Brighton: New manager Jens Scheuer hails Women's Super League club
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Jens Scheuer led Bayern Munich to a 2-1 win over Emma Hayes' Chelsea in the first leg of the Women's Champions League semi-finals in 2021
New Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Jens Scheuer says he was convinced to join the Women's Super League strugglers by a "really great" discussion with club owner Tony Bloom.
Scheuer, who led Bayern Munich to the Champions League semi-finals in 2021, was named as head coach on Thursday.
The 2021 Frauen-Bundesliga winner was impressed by Albion's training base when he visited at the end of November.
"It was amazing to see what the club is doing for women's football," he said.
The 44-year-old, who succeeds Hope Powell, added: "I had a really great talk with the owner of the club and the management.
"From the first time we spoke together, I talked to my agent and said, 'don't do something wrong - I want to come here and work with these guys.' We had a really great connection from the first day."
Scheuer called himself "honoured" to become the first German head coach in the WSL and described Albion's facilities at Lancing as a "higher level" than Bayern, where he worked from the 70 million euro FC Bayern Campus.
The ex-Freiburg manager was granted a work permit on Friday and hopes Brighton can trouble WSL leaders Chelsea, who overcame a first-leg deficit to deny his Bayern side a shot at Champions League glory in May 2021.
"The first thing I want to do is win against Chelsea," joked Scheuer. "We lost 4-1 and it was one of my biggest defeats. We were close to the final.
"We have this goal in the future to be part of the best teams in the league, but you can't change it within six months.
"We can't come here and set the world on fire within two weeks - that's not possible, and you have to say the coaches from the other teams are brilliant.
"We shouldn't be satisfied to get a draw or lose 2-1 or 1-0 against Chelsea or Arsenal. My goal is to make the top teams struggle and steal the points.
"The best is when they are saying 'oh my god, we have to go to Brighton - they play with aggression, so much emotion and intensity.'"
Interim head coach Amy Merricks, who led the second-bottom Seagulls to four points from three games following an 8-0 thrashing by Tottenham in Powell's final game, will be a key part of Scheuer's staff when his reign begins on January 15 at Leicester - the only side below Albion in the WSL.
"We're not blind - we can see the table," said Scheuer, who praised his players but said he was concerned by the 29 goals Brighton have conceded - the worst record in the division.
"The first game is important and we know what to do. My main goal is to implement a winning culture so we're hungry on the pitch.
"We want to decide if we want to be lovely, nice and give three points to our opponents or fight for them with all we have and all that is allowed on the pitch.
"My way is the second way: to give everything, to motivate my team and keep them hungry. The first training session I saw was good. I looked into the eyes of the girls and they agreed with me."
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