Instinctive

Scouting João Pedro Understanding a Positionless Footballer

Scouting João Pedro is one of my favourite articles.

In this long read, I covered the mechanics and criteria of shooting + finishing (including box movement, physicality), sports science w/correlations to OOP work, and character analysis/profiling.

🔗: instinctive.substack.com/p/scouting-j... 👈

The full depth chart gets quite funny (and long — I'm running out of screen space on my laptop)

They could. Realistically Baleba goes CM, Ayari goes DM. This graphic just shows what I believe the players’ strongest positions to be

After removing players who are or have been strongly linked away, and only using players in their [current] strongest positions*, Brighton's squad looks a little something like this:

*16/26 players can play in two or more positions.

Everything is fine and dandy after mid-October, but until then, perhaps it’s okay to worry.

If someone could wrap Danny Welbeck in bubble wrap, that’d be greatly appreciated:

You have backups in case of injury. If you aren’t ready to trust them, then a) why waste funds on them, b) what happens to them when they become backups to your new backup, and c) will your academy players ever have a clear pathway to the first team?

“But I still have 1.5 weeks to go, so, I will give you the answer when I know.”

Fabian Hürzeler was asked who Brighton’s penalty taker will now be:

“That’s a really good question because I have to think about it as well! So at the moment we are training penalties as well in training, so to find out who can replace him… by, by doing safe and great penalties.

I’ll have an in-depth FPL specific article out in 5 days (after Brighton’s last preseason friendly)

“Of course Pervis was a great player for us and it now is about replacing him.

“You can’t replace him one to one.

“It is a different character, it’s a different profile so we will see different things.

“But hopefully also very good things.”

“He is a very clever player. He knows how to penetrate the last line from an opponent.

“He knows how to play very efficient passes. He has a good left foot.

“Now it is about us trying to integrate him into our style of play as quick as possible but so far he is doing a good job.”

Fabian Hürzeler says that Maxim de Cuyper needs to adapt, but that he’s a very different profile to other fullbacks at the club [The Argus]:

“First of all he needs to adapt to the intensity and I think he does it step by step.

“And then in possession I think you saw he showed some great things.

I struggle to believe that Baleba’s on £12.5k p/w. A club with an average wage of ~£65k isn’t going to pay one of their most expensive and promising signings that little.

According to Capology, Thomas McGill outearns Carlos Baleba. That’s just not realistic.

Realistically, you need a stopgap. Yalcouyé isn’t ready yet.

If Carlos Baleba were to leave, I’d want either Lesley Ugochukwu (🕊️) or Lucas Gourna-Douath as his replacement.

Ornstein's said a couple of things that are rather important:

1. "Brighton do not intend to sanction a sale this summer" (!!!!)
2. Baleba still has 3 + 1 years left on his contract (!!!!)

Thank you!

You set your asking price higher than whatever you (mentally) intend to accept. £100m is ~£25m too low.

£90m + £10m is funny. I had a good laugh at that.

Scouting Carlos Baleba In-depth analysis on one of the world's best midfield talents—play style, aerial ability, defensive prowess, tempo setting, ball-carrying, agility, ball-striking, weaknesses, and tactical adaptability

A couple of months ago, I wrote Scouting Carlos Baleba.

In it, I analysed his play style, aerial ability, defensive strengths, tempo-setting, ball-carrying, agility, ball-striking, weaknesses, and tactical adaptability.

FREE TO READ: instinctive.substack.com/p/scouting-c... 👈

Georginio, Gruda, Kostoulas, O'Riley. That said, Georginio can play as the CF too, of course,

After streamlining Brighton's squad (not counting players who have been reliably linked away, for eg), I’ve ended up with 26 names.

At least 16 of these players can comfortably play in two or more positions.

Axel Tape seems like the type of defender who can hold a backline together. Like glue.

Realistically:

• Watson isn’t ready to start yet
• Minteh is the first-choice RW
• Solly March’s condition = ?
• Gómez is preferred centrally

• Kadioğlu is more of a RW than a LW, but is (will be) best as a FB
• de Cuyper needs to drive up from deep (not start high)

Brighton's LW depth is... concerning. In the short term it's the stuff of nightmares.

Similarly, I’ve never been a fan of shoehorning players into labels after a coach has switched clubs.

“Oh, Gibbs-White would be perfect for the Damsgaard role.”

Cool. But would that suit the rest of the team? And what about the [new] qualities that can’t be confined into it?

Every time a new tactic is “discovered,” it’s already outdated. It’s like buying a car — its value starts dropping the moment you drive it off the lot.

As soon as a new tactic is out there, so are its solutions. But players are unpredictable. They change, develop, evolve.

Southampton 2 -2 Brighton Pre-season - 2nd August, 2025

Southampton 2 - 2 Brighton | Match Report

— Structures and fluidity in possession
— The Wieffer Dilemma and concerns re van Hecke
— Yankuba Minteh's development
— Platforming players and empowering skillsets

OUT NOW: instinctive.substack.com/p/southampto... 👈 🔗