MMA fighter helped Brighton shake off 'nice' tag

Brighton have scored 27% of their Premier League goals from set-pieces this season [Getty Images]

Fabian Hurzeler says he does not want Brighton to be "known as a club that is nice" after they enlisted an mixed martial arts fighter to help them improve at set-pieces.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live last week, midfielder Jack Hinshelwood said the unnamed fighter had been brought in to help players "block from corners better" earlier this season.

Brighton have conceded 13 goals, a third of their overall total, from set-pieces this campaign and travel to Newcastle United - the fourth-most prolific scorers of set-piece goals and one of the Premier League's tallest teams - on Saturday (15:00 BST).

"It was a couple of months ago. We brought him in because we spoke a lot about set-pieces, blocking, new trends in the Premier League. Therefore we tried to adapt to it as well," said Hurzeler.

"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.