Jan Paul Van Hecke on next step and Brighton lessons from Virgil Van Dijk
Listening to Jan Paul Van Hecke Talk, you can start understanding why Fabian Hurzeler He authorized half of the center to speak more, especially in a week like this.
Brighton and Hove Albion They were thus focused on the setting of the right mentality that sent their clips of the late objectives team. The idea is to encourage belief, above all because the club aims to take that next crucial step and win their first larger trophy ever through the FA CUP. “I feel like we could really do something in this cup,” says Van Hecke.
The approach of half of the Dutch center helps. “I like to motivate other players,” explains Van Hecke, but the staff say it is typical of the humility of this leader. The 24 -year -old naturally emerged as a senior voice.
The same context of the quarterfinals of the England Cup on Saturday underlines it. As Brighton hopes for the best moment in the club’s history, the club that is located on their way is what has far inflicted their worst moment of the season. Only eight weeks have passed since the Nottingham forest has subjected the part of Hurzeler to a 7-0 humiliation.
These defeats have seen many teams collapse. Brighton, on the other hand, replied with six wins in seven, as well as a 2-2 draw in Manchester City who should have won. Van Hecke puts him to “the character” in the club. “It seemed to me that it was unacceptable by ourselves,” he says. “But then you too return to the training field and you feel that everyone had that feeling. And they were like, ‘Nah, it is not happening to us’.
“And of course this is a bad result … but there are only three points.”
This feeds about the reason why Van Hecke was chosen as a leader, because he is in line with the club’s attitude. The Brighton hierarchy was fast in making Hurzeler known that their famous analysis showed that it did not have the number of a 7-0 defeat, even if it was not exactly a good performance. There was a frenetic, aggravated by injuries. Hurzeler helped the mentality by literally burning the playbook from the game, sending the message that the game had disappeared.
“I think the mentality was like, that’s okay, we can’t go worse from 7-0,” says Van Hecke. “But now we can show what we are on. And then it has only gone to our head.
“Of course, it’s 7-0, it’s difficult, but it can also be a good thing. And it happened later.”
Van Hecke says that the main motivation is now “going to the next round and playing in the semifinal”.
Brighton has been there twice in the last seven years and now they are aware of the need not to treat games like Saturday like days outside. They need to see it as something natural, to take the next step and win the first large brighton trophy. This possibility comes with the challenge of reaching the Champions League for the first time.
“I think if you ask real fans what they prefer, they will say by winning a trophy,” says Van Hecke. “But I think you can do both … we can do great big things.”
The sense of progression measured adapts to the respected approach to the recruitment of Brighton and the way they develop players. Van Hecke already looks like another inspired signature, and reveals that the reason why he chose the club in 2020-when he had doubts about being able to intensify since he was at the second level Breda NaC due to the roadmap they questioned.
“I was also talking to other clubs, large clubs, but they had no plan,” says Van Hecke. “They just want to buy me, put me with other players and see what happens.
“But I was like ‘okay, Brighton sounds really well and have a good plan’.”
This was the first to return on loan to the Netherlands, who was with Heerenveen, and then to the championship, with Blackburn Rovers, before being worked on the team. That plan helped Van Hecke to view the idea that becoming a Premier League footballer could actually be “realistic”.
“Playing in the first team when I was 19 years old … it’s not realistic. So I had to build to be a player from the Premier League.
“And they said, of course,” this is a plan, it cannot also work … but we think you can have the potential to be a footballer of the Premier League. I felt a bit like a risk … but I have to try. As long as he worked well. It was a good plan. “
Van Hecke admits that he is a “raw” defender at that point, but the club has started to develop skills that they admired how his energy and the will to advance. This adapts in particular to the aggressive approach of Hurzeler, with the high line that allows the 24 -year -old to interact with what he likes most in football: “headers, duels and many contrasts”.
Van Hecke does not see Hurzeler’s approach as “naive” in any way.
“He is good in his meetings and details,” says Van Hecke. “He is quite young and has different things in his head on football.
“You see more to go on and do more actions in the last third. You see us try to press everyone. So I think it’s all the merit for the manager.
“The way we play is even more attractive and people like to look at us.”
Equally important, Van Hecke says that the opposition does not have fun playing them.
“Forgive the ball and then four or five seconds is on the net and they are like ‘oh, it’s not really nice to play against them’.
“A lot of time and intensity. I think that’s why many people love the Premier League.”
Such a comment brings to the obvious question, on the fact that Van Hecke saw the Cup of England growing in his village in Arnemuiden. He says he has “loved” him, in part because he is “so traditional”.
This is not a simple line. Van Hecke is one of those players absolutely obsessed with the game and has consumed everything possible.
“I love football,” he observes.
So much so that he went to look at all three main Dutch clubs and initially followed Arsenal in England because he loved Dennis Bergkamp.
“My father has always told me that you have to look at his clips,” he recalls.
Van Hecke’s parents were of the type that pushed him and his brothers in all the Netherlands to play football. As a result, there was a particular pride to represent that country with his first hat last year, given that his father died a few years ago.
“When the national anthem is going, I think of him,” reveals.
Van Hecke last week played alongside another player he looks at: Virgil Van Dijk. The two constituted the central coupling of the Netherlands for both the legs of the quarter-finals of the Nations League against Spain, which brought a defeat of strict shooting after a 2-2 and 3-3 draw.
“He is really training a lot in the game,” Van Hecke details. “If he goes to duel, you almost know he wins it. It makes me a little easier to play next to him.”
Van Hecke now plays a similar role for Brighton and consequently tries to give the message just before Saturday: “Now we have obtained another big one against the forest. So for now it really seems our cup, and we really want to do special things. You must first win this game.”
