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Brighton: Can Roberto De Zerbi continue Graham Potter's project?
Innovative, exciting and full of energy, Brighton & Hove Albion's appointment of Roberto De Zerbi is littered with upside.
Brought in to replace the recently departed Graham Potter, who just joined Chelsea after enjoying a brilliant spell with the Seagulls, the Italian is a captivating choice to take over the managerial reins.
Renowned for building tremendously entertaining, attack-minded teams that also press with intensity, seeing how he implements his defined philosophy will be fascinating.
"We've been particularly impressed by what Roberto did with Sassuolo, where he achieved successive top-half finishes with a relatively small club," Brighton CEO Paul Barber explained.
“It’s no secret our chairman is constantly monitoring potential coaches across the world as part of our succession planning, but Roberto was our number one choice and the only candidate we spoke to.
"We feel Roberto is the ideal cultural and technical fit for Brighton & Hove Albion, and the right person to continue the club’s progress and work with this outstanding group of players.”
Intense De Zerbi 'a strain on the players'
Having coached at the professional level for roughly a decade and worked his way through the ranks with the likes of Darfo Boario, Foggia and Palermo, before moving to Benevento, where he impressed despite being unable to avoid relegation, his next stop was Sassuolo, where he really began to catch the eye with his entertaining, possession-based brand of football on his way to steering them to two fantastic eighth-placed finishes and beating many of Serie A's big guns.
Feeling he'd achieved all he could with the Neroverdi during his three years, De Zerbi then left for pastures new by joining Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk. “I feel that I’ve reached the maximum with them after three years. I hope another coach can come in and do even better.
"I realise that I am something of a strain on the players," he explained on his Sassuolo departure.
“I will always be grateful to the club, but I am a professional and it’s time to try a different experience. We’ve reached the apex of what we can do here, we are challenging for seventh place and I don’t know what more I can give."
Although his tenure with Shakhtar was scuppered by the Russian invasion, he still had enough time to stamp his mark both domestically and in the Champions League with his distinctive approach.
Aside from winning the Ukrainian Super Cup, beating Genk and AS Monaco to qualify for the UCL and holding their own in patches against Real Madrid and Inter Milan in their UCL group, how he got his side playing some beautiful, free flowing football was another major highlight.
Although De Zerbi's time with the Miners was sadly cut short through circumstances outside of his control, with him officially leaving in July, he exited with Shakhtar top of the table in what was an unfinished season and with his reputation enhanced.
Tactically sophisticated with firm ideas
A manager who has firm ideas of how he likes his teams to play, Brighton fans will certainly be in for some thrilling, tactically sophisticated football, just like they enjoyed under Potter.
Always wanting his side to build out from the back, the man who idolises the likes of Pep Guardiola, Marcelo Bielsa, Luciano Spalletti, Quique Setien and Imanol Alguacil unsurprisingly has many tricks up his sleeve to beat the press.
Eager to create numerical and positional superiorities against the opposition's first line of pressure, De Zerbi wants the ball holder to have many passing angles and good connectivity between his players so they can move the ball strategically before taking advantage of any weaknesses.
This is also the case when they form triangular and diamond shapes out wide to give themselves an extra number and multiple passing options to bypass opponents in these areas.
De Zerbi teams obsessed with the overload
Doing an excellent job of luring out pressing units and ensuring his team are aware of when vacant spaces open up, plus having players, including the goalkeeper, who are comfortable in possession, his team knows what's going around them.
Using concepts like up-back-through and third man runs, this, in combination with how the players are methodically positioned at different heights and depths, mean opponents are typically always stretched or face conundrums on who to mark in what zone.
The way he varies his approach to build up with two centre backs or a three chain when a mid or fullback stays deep keeps foes guessing, with this helping to destabilise pressing units and give his troops control to dictate and dominate proceedings while pinning and drawing opponents to open passing lanes to find free players.
Frequently using a base 4-2-3-1 that has many permutations such as 3-2-2-3 or a 2-3-2-3, the way the players are constantly buzzing to offer themselves as viable outlets by evading cover shadows, exploiting free space, taking advantage of opponents stepping out, being preoccupied or ball watching serves as a further testament to his work on the training ground.
'Superbly suited to Brighton's squad'
The fact he wants his players positioned in close proximity notably helps speed up moves successfully to then stretch and dismantle adversaries smartly due to the rapid ball movement this facilitates.
Regularly able to cut through rearguards and take multiple opponents out in a single sequence to then pinpoint targets between the lines or isolate the wide men, his approach should suit Brighton's players superbly.
Moreover, with opponents typically forced to populate central areas to combat their presence in the heart of the pitch, this inherently leaves the high and wide wingers to not only be in ideal 1v1s but also to stretch opponents vertically and horizontally to expand the possibility of gaps within their adversaries' defensive line emerging for runners to target.
