[Albion] Are YOU falling out of love with Roberto De Zerbi?

[Guinness Boy]

You can still invest a lot of time, energy and expectation into a player that’s free. I think RDZ expected a lot more from Dahoud, but I’m only speculating.

I think we all did. German international from Dortmund. Must be good, right? And the recruitment team does invest that time in all our signings, which was one of my points.

But we made bigger signings in that window, Pedro, our record signing, Igor to fill the Colwill gap and Fati who was world class at 16 but has clearly gone backwards with injury and growth. I'm sure most of us were expecting Gilmour to be the one who played more when MacAllister left.

 

[Justice]

We would not have finished 6th with Potter, I think that needs putting to bed. He beat a dire Leicester City with a cardboard cut out in goal, don't think he had consistency in his locker. He never got Solly scoring like Roberto did.

Indeed, Leicester is often mentioned but not the shit show of a game before.

 

[Flounce]

Indeed, Leicester is often mentioned but not the shit show of a game before.

A shit show against Fulham is something we have done since we turned them over at will before reaching the PL, regardless of who the manager is, as are games against Villa, again whomever is managing us.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Indeed, Leicester is often mentioned but not the shit show of a game before.

I mean, there's cherry picking your facts and there's whatever the hell this is.
"We were shit under Potter. No, not in his last game, the one before. Don't look at any games further back than that though, just his penultimate game."

 

[GrossTurn]

100% this. Why would you be swooning over a manager who not only berated the fans when things weren't so great, but left (understandably don't get me wrong) mid-season for a Premier League rival. People really don't get how unheard of that is do they? It happened twice in the last decade and I believe that Potter is the only manager to do so in this decade so far...

Instead, we've got a far better manager in RDZ who clearly has a far higher ceiling. He may not break that ceiling with us, but if not he's delivered so much more than we could've dreamed of so far AND most importantly, he is still our manager (and looks likely he will be for another season more at least). I just don't get how anyone could want to go back.

I agree with 95% of what you’ve been saying on this thread but that part in bold is as much to do with how infrequently clubs will approach another PL club for their manager mid-season as it is Potter’s lack of loyalty/willingness to jump ship.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I love the bloke. I have never looked so forward to actually watching us since maybe that promotion season under Poyet. It's an absolute pleasure.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I mean, there's cherry picking your facts and there's whatever the hell this is.
"We were shit under Potter. No, not in his last game, the one before. Don't look at any games further back than that though, just his penultimate game."

And brought up to make Potter look worse against RDZ - a man who (despite all the injuries) has just taken this really good side containing NINE full internationals (only JPVH and Baleba yet to make their senior International debuts), to the worst team in the league and scraped a draw, via a fluke own goal

 

[jackalbion]

And brought up to make Potter look worse against RDZ - a man who (despite all the injuries) has just taken this really good side containing NINE full internationals (only JPVH and Baleba yet to make their senior International debuts), to the worst team in the league and scraped a draw, via a fluke own goal

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Well if we're doing this then potter had 180 minutes against a team who conceded 84 goals in a single season and scored, thats right, 0 goals.

Also not to mention this:

 

[Beanstalk]

I agree with 95% of what you’ve been saying on this thread but that part in bold is as much to do with how infrequently clubs will approach another PL club for their manager mid-season as it is Potter’s lack of loyalty/willingness to jump ship.

Oh don't get me wrong, I hoped the understandably in brackets gave some indication that I think in hindsight it was a move, for selfish reasons, he couldn't turn down. My point is more that it is not a done thing in modern football and whether it was his fault or Chelsea's, it was potentially a completely derailing move for the Albion, and was crap for the fans regardless of who is actually at fault (both Potter and Boehly imo).

And for that reason, I think his departure will always be rubbish and always leave a really sour taste in my mouth - it made me feel like we were secondary to the Graham Potter show, especially paired with how the media reported it at the time. I can't understand why people would yearn for his return over our current, brilliant, manager when he left under such a cloud (whether the timing was his fault or not).

 

[Guinness Boy]

And brought up to make Potter look worse against RDZ - a man who (despite all the injuries) has just taken this really good side containing NINE full internationals (only JPVH and Baleba yet to make their senior International debuts), to the worst team in the league and scraped a draw, via a fluke own goal

View attachment 180716

Statistically Sheffield United are the worst team in the League and we whopped ten past them away (and failed to beat them at home thanks to Dahoud, ironically).

So there's that.

 

[Exilegull]

Key player? He was FREE.

No one, not one player gets signed by Brighton without the recruitment team OKing it. It's been like that since Bloom took over.

