The new Brighton head coach, Roberto De Zerbi, may lack experience of the Premier League, but he has one advantage over most of his rivals – he can call Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola or his assistant, Enzo Maresca, for advice at almost any time.
Guardiola has spoken warmly of De Zerbi’s work in taking Sassuolo to successive eighth-place finishes in Serie A and the pair last spoke as recently as Sunday. “He’s very happy that I am on board here,” the 43-year-old Italian said. “He told me very good things about the club and he told me that if I need, he will be very happy to help. Of course, not before matches we play against them! We met each other when he was the manager of Bayern Munich. A couple of months ago I flew to Manchester to see him.”
De Zerbi, who was a free agent after leaving Shakhtar Donetsk in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, also picked the brains of Maresca, the former West Bromwich Albion midfield player, before signing for Brighton. “We have known each other for 30 years because we played together when we were 13, 14 years old. So he told me the truth for sure.”
Sassuolo’s success – on a low budget and with a team of few stars but still playing good football – attracted the attention of Brighton after the departure of Graham Potter for Chelsea. “Roberto is a really good fit for this club and the players we have and their style,” Tony Bloom, the Brighton chairman, said. “There will be differences with the style that Graham played but there are a lot of similarities. When we met the conversation went very well and we are confident we have the right head coach for this club.”
De Zerbi also believes that he will not want to make many changes in the short term. He claims to have studied “every single player,” and added that “for me it’s very easy to start work at Brighton because I know the work that Graham Potter has done before. There are a lot of players close to my idea of football.”
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Brighton had prepared for Potter’s departure
“Succession planning is a big part of what we do across the club,” Paul Barber, the chief executive, said. “We try and have someone in position to step into a senior role if they have to. We didn’t expect to lose Graham when we did but we had to react quickly. The chairman keeps a very close tabs on how the best young coaches across the world are developing, perhaps names who are not on the radar of other clubs. Roberto was our No1 choice and when we met him it became very quickly apparent that he was a good fit from a technical and cultural perspective.”
Tony Bloom’s history lesson
“Roberto had done his homework and knew a lot about the club’s recent years but I did talk about the history going back a little bit longer,“ Bloom said. “It was only 25 years ago that we nearly didn’t have a club, and had a four-hour road trip to get to home games at Gillingham, so that was important.”
Brighton’s January plans not affected by managerial change
“With Roberto coming in, as we have talked about, there are similarities with the way Graham does things,” Bloom said. “Yes, there is a possibility over the course of the next few months that Roberto will want a certain type of player and that will be an ongoing discussion between now and January but I don’t foresee too many changes on that front.”
Working in Ukraine left its mark on De Zerbi
“They were very bad days because of course in the situation there is a population that is suffering a lot,” De Zerbi said. “But they have shown unity, they have shown they are proud of being Ukrainian. This experience taught a lot to me and my coaching staff. When you leave your home country to play abroad you bring something to this place, but when you leave you take a lot from it and I took a lot from Ukraine.”
De Zerbi will be more lively than Potter on the touchline
“I’m very passionate,” De Zerbi said. “I have always lived for football, first as a player then as a coach. I live the game like a fan in the stand but with respect. Not only to respect the opponent but also our club. We are lucky to work in football.”
What De Zerbi could bring to Brighton
By Oliver Young-Myles, i sports journalist
In 2019, De Zerbi received a glowing reference from none other than Pep Guardiola, who he will attempt to outsmart in a little over a month. When discussing whether Italian football had evolved since his playing days with Roma and Brescia, Guardiola said: “You see Sassuolo at the moment and they give me the impression that it’s actually very expansive.”
De Zerbi began his managerial career in the Italian fourth-tier with Darfo Boario before moving up the leagues to coach Foggia, Palermo and Benevento with varying levels of success. But it was during his three-year stint with Sassuolo that he truly came to prominence. Under his management, Sassuolo were revered as one of the most eye-catching teams in Serie A.
Playing out from the back became a pre-requisite. The strategy was one of high-risk and high-reward aimed at sucking opponents into their own defensive third before playing around them and attacking the space. During De Zerbi’s last two seasons in charge – 2019-20 and 2020-21 – Sassuolo ranked second and third respectively in Serie A for passes made while under pressure from an opponent. Brighton were sixth in the Premier League for that metric last season.
Another statistic that gives an insight into De Zerbi’s methods is short passes. In 2019-20, Sassuolo were third in Serie A for both short passes completed – passes between five and 15 yards – and medium passes – passes between 15 and 30 yards. The following campaign, they were top for short passes and second for medium passes. Rather than play long, Sassuolo looked to open up the pitch by dragging their opponents out of position by constantly shifting the ball.
A criticism of De Zerbi’s tactics is that his teams can be vulnerable to counter-attacks. Given the emphasis on progressing up the pitch from deep, one stray pass can put the team in big trouble. He will argue the benefits outweigh the negatives.
In order to succeed, De Zerbi’s approach requires players to be technically sound so that possession can be retained and attacks built while under pressure and capable of autonomous decision-making. At Brighton, he will inherit a squad that possesses such traits. It looks like a good fit.
De Zerbi is flexible when it comes to using different formations although at Sassuolo and with Shakhtar Donetsk last season, his preference was a 4-2-3-1 with full-backs who held their width and wingers playing on their weaker side. In 114 league matches in charge of Sassuolo, De Zerbi only used a back three on seven occasions – six of which were in his debut campaign – so it will be interesting to see whether he deviates from Potter’s 3-5-2 system at Brighton.
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