Formed by Hammers supporters Jack Elderton and Callum Goodall to provide fellow fans with in-depth yet accessible analysis of their team and its players, Analytics United using performance analysis and data to examine how West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion could develop…

Brighton & Hove Albion are a club often praised for their off-field operations, with the ownership team focusing on using data to drive player and manager recruitment strategy to create an improved level of sustainability in performances at long term of the club. And with the appointment of young German manager Fabian Hürzeler, who puts the club comfortably in the top half of the Premier League with 24 points, they have remained true to form.

Often the arrival of new management can lead to an accepted period of adjustment as many factors change, but as the Brighton ownership team develops a top-down strategy based on data-driven research to align the profiles of coaches and players, the Seagulls’ play The team has certainly benefited from a certain level of continuity between what Hürzeler wants his team to do and what his predecessors, particularly Roberto De Zerbi, were trying to accomplish over the course of their mandates respective.

De Zerbi quickly became known in the Premier League for his team’s characteristic automatisms, it is common to see Lewis Dunk or Adam Webster with their studs on the ball, static, waiting for the opposition to put pressure before initiating a set-play type game. series of passes that allowed the team to advance the ball at high speed towards the center of the field. These sequences are always part of how Brighton look to flow and progress through the game, and this season they have maintained their progressive advantage, ranking as the fifth most efficient progressive passing team in the league with more than 8.5% of their passes moving them forward. .

They achieve this efficiency by creating a close-knit defensive trio with the goalkeeper and two central defenders, and bringing their double pivot towards the base trio while maintaining close horizontal proximity to each other. This reduces the distances between the players involved in the build-up, meaning Brighton can use this group to attract the opposition press while playing quick sideways passes facilitated by this proximity. Then the receiver can look to play in the pivot, who can also use his shorter lateral distances to achieve the familiar third man combinations to play quickly in the middle third.