Kashima Antlers vs. Brighton
A Pre-Season Analysis, Match 1 🇯🇵
Note to self: This is only pre-season.
This match was simply a formality to give players some minutes. Maybe experiment a little? Meh, either way, we can’t draw any meaningful conclusions from it.
Ah, who am I kidding?
Julian Nagelsmann has posters of Fabian Hürzeler on his bedroom walls, Japan’s been infiltrated by a wave of seagulls, and Brighton are winning the league.
Okay, hyperboles and delusions aside, let’s take a look at Brighton’s 5-1 win over Kashima Antlers and how this result can translate into Premier League success.
🕊️ The Formation
…It’s complicated. It’s just very complicated.
I’ve attached a graphic showing Brighton’s formation in the first half, alongside a team sheet for the second half.
That said, given the experimental fluidity on show, I don’t believe showing a formation adequately represents what we saw on the pitch (especially throughout the second-half).
🕊️ OOPs I Did It Again
Or, in other words, what were Brighton doing out-of-possession?
There are two things I’d like to focus on here as points of inference. So, let’s look at them:
👉 The double pivot, stuck together as if they’d been hot-glued:
Moran and Milner are by no means the perfect defensive double pivot, but they do fit what Hürzeler expects of his midfield.
As seen in the video, the pivot appeared quite narrow (a la De Zerbi) and choked out narrow passing lanes near Brighton’s box.
While this may seem unremarkable in this 4-4-2-esque shape, it plays into some of Hürzeler's principles. More specifically, it could allow Brighton to maintain a typical Hürzeler 5-4-1 in the future, meaning defensive solidity.
But its true capabilities lie alongside point two:
👉 Mitoma… in midfield?!
Once again, this requires a caveat given we don’t have a LWB, but Mitoma seemed to defend similarly to what a winger under Hürzeler is expected to do—sit narrow, find pockets of space, and support the narrow pivot.
This setup, combined with the centre-backs defending their own defensive line, enables Brighton to aggressively win the ball back.
When they eventually do, Brighton can play through the opposition press given their central overload.
While we may not have seen a typical Hürzeler setup on paper, these small defensive nuances to adapt to Brighton’s squad not only show pragmatism on Hürzeler’s part but, what I believe, will lead to an immediate defensive improvement.
I worry about Hürzeler’s no-midfield-runny-CB setup in transition, and what we saw above is a nice compromise. But it’s not perfect.
🕊️ Welcome, Yankuba Minteh
Brighton’s OOP structure often reverted to a 4-4-2, akin to the Arsenal’s and City’s of this world. But their directness was something different to what we’ve seen in recent years.
Imari Samuels jumped his defensive line to intercept a pass and found Andrew Moran fairly easily, given how compact the middle of the pitch was. This compactness, however, meant that the RHS was completely isolated. As soon as the pitch opened up for Brighton, Lamptey made an underlapping run, creating a passing option to James Milner (and a decoy run), meaning Yankuba Minteh was isolated.
And… well, Minteh scored. A great goal at that.
But even if he hadn’t taken his man on, Welbeck and Moran were simply one pass away (from where they could’ve had fairly good shots) given the sheer number Brighton had accumulated within the middle channels.
In essence, we’re once again seeing Hürzeler’s 3-4-3 principles in play.
A similar theme can be seen in just how narrow Brighton’s wingers sat.
Mitoma and Osman essentially sat as inside forwards, allowing for a 4-4-2 split-striker press that fills my head with one nagging thought: “Roberto? Are you back?”
For all intents and purposes, Mitoma, Osman, and Lamptey were given complete freedom in the above move, which ended with Mitoma passing the ball to Osman, who got a shot on target.
The fluidity and narrowness of the wingers and wingbacks continued into the second half, where Barco was “inverted” for large periods of play. Ahh, this role is perfect for Barco. It suits him to a tee.
Should we? I think we should. Let’s appreciate Valentin Barco.
🕊️ Barco, You Did Not Just Do That?!
(He did. Barco did, in fact, do just that).
Maybe it’s simply my starved self, given who knows when Brighton last scored from a set-piece, but for Barco to have THAT delivery in his locker is a blessing.
With Solly March still out with an injury and Pascal Groß potentially on his way out (#pleasestaypascal), Brighton are somewhat short of set-piece takers.
And this bodes well for Barco’s crossing in open play as well, given how many men Brighton are likely to have in the box at any given period of time.
And as I was alluding to during the latter portion of the previous section, Valentin Barco is VERY comfortable in the midfield.
He essentially set up the below move and ended up just outside the box. It’s almost as if this system was made for Valentin Barco.
…until you realise that it’s also perfect for Pervis Estupiñán… Underlaps, underlaps everywhere.
Not much later, Yasin Ayari scored a ridiculously good goal, which I encourage you to check out.
While his 23/24 season may not have gone to plan, he’s an extremely talented player who deserves a look in next season.
The same can be said for Jeremy Sarmiento; however, he had an excellent 23/24 season and deserves a look in this season. This may not happen, though (quite understandably), given the depth Brighton have on the wings.
🕊️ Amario Cozier-Duberry
Before I started writing this piece, I told myself: do not go overboard.
Anyway, here are two clips that are entirely unrelated to each other. And no, I’m not trying to say anything.
I know my eyesight is questionable at times, but I can’t be the only one seeing the similarities there.
I could write paragraph after paragraph marking the similarities between Cozier-Duberry and Bukayo Saka, but it feels a bit premature to do so. What I will say, though, is that the future looks bright. March, Minteh, Cozier-Duberry on the right?
Talk about the paradox of choice, eh?
🕊️ Ramblings, and Conceding(s)
Cozier-Duberry did go on to score another, but the build-up to that goal… let’s just say it concerned me.
Brighton did excellently to win the ball back, but between Steele launching his goal kick and Abdallah Sima heading it down, there was simply… no midfield.
Such large distances while defending will get exposed EXTREMELY quickly in the Premier League, but given how much more solid Brighton appeared in the first half (with a more senior squad), the need to worry proportionately reduces.
That doesn’t take away from the squad’s lack of height, which you need to win those second balls 🦒
Combine this with a jumpy backline, and, well, that’s a lot of opportunities where you could concede a goal.
And concede Brighton did, ending the game with a 5-1 victory. But… did Brighton really concede?
Deciphering whether or not that’s offside (let’s be honest, we all know the answer) is another matter altogether.
Of which, I’ll leave you to be the judge.
🕊️ And They Lived Happily Ever After
We start as we finish: “This is only pre-season.”
But the signs look positive. Hürzeler’s been able to implement a lot of his out-of-possession foundations into the squad in a very short period, while not being overly rigid in possession.
If you’re an attacker playing for Brighton, just know you’re in for a good time. While we’ve seen some positional elements, the build-up is largely fluid, not minimising any player’s worth or time on the ball.
Which, in a player’s game, is what you want.
The question shouldn’t always be, “How can my squad adapt to me?”
But rather, “How can I adapt to my squad?”
And Hürzeler appears to be preparing his answer to the second question.
Well, that became overly positive, didn’t it? That’s the first stop of this Japanese tour over and done with. Our next stop? See you soon, Tokyo 🗼
*(All video and image credits go to their respective owners, including “Official Brighton and Hove Albion” and “Arsenal” on YouTube)*
Really good write up on the game. Whilst it seems us Brighton fans are in for an exciting season, i for one cannot wait for the season to start.