“I don’t always want to be known as a club that is nice. In certain moments you need to be quite resilient in personal duels.
“There are different ways of being resilient, of using a block, different techniques to win one-v-one duels – especially at set-pieces.
“An MMA fighter always has one-against-one duels. They always need to find a way to beat an opponent. We try to get ideas from other sports and this was an idea we used. If it stays in a player’s mind then that’s always a positive thing.”
Only four teams in the Premier League have scored fewer than Brighton’s 13 goals from set-pieces this season.
“As a club we’re not known as being so dominant in set-pieces,” Hurzeler added.
“We’re never known as recruiting only for set-pieces so therefore we need to find ways to be innovative. We need to find ways that we can’t be beaten that easily against taller teams.
“That’s what we face against Newcastle. We might not be that physical but there are always ways you can defend and attack in one-on-one duels at set-pieces and that’s why we try to use techniques from MMA as well.”
Hurzeler himself has previously trained with British boxer Harlem Eubank.