[Albion] De Zerbi Thoughts?

[Machiavelli]

Some of our fans aren’t quite with the program yet…..lots of shouts of ‘hang on to it’ yesterday as we pinged it forward with a succession of one-touch passes. Got to accept it’ll go wrong quite a bit because of the speed of action but when it works it’s fantastic. Brilliant at times at City last week (a lot of City fns picked up on it) and brilliant yesterday.

Yes, spot on. This is extremely high risk football. When it goes well, it's sublime. Irrespective of execution, it's thrilling, but it'll involve mistakes that will cost us, and that will generate a reaction amongst certain sections of the fan base.
It's almost the polar opposite of how we played under CH in the PL (particularly second season).

 

[Zeberdi]

Quite emotional for Zerbi I imagine is the ongoing situation with competitive football in Ukraine and news of his old club still playing under fire.

Football match halted after air raid warning​

Competitive football returned to Ukraine at the start of the country's Premier League season in August, but it has been marred by the ongoing war.
Yesterday's clash between Shakhtar Donetsk and Oleksandria, which has held in Lviv, had to be halted for more than an hour due to an air raid warning.
Shakhtar were down 1-0 in the opening half when the siren blared out, sending the players to the dressing room.
"The participants of the game proceeded to the shelter. Take care and find a safe place," Shakhtar posted on their official Twitter account.
The match later ended in a draw. “

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-...-its-unlikely-putin-will-survive-war-12541713 at 11:11

 

[GRINGERGULL]

I am in Kyiv this weekend, and last night I wore my Brighton shirt when I watched the match on my laptop in the hotel bar.

So many Shakhtar Donetsk fans came up and asked if they could watch the match due to their old manager De Zerbi, and we had about fifty people watching, so at half-time, we linked my laptop to the TV, and even more people started watching, and we had about 100 people cheering and shouting for Brighton by the end of the match.

There were support workers, doctors, nurses, soldiers and even war reporters, and it was a fantastic afternoon, one of the best I have had here, and we celebrated afterwards in the dark as there was a blackout with vodka and singing patriotic war songs by candlelight.

Finally got to bed around 10.30, and Brighton has a whole new but small passionate supporter base in Ukraine now – good times.

Wow. Just wow.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

It was fascinating to watch us play out from the back yesterday....which we did virtually the whole match (until the last 5 mins or so, when Sanchez started kicking long). This is actually quite a change from Potterball - especially in the second half of last season and the early part of this. If you look at the stats, we played far more long balls from defence under Potter in that period - mainly Sanchez and Dunk pinging the ball to the opposite wing. RDZ definitely has us playing the ball out more, and in a very different way. Chelsea really pushed up on us yesterday - generally having SIX players around our box trying to force an error. It rarely worked, and left acres of space in the middle of the pitch for the ball to transition quickly to Trossard or Llalana.

A couple of other differences - our corners are much more dangerous - Solly has obviously been practicing, but both he and Gross were taking much flatter corners which were more difficult to defend against (eg: our second goal). And we seem much more willing to shoot....I think under Potter the preference was to work the ball into a position where the odds of scoring were higher, which (from a fan's perspective could be frustrating).

My recollection is that having brought six Chelsea players to the high press Sanchez passed it long at least twice in the first half. One to Trossard on the left, and a flat pass to Lallana in the centre circle. It was impressive. We sucked them in then passed it (not long ball) to forwards coming back to receive. Our corners are so much better.

 

[JonnyCLately]

I am in Kyiv this weekend, and last night I wore my Brighton shirt when I watched the match on my laptop in the hotel bar.

So many Shakhtar Donetsk fans came up and asked if they could watch the match due to their old manager De Zerbi, and we had about fifty people watching, so at half-time, we linked my laptop to the TV, and even more people started watching, and we had about 100 people cheering and shouting for Brighton by the end of the match.

There were support workers, doctors, nurses, soldiers and even war reporters, and it was a fantastic afternoon, one of the best I have had here, and we celebrated afterwards in the dark as there was a blackout with vodka and singing patriotic war songs by candlelight.

Finally got to bed around 10.30, and Brighton has a whole new but small passionate supporter base in Ukraine now – good times.

Tears in my eyes reading this - Kudos to you all

 

[banjo]

Putin Stole His Team, But De Zerbi Is Embracing His Experiences With Brighton — The Sportsman

The former Shakhtar boss has hosted Ukrainian youngsters at the Sussex club

apple.news

Another nice little snippet

 

[Acker79]

I know this article has its own thread, but I think it fits in with this one too, so posting here should anyone look back on this thread in years to come to see what early opinions were like.

