BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION APPOINT DE ZERBI AS NEW MANAGER
It didn’t take Brighton and Hove Albion long to find a replacement for Graham Potter after the Solihull-born manager left the club for Chelsea two weeks ago. Brighton announced on Sunday evening that they had appointed former Sassuolo bench boss Roberto De Zerbi as their new manager.
De Zerbi was presented as Brighton manager this week after agreeing to a four-year contract on Sunday that will keep the former Shakhtar Donetsk manager with the Seagulls through June 2026. It‘s reported that the Brescia-born manager’s quality of football, his trust in young players, and good results were some of the reasons why Brighton saw him as an ideal replacement for Graham Potter.
The Italian has been on an incredible run since 2018 and guided Sassuolo to two eighth-place finishes in three seasons in Serie A, one season in which they missed out on European football to Roma on just goal difference. De Zerbi left Sassuolo at the end of the 2020/2021 season for Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk, where he won the Ukrainian Super Cup in September 2021 before he left the club in July this year as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He left the club at the top of the Ukrainian Premier League during the unfinished 2021/2022 season.
Inspired by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, De Zerbi’s style of play is very position-oriented as the 43-year-old manager always wants his team to maintain possession of the ball, play it from the back, counter-press when the ball is lost, and attack the box with many players occupying the five offensive channels. De Zerbi’s most striking pattern of play is building up from the back, to which he has often been criticized and considered dogmatic on the topic. The former attacking midfielder gives great care to this aspect of the game and his teams’ build-up play has always been original.
“Kicking the ball long and try winning the second ball is a bet,” said De Zerbi. “Since I don’t like betting, I train my team to play out from the back when is possible because that’s not betting. That’s working. And since I believe more in working than in betting, I do this. Do I always want to play from the back? No. If the opponent has the same number of players that we have at the beginning of the action, I’d rather play the ball not close to our goal but further. Not throwing the ball away, but directing it. Passing it to a player on his body. That is my motivation.”
De Zerbi said, however, that his mentor, “[Pep] Guardiola’s football is unreachable”, and it would be difficult to play Guardiola’s type of football. The former Sassuolo manager confirmed that he has had a conversation with Guardiola and Pep told him that he is available to offer him any assistance he might need. “I spoke to Pep Guardiola on Sunday. He’s very happy I’m on board. He told me very good things about the club, and that if I need he’ll be very happy to help – but of course, not in the match when we play against Manchester City.”
De Zerbi spoke mostly via a translator and said that he intended to start speaking in English by January and that he was “very happy to be here [at Brighton]” and “proud to be the coach.” The 53-career goalscorer also noted that his style of play is similar to Graham Potter and mentioned that after first talks with the club, they were on the same wavelength.
Regarding the players available to him at the club, De Zerbi said: “There are a lot of players very close to my idea of football. They have the right skills and characteristics to play the football I want. Taking a team that is fourth in the table has given me much more motivation.”
Brighton owner-chairman Tony Bloom spoke about the De Zerbi appointment, saying: ““I am absolutely thrilled Roberto has agreed to become our new head coach. I am confident his style and tactical approach will suit our existing squad superbly.”
De Zerbi will be joined at Brighton by Andrea Maldera as assistant coach and part of his backroom staff. Maldera was most recently a video analyst and tactical coach for Andriy Shevchenko with the Ukraine national team and Ukrainian media notes he was the brains behind the national side’s success.
Brighton have not played since Potter’s last game in charge in which the team beat Leicester City in a 5-2 win at home. De Zerbi’s first game in charge of the Seagulls comes against Liverpool at Anfield on the 1st of October.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: TVSEI. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.