Roberto first said he would be top player for us then said he would be great for us because fitting our style of play. Top and great sounds like a key player. Of course the recruitment team need to ok it but clear from everything said the signing was Roberto´s initiative he even said many times before we signed him that he wanted him

 

[Beanstalk]

Well if we're doing this then potter had 180 minutes against a team who conceded 84 goals in a single season and scored, thats right, 0 goals.

Also not to mention this:

View attachment 180722

Not to mention this 1 win in 16 to perk us all up in lockdown either...

or this fun 11 matches (3 months) without a win (7 goals!) the following season (including the unacceptable Locadia flounce vs Leeds)...

 

[jackalbion]

Not to mention this 1 win in 16 to perk us all up in lockdown either...
View attachment 180724

or this fun 11 matches (3 months) without a win (7 goals!) the following season (including the unacceptable Locadia flounce vs Leeds)...
View attachment 180725

This is also a squad with (v Villa 3-0 loss in 2022) had 7 full internationals, 2 former England internationals and Premier League Winners, with the remaining 2 players being a spanish U21 and a former french U21. As well as arguably the most talented player of entire history sat on the bench, because he was too scared to use him.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Well if we're doing this then potter had 180 minutes against a team who conceded 84 goals in a single season and scored, thats right, 0 goals.

Also not to mention this:

View attachment 180722

I'm NOT 'doing this'. I was simply trying to illustrate that anyone highlighting ONE single game to make a point, was pointless.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Also not to mention this:

View attachment 180722

I thought you said in your previous post that Potter didn't have consistency in his locker?
Seriously though, looking at the results from that Norwich game on, I don't see any reason to doubt we could (I won't say would because that's obviously impossible to know) have finished 6th with any manager of roughly Potter or RDZ's level. We just had a really good team by that point.

Edit: I don't want that to come across as pro or anti Potter or De Zerbi, I'm just generally agnostic about how much difference any of them make.

 

[Exilegull]

Oh don't get me wrong, I hoped the understandably in brackets gave some indication that I think in hindsight it was a move, for selfish reasons, he couldn't turn down. My point is more that it is not a done thing in modern football and whether it was his fault or Chelsea's, it was potentially a completely derailing move for the Albion, and was crap for the fans regardless of who is actually at fault (both Potter and Boehly imo).

And for that reason, I think his departure will always be rubbish and always leave a really sour taste in my mouth - it made me feel like we were secondary to the Graham Potter show, especially paired with how the media reported it at the time. I can't understand why people would yearn for his return over our current, brilliant, manager when he left under such a cloud (whether the timing was his fault or not).

What you I and many feel about Potter leaving is 100% the reason people can´t see any flaw in Roberto and his management we´re likely to end up on a less than 1 point per game average over our last 32 games with a squad far from as bad as some including our manager say it is. He´s a small man with small mentality pretending to be ambitious and clever. This is what he said when we won against Tottenham in December
"I am really lucky to be this coach of this team with these players. I am very pleased with the passion they have, they have everything," he said.
"You can't forget we are Brighton. Sometimes they forget we are Brighton. We are not Manchester United, Manchester City, Newcastle or Arsenal, we are still Brighton.
"The other eight or nine big teams in the Premier League they do not sell their big players."
Imagine saying that when beating a good team playing brilliant football "dont forget how bad we are" basically. Entertaining my arse

 

[Flounce]

Not to mention this 1 win in 16 to perk us all up in lockdown either...
View attachment 180724

or this fun 11 matches (3 months) without a win (7 goals!) the following season (including the unacceptable Locadia flounce vs Leeds)...
View attachment 180725

Not many results in there to match the stuffings we’ve had this season alone though, and the goals for in the last few months are very similar

 

[Justice]

And brought up to make Potter look worse against RDZ - a man who (despite all the injuries) has just taken this really good side containing NINE full internationals (only JPVH and Baleba yet to make their senior International debuts), to the worst team in the league and scraped a draw, via a fluke own goal

View attachment 180716

Have you noticed the costly mistakes Dunk has made of late, I’m not sure RDZ has control over that.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Roberto first said he would be top player for us then said he would be great for us because fitting our style of play. Top and great sounds like a key player. Of course the recruitment team need to ok it but clear from everything said the signing was Roberto´s initiative he even said many times before we signed him that he wanted him

A key player is one you absolutely rely on - so in our case Dunk, Gross, Mitoma, Joao Pedro. One of those has missed almost the whole of 2024, one has missed two months of it and the other two are knackered as a result.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Have you noticed the costly mistakes Dunk has made of late, I’m not sure RDZ has control over that.

Well, firstly, I don't think he's actually made many 'costly mistakes' for Brighton.

Secondly, if 'mistakes' are made (for example) through taking risks in dangerous areas, or leaving defenders hopelessly exposed then clearly the manager does 'have (some) control' over that.

And lastly, if a manager doesn't have control over a player's form, who does?