Last Sunday, Fabian Hürzeler made a quadruple substitution an hour into Brighton’s Premier League game against Manchester City. Brighton had been scratchy, had struggled to create and were a goal down, but the changes transformed the game and they won 2-1. Hürzeler explained he had been guided by “a feeling that comes from inside … In some moments my body says something to me. Not just in football but generally in life you need to have the courage to take the decisions you want to.”
Hürzeler had spent most of his press conference trying to deflect or at least share out the praise. He talked of his players and how important their energy and belief had been, and he stressed that the substitutions had been a collective decision made with his coaching staff. Management these days is a world of data and analysis, of careful programming and meticulous plans. But ultimately what won the game was Hürzeler’s intuition.
