Roberto De Zerbi or Who is the new Brighton coach whose plans were thwarted by the war in Ukraine?

Comment:: Roberto De Zerbi comes to Brighton with a very difficult task as he must build on the great achievements of Graham Potter. He has moved further north, specifically to London, where he too faces a big challenge, replacing the great strategist Thomas Tuchel. How will the Italian coach fare in the Premier League?

Right off the bat, it should be mentioned that Brighton is a team that has been playing above its means for quite some time now. With a squad value of just under 297 million euros, they are among the last five in the Premier League, yet they are in fourth place with 13 points. Last season, they finished a very nice 9th.

Moreover, this is not some definitive team that has experienced its success through defensive football. In fact, it is exactly the opposite, as evidenced by the percentage of ball possession last season, when only Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool had the ball on their hoofs more than Brighton. And that’s quite something by Premier League standards!

So it’s no surprise that Chelsea were clear on their choice of Potter after Tuchel’s departure. Of course, the club from the south of England also made a very good move in my opinion by selecting the 43-year-old Brescia native.

Zerbi’s playing career

Zerbi has had quite a rich footballing career, especially in terms of travel, although the vast majority of his time has been spent in his native Italy. He then got a glimpse of men’s football around 1997 in Milan.

After that, though, he moved around a lot before landing in Naples for a while. But after just a year and a half, he moved again as he wandered from one guest appearance to another. He also tried his hand at foreign engagements, specifically at Cluj, after which he returned to Italy to end his career at Trento in the summer of 2013.

Thus, his greatest achievements are two league and one cup title from Romania. His coaching career thus already seems to be more successful than his playing career.

Coaching career

Zerbi started his coaching career at Darfo Boario in the autumn of 2013. It is certainly worth mentioning his third engagement in Palermo, where he coached 13 matches with the statistics of 1 win, 2 draws and 10 losses. After a 4:5 defeat in a cup match against Spezia Calcio, the lead didn’t last and Zerbi packed his bags.

His next opportunity came at Benevento, who had just been promoted to the top Italian league and wanted to stay there. Zerbi was supposed to serve that purpose, but it ended in another embarrassment and Benevento returned to Serie B as the worst team of the season.

All the best for the third time! That’s exactly how you can describe Zerbi’s third engagement in Serie A. This time Sassuolo gave him a chance and hit the bull’s-eye. The charismatic Italian pulled his new club up to 8th place each time in the second and third season, which was of course a great success and finally righted his bad reputation as a failed coach.

Shakhtar Donetsk responded to these successes, with whom he still won the Ukrainian Super Cup, but then had to flee the country when the war with Russia began.

With Shakhtar, he had already tried the Champions League, getting through Genk and Monaco, but he finished last in a group with Real Madrid, Inter and Sheriff with only two points.

Now, after a break of almost a year, a big challenge awaits him in the Premier League. As we’ve seen, Zerbi doesn’t have a fast start, but once he gets going and has the confidence of the management, he can produce handsome and confident football with his players, which he celebrates success with. That’s one of the reasons why he’s a definite fit for Brighton.

Sources: Transfermarkt, Football Italia