Brighton appoint De Zerbi
It was typical that Brighton appointed a Head Coach to replace Graham Potter who, like Potter at the time of his appointment, is largely unknown.
Roberto de Zerbi earned his reputation at Sassuolo – like Brighton a small town club – who finished eighth 2 consecutive seasons and with a reputation for attacking football.
He moved to Shaktar Donetsk, a club that can hardly function after the Russian invasion. We were sad to see Potter go but it was expected, as was Chairman Tony Bloom extracting from Chelsea record compensation that exceeded the amount paid to Leipzig for Julian Nagelsman by Bayern.
According to one of Brighton ‘s foremost experts on Italian football, Antonio the Head Waiter at English’s, he is a fine innovative coach.
He is a great admirer of Pep Guardiola and Marcel Bielsa and favours 4-3-3.
Brighton play 3-5-2 with wing backs, so he may have to adapt the players to his system – not the converse which was the skill of Potter.
It’s difficult to see who will play left back in a flat-back four or which of Pascal Gross or Alex Mac Alister will be the playmaker.
The problem of a 20 goal striker still persists.
Aside from selection De Zerbi has 2 other problems. His English is not good enough for press conferences and – aside from Nottingham Forest at home and Brentford away – his opening games are Liverpool away, Spurs at home, Man City away and Chelsea at home.
Welcome to the Premiership!
One sadness of us fans is the departure of El Capitan Bruno Saltar.
He was a Seagull legend and surely next in line after De Zerbi. He left for Chelsea as part of Potter’s coaching team but how they long they all stay there is anybody’s guess.
