by As a manager, Roberto De Zerbi comes with two guarantees. It is the first passion. A head-pumping, knee-sliding passion for the games themselves, as well as a passion for improvement and ideas. During his time at Sassuolo, he slept with a notebook and pen next to his bed, in case he dreamed of a new tactical change.
The second guarantee is honesty. “I only have one face,” he told Telegraph Sport last year. The Italian is a man who wears his feelings openly and says how he feels, whether you like it or not. Or, more importantly, whether their bosses like it or not.
On Thursday night, after Roma thrashed De Zerbi’s Brighton 4-0 in the Europa League, he made his frustrations clear. By himself, with his players and – very attractively – with Tony Bloom, the owner of Brighton.
“In my opinion we are not used to playing at this level of competition,” said De Zerbi. “Today we paid for our mistakes, from the owner to the coach and the players.”
De Zerbi also referred to fundamental irritations last weekend, when Brighton lost 3-0 at Fulham. “I’m starting to explain the future in September, October, November, January – especially January,” he said at Craven Cottage. “Now we can’t change anything.”
It doesn’t take much investigative work to identify the likely cause of De Zerbi’s torment. In December, shortly before the opening of the January transfer window, he publicly declared that he wanted “three or four” signings. His squad has been ravaged by injuries this season and the 44-year-old clearly saw January as an appropriate time to strengthen.
His bosses at Brighton, however, have a different take on the winter window. As a club, Brighton usually avoid their transfer business in January. And so, despite De Zerbi’s wishes, only one first team player was signed, and it was a player for the future: Valentin Barco, a 19-year-old left back from Boca Juniors.
Success in football, for any club, is about finding the right balance between the long-term master plan and the short-term desire to win. It is a very pressing issue at Brighton, perhaps more so than any other club in the Premier League, given the ambition and reputation of their manager and the careful strategies of their owner. If De Zerbi’s approach is fire, Bloom’s is ice.
De Zerbi’s supporters would argue that the Italians have earned the right to field a stronger squad now. They would say that Brighton have an elite coach, but that the sales of Moises Caicedo and Alexis McAllister have not provided him with the tools he needs. On the other hand, there will be many who cite the club’s successful long-term planning as the main reason for their growth as a club.
At one point, clearly, there will be a divergence of paths. De Zerbi in one direction, Brighton in another. Vacancies are opening up at Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Barcelona this summer, and De Zerbi will be respected at those clubs. On Friday, it was reported in the German press that De Zerbi is one of Bayern’s top options.
De Zerbi will also know, however, that he cannot afford too many heavy wins if he wants to stay near the top of these shortlists. Brighton’s run of injuries has been brutal, and it’s a legitimate excuse, but results haven’t been enough recently: they’ve lost five of their last eight games, including a 4-0 win at Luton Town, the 3-0 win at Fulham. and Thursday 4-0 in Rome.
Within Brighton fans there has been some low-level grumbling about De Zerbi’s constant rotation (this season, he has made the most changes per game in the Premier League) and there was certainly some dissatisfaction with the team’s defense in Italy . At 2-0 down, Brighton continued to attack and play openly. It was expensive.
None of this is to say that the season has been bad, or indeed that De Zerbi has any intention of leaving any time soon. Brighton came into this weekend in ninth place, ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Nottingham Forest, and have progressed to the first European competition in their history. It was a historic campaign.
But there is clearly frustration in the air, and indeed the agitated mood of the Brighton head coach. After such an impressive first season in England, he expected more from this campaign. The task is much more difficult than expected due to the loss of so many players – including the great player Kaoru Mitoma – and the challenge now is to prevent this season from be bending towards the end. To keep the fire burning.
