Seagull

Luxury Player
Jul 14, 2003
5,983
Falmer, soon...
Lot of over-thinking going on there, looks like. Would imagine that the majority of players, not being particularly bright, would benefit most from being given specific instructions as to their roles and responsibilities
Couldn't help but picture Brian Clough when I read this and as he proved, getting players to do the job he needed worked well (at least for a time at Forest) I don't necessarily think there is an absence of instructions, it's more that in terms of positioning the instruction is not as fixed. I'm also far from convinced yet and personally prefer more structured play but I'm open-minded. In attack at least, there are some encouraging signs and I've always loved a box-to-box midfielder!
 


Terry Butcher Tribute Act

Well-known member
Aug 18, 2013
3,656
I was optimistic that Baleba and Wieffer would control the midfield with Wieffer sitting and Bsleba running at them. Unfortunately, Wieffer gave the ball away ALL the time. It was a shocking performance, really shocking. I still think Baleba is key for us but Wieffer has to improve fast or we will be under pressure in our own half most of the time against most of the teams.
Looking at the numbers, Hinsh gave it away 8 times. Weiffer 9 times. Dunk 13 times.

Not sure what that proves as i didn't think Weiffer was good. But he was not the only one
 


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