Ambitious and adventurous, a further positive arrives from how he gets his players to execute frequent rotations to add an extra layer of menace.
Wingers and full-backs key to his system
While the attackers interchange quite often, there's no doubt the most prevalent switches are between the winger and the fullback in the Italian's positional play framework, with these proving effective at allowing both to spend time underlapping, overlapping and even venturing into midfield to manufacture overloads.
Some extra aspects that hold his teams in good stead to make headway come from the central defenders stepping into midfield to add an extra number and attract markers, how his players receive layoffs (wall passes) in forward facing postures so they can immediately inject momentum into their final third forays and from how he likes to place five attackers high especially when against low blocks.
Indeed, the latter gives them many options in advanced areas to utilise and the capacity to achieve numerical parity or superiority to generate space for each other using decoy runs and opposite movements.
While their bold, high risk offensive approach that commits many numbers forward can leave them exposed on the counter, in the mind of De Zerbi, the positives unquestionably outweigh any negatives.
Expect constant, relentless pressing
Meanwhile, on the defensive end, expect his Seagulls to be eager to regain the ball as quickly as possible both through their high pressing and counterpressing.
Not afraid to go man on man, play with a high line and aggressively press opposition build up, his teams look to close off passing routes, force errors by giving the ball holder minimal time and set traps that serve as a trigger to pounce.
Wanting to get touch tight when opponents drop deep with their back to goal so they can't turn or control cleanly, this helps them make life difficult for foes to knit together attacks.
Furthermore, by ramping up the intensity when the ball goes into wide areas, where they can use the touchline as an extra defender, enhances their ability to stifle and hem in opponents.
Using counterpressing as a handy tool for chance creation and to limit the effectiveness of opposition transitions, once they lose the ball, they immediately swarm on their foes, wanting to recover possession so they can attack again against unset backlines who were preparing for a counter of their own.
Potential to be exposed on the counter
As mentioned earlier, if their gegenpressing wave is bypassed, major dilemmas can arise due to their many numbers in advanced locations, which can leave their backline exposed, shorthanded and under heavy duress.
Courtesy of his demands, it's unsurprising his teams concede many shots and plenty of goals. But these are consequences the 43-year-old tactician is happy to suffer, for there's no way he'd veer away from his principles.
By the numbers from his last season at Sassuolo in 2020/2021, where they finished eighth in Serie A, and the stats demonstrate the upsides, downsides and style associated with his game model.
Attacking
- 1st for possession - 59.3%
- 1st for PPDA against - 19.11
- 3rd for passes into the final third - 57.63%
- 3rd for accurate passes into the final third - 78.8%
- 4th for deep completions - 10.46 per 90
- 5th for dribbles - 28.58 p90
- 6th for progressive runs - 17.46 p90
- 7th for shots - 12.38 per 90
- 8th for touches inside the box - 18.32 p90
- 8th for key passes - 3.56 p90
- 19th for crosses - 11.76 per 90
Defensive
- 2nd for challenge intensity - 6.4
- 3rd for PPDA - 10.87 p90
- 15th for shots conceded - 12.43 p90
'Easy to see why he was first choice'
Adaptable and not afraid to make shrewd tweaks depending on the opposition or game state, plus proven at developing young players, much like Potter, it's easy to see why De Zerbi was Brighton's first choice.
Indeed, seeing the likes of Domenico Berardi, Stefano Sensi, Marlon, Mykola Matvienko, Jeremie Boga, Filip Djuricic, Manuel Locatelli, Tete, Dodo, Marcus Antonio, Pedrinho, Manor Salomon, Rogerio, Francesco Caputo, Andre Consigli, Gian Marco Ferrari and Giacomo Raspadori flourish under his tutelage underlies the success of his methods.
Set to turn heads in the Premier League and keen to build on the exceptional job done by Potter, observing how he adjusts to life with Brighton and goes about instilling his ideas will be unmissable. “He [Potter] did a great job. Everyone knows what made Potter successful here but I'm not Potter," insisted De Zerbi.
“I think we have a lot of things in common and I'm not talking about the way of playing, I'm talking about the principles and the mentality of football. If we can keep this mentality and those principles I will also try to bring my ideas clearly without making any big changes."
"We have a lot of players with quality, we want to try to put them in the best conditions in terms of to make the performance right. For example to play in one-v-one or to play, to attack in the right way so to put every single player in the right conditions to play his best. And when we don't have the ball to take it [back] as fast as we can."
Facing a baptism of fire in his EPL debut against Liverpool, the stage is perfectly set for De Zerbi to make a grand announcement on the big stage in his quest to stamp his mark on the south coast.
