{"id":10589,"date":"2025-01-03T16:59:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T16:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10589"},"modified":"2025-01-05T10:28:46","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T10:28:46","slug":"albionising-the-amex-and-a-kocky-kaos-kult-wunderkind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10589","title":{"rendered":"Albionising the Amex and a Kocky, Kaos Kult Wunderkind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Brighton’s Old Goldstone Ground, 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And so to the Falmer Stadium, better known as the Amex, for a late Saturday afternoon encounter with Brighton & Hove Albion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Amex site, although not the stadium, sits astride the Lewis-Brighton border, a geographical inconvenience that delayed by at least five years the ending of the Seagull’s 14 errant years after their old Goldstone Ground was sold from under them to developers in the 1990s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gave the good burghers of Lewis, once the home of Thomas Paine, \u2018Merkan \u2018holics may be interested to know, the excuse to indulge in old-fashioned Nimbyism by opposing the construction of a football stadium under the guise of protecting designated open countryside. The boundary-straddling field, used as a temporary stadium carpark until 2021, is now set to be turned into student housing for the Falmer campuses of the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. So much for green intentions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the football club continues to develop its compact stadium. A new ‘fan zone’, The Terrace, will open towards the end of this season. Fan zones are the US concept of plazas at sports venues where folk can congregate pre- and post-match so the club can sell them more overpriced food and drink. The stadium also gets a new event space to monetise on non-match days. Kerching all round!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A two-story club shop will be next in the ‘Albionisation’ of the Amex. The existing one will relocate to the space now occupied by Dick’s Bar and the club’s museum. Both those close after our game on Saturday to let the refurbishment start. In the unlikely event that either is on your bucket list, last chance, and all that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some travelling ‘holics may also like to know that from 2027, away fans will be relocated from behind the goal to the southwest corner of the South Stand, which will include an area of safe standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H\u00fcrzeler<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to property development, Brighton has a sideline playing football. Chris Hughton led the Seagulls back into the top flight in the 2017-18 season, 34 years after their relegation from the old Division One. However, it is his three successors\u2014Graham Potter, Roberto De Zerbi and Fabian H\u00fcrzeler\u2014who have solidified the club’s position there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each appointment was bold and imaginative, but none more so than Fabian H\u00fcrzeler, who became the Premier League’s youngest-ever manager at 31 and the first to be born after the competition began in 1992. The Texas-born Swiss-German had been a talented enough player to be on Bayern Munich’s books as a teenager and progress through Germany’s youth teams to the Under-19s. However, he played his senior football for Bundesliga B teams and gave it up in his early twenties to become a coach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He arrived at Brighton in the summer from Hamburg’s anti-establishment ‘kult’ club, FC St Pauli, which he had just steered to promotion to the Bundesliga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As when he took over at St. Pauli, H\u00fcrzeler has mostly maintained his predecessor’s formation at Brighton but adapted it to his philosophy of high-intensity attacking football that uniquely straddles the Juego de Posici\u00f3n system favoured by most top European teams and the emerging controlled chaos of Relationalism coming out of Brazilian football (see: Diniz, Rydstrom et al<\/em>). Both approaches focus on building from the back to break the opposition press and then creating overloads in attack; however, in the latter, the overloads are generated by players, particularly midfielders, swarming the ball, with the team not beholden to a rigid structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While H\u00fcrzeler used an inherited 3-4-3 at St Pauli, he has built on De Zerbi’s 4-2-3-1 at Brighton. In the build-up, his and De Zerbi’s Brighton look similar: the goalkeeper makes a back three with the two centre-backs. The full-backs go wide and two midfielders drop to create a line of four in front of them. It is once the opposition\u2019s press has been broken that the differences emerge. H\u00fcrzeler has his midfielders moving the ball and themselves rapidly upfield to create a fluid attacking six or seven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The midfielders’ freedom to hunt in packs to create fast overloads that stretch opposition defences out of shape, and especially pull them wide, frequently means vacating central midfield. This requires the defensive line to play high. This high-risk attacking gambit leaves Brighton vulnerable to counterattacks. This season, it has conceded a league-high four breakaway goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opposing managers