Risk-taking Roberto De Zerbi looks a gift for Brighton and the Premier League | Karen Carney

The manager is brave with his tactics and poses an exciting challenge for all the coaches who come up against him

www.theguardian.com

 

[ozzygull]

Putin Stole His Team, But De Zerbi Is Embracing His Experiences With Brighton — The Sportsman

The former Shakhtar boss has hosted Ukrainian youngsters at the Sussex club

apple.news

Another nice little snippet

There was something about TB when he was introducing De Zerbi as our manager, he had a look like the cat who had got the cream. I know it is only one win and there is no guarantee in life let alone football, but it seemed to me that TB believes we have just upgraded.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

There was something about TB when he was introducing De Zerbi as our manager, he had a look like the cat who had got the cream. I know it is only one win and there is no guarantee in life let alone football, but it seemed to me that TB believes we have just upgraded.

Trust The Process

 

[Acker79]

Purple patch, or things clicking? Things are feeling a little less structured to me, like the players are free-styling rather than working through heavily rehearsed sequences. Other than Mitoma, who seems to have a 'run to the byline by the edge of the six yard box and pull the ball back into the middle' and 'stand to the left of the penalty spot and curl it in the goal' as a couple of standard routines.

Seeing the line up, I was surprised by how few kids there were. Seemed to be a pretty strong line up. I think Potter picked stronger line ups when we faced premier league opponents in the cup games, but I also remember him using a lot of kids on the bench in those instances. Certainly felt like a more pleasing balance of taking the cup seriously while also giving fringer players a chance.

 

[Weststander]

Trust The Process

It is what it is.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Hope he’s in it for the long haul as wouldn’t be surprised if sometime in 2023 Chelsea come calling

 

[rippleman]

Putin Stole His Team, But De Zerbi Is Embracing His Experiences With Brighton — The Sportsman

The former Shakhtar boss has hosted Ukrainian youngsters at the Sussex club

apple.news

Another nice little snippet

This is a brilliant article about the man. For me, way more than a "little snippet". A highly recommended read.

 

[Icy Gull]

Permission to panic that he might be poached by next season?

Just not Chelsea please

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

I wonder what impact letting Caicedo go in this window would have on De Zerbi?

 

[Uh_huh_him]

After talking to MC "Like a father" Caicedo chooses to leave.
That's got to sting a bit.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I wonder what impact letting Caicedo go in this window would have on De Zerbi?

Not sure which of the three threads to post this on, but he hasn't been let go yet, whatever his Instagram says.

Brighton's great end to last season came when GP played Biss, Mwepu and Caicedo in the same team. If we sell him in this window that's all three gone without an adequate replacement. If I was RDZ I would be mightily upset to lose the third, though of course Mwepu was just a really unfortunate thing for everyone.

FWIW this is why I think we'll hang on to him until the next window. I don't see TB ruining a shot at Europe, he's a fan just like the rest of us. In fact, the only way would be if we had an equally fantastic replacement lined up. People forget that Cucurella didn't JUST go because Chelsea met our valuation. We got Colwill and Estupinian in very rapidly.

 

[sparkie]

I wonder what impact letting Caicedo go in this window would have on De Zerbi?

It might have a very significant impact and hasten De Zerbi's departure if he feels he is constantly undermined by player sales ( and we don't even sign the players he wants to bring in ).

 

[Swansman]

I wonder what impact letting Caicedo go in this window would have on De Zerbi?

He'd be disappointed but its not like he's new to football. Bloke knows that great players end up in great teams.

When one of the giants come for RDZ, he's going to want to leave as well. Such is the food chain.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Not sure which of the three threads to post this on, but he hasn't been let go yet, whatever his Instagram says.

Brighton's great end to last season came when GP played Biss, Mwepu and Caicedo in the same team. If we sell him in this window that's all three gone without an adequate replacement. If I was RDZ I would be mightily upset to lose the third, though of course Mwepu was just a really unfortunate thing for everyone.

FWIW this is why I think we'll hang on to him until the next window. I don't see TB ruining a shot at Europe, he's a fan just like the rest of us. In fact, the only way would be if we had an equally fantastic replacement lined up. People forget that Cucurella didn't JUST go because Chelsea met our valuation. We got Colwill and Estupinian in very rapidly.

Not trying to rekindle yet another Caicedo thread. Now about how or manager might feel. I did worry that de Zerbi might be feeling like a lack ambition, as @sparkie says