may be starting to work out H\u00fcrzeler’s novel approach. After a five-game unbeaten run to start the season that had Brighton second in the table at one point, his side has slipped to tenth. Monday’s draw with Aston Villa extended Brighton’s winless streak since beating Bournemouth on November 23rd to seven, even if so far this season, only the Mugsmashers and ourselves have lost fewer games than the Seagulls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A ball-playing keeper is the starting point for H\u00fcrzeler’s system. The young Dutch international Bart Verbruggen is first choice. In front of him, club captain Lewis Dunk partners another young Dutch international, Jan Paul van Hecke, in the middle. Compatriot Jo\u00ebl Veltman has been playing right back, although Tariq Lampety is now back from injury and will be seeking to cement his return, having scored the equaliser against Villa. Ecuadorian Pervis Estupi\u00f1\u00e1n has been on the left, with Ferdi Kadioglu, a left-back bought from Fenerbahce in the summer for \u00a325 million, gone in the fetlock.  However, Estupi\u00f1\u00e1n missed the midweek game against Villa because of illness and is 50\/50 for Saturday. Brazilian centre-back Igor Julio or the long-serving Adam Webster would deputise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

London-born Danish international Matt O’Riley and the 20-year-old Carlos Baleba, another potential gem unearthed by Brighton’s recruitment department, will likely occupy the crucial ghost midfield roles \u2014 shape-shifting sixes-cum-eights-cum-false 10s. Look for them to play quickfire ‘third man’ passes to make the rapid attacking transitions H\u00fcrzeler wants. Injuries have hindered the highly-regarded Dutch international midfielder Mats Wieffer, who joined from Feyenoord in the summer for \u00a325 million, from nailing down a starting place. He again is unavailable for Saturday. The young Swedish international Yasin Ayari is Plan C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dangerous and rapid Japanese winger Kaoru Mitoma and one of Solly March, newly returned from injury, Brajan Gruda, a 20-year-old Albanian-German brought from Mainz in the summer for \u00a326 million or Yankuba Mintech, a \u00a329 million summer buy from Newcastle, will offer the width that is crucial to H\u00fcrzeler’s high-intensity attack. Another left-wing option is Simon Adingra, a 22-year-old Ivory Coast international and another who exemplifies Brighton’s astute talent spotting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julio Encisio, the prodigiously talented 20-year-old Paraguayan who has struggled for playing time under H\u00fcrzeler, has nonetheless recently been deployed as the third false 10. In October and November, H\u00fcrzeler opted for an even more attacking 4-4-2, with Georginio Rutter, a \u00a337 million summer buy from Leeds, the versatile Brazilian Jo\u00e3o Pedro and Evan Ferguson, another promising 20-year-old struggling for form and minutes, playing alongside leading goalscorer Danny Welbeck, formerly of this parish. All three have also played as the single striker in a 4-2-3-1. Crocked ankles mean neither Welbeck nor Ferguson will make even the bench on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timber will miss the rematch, having picked up a soft fifth yellow against Brentford. This will likely require moving Partey to right back, which, in turn, could mean Martinelli replacing Nwaneri on the right wing to help deal with Mitoma, even though Nwaneri did enough against Brentford to retain his place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calafiori might well be rotated. Rice should return after being rested for most of the Brentford game. Arteta expects those stricken with the lurgi to be available, including the worst affected, Havertz, but the German may be eased back in from the bench. Thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya
Partey, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly
\u00d8degaard, Rice, Merino
Martinelli, Jesus, Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unnecessary to repeat that every game now must yield three points. Additionally, there is the ridiculous Rice red card home draw to avenge. Beating Brighton would close the gap at the top of the table to three points by the time Liverpool plays on Sunday, putting a smidgen of pressure on them. Unfortunately, they have a home game against a team in the bottom third of the league that hasn’t scored a goal at Anfield since 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H\u00fcrzeler, who displays the cockiness of youth (Matron!), says his team will win if it plays with its signature high intensity and courage in possession and deals with our set pieces. He is neither the first to say that nor to see such ambition blunted by Arteta’s counter tactics of dominant control. The gentlemen of the turf think a 2-1 away win is the most likely outcome, but any win for the Arsenal will do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, ‘holics far and wide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And so to the Falmer Stadium, better known as the Amex, for a late Saturday afternoon encounter with Brighton & Hove Albion. The Amex site, although not the stadium, sits astride the Lewis-Brighton border, a geographical inconvenience that delayed by at least five years the ending of the Seagull’s 14 errant years after their old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10591,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10589\/revisions\/10591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}