[Albion] Roberto De Zerbi - JOINS AS NEW HEAD COACH (4 year contract)

[Wozza]

"De Zerbi was the only person we spoke to“ - Paul Barber

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Potter was given a new contract in November 2019, the link to the Spurs job was over the summer of 2021 so it wasn’t connected.

Wasn’t he linked before that, when Potch left in erm Nov 2019…..

Edit - it could of course been an NSC link.

 

[trueblue]

Warren Aspinall was just asked why we’re so free scoring under RDZ.

He said because we move the ball so much quicker in attack, opponents haven’t the time to get set up (as they often had previously). Attack, attack, attack.

For those who go home and away, fair comment?

Seemed to me that when we kept giving the ball away up front v Spurs, the players had been told everything had to be one touch in the build-up. Now that's clicking, we're getting some truly thrilling goals. Love it.

 

[Hugo Rune]

only saw the assist and the finish of mitoma's goal, but the full move here is a thing of beauty

That’s is SO much De Zerbi and SO little Potter.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Wasn’t he linked before that, when Potch left in erm Nov 2019…..

Edit - it could of course been an NSC link.

I don’t remember any link and it strikes me as unlikely that a manager with only 3 months PL experience would be interesting Spurs.

Besides which when Spurs sacked Poch, Jose was appointed the next day so it’s highly likely he’d already been lined up for the role.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

P

You think Villa is a bigger test than Chelsea?

Yes I do.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

That’s is SO much De Zerbi and SO little Potter.

All the analysis about RdZ before he arrived said that we'd pass it around at the back to draw a side on to us, then pass through them into the gaps. I thought it looked like an over-simplistic idea that Prem sides wouldn;t fall for. I was wrong (so far)

 

[Bold Seagull]

Seemed to me that when we kept giving the ball away up front v Spurs, the players had been told everything had to be one touch in the build-up. Now that's clicking, we're getting some truly thrilling goals. Love it.

Was Mwepu’s goal at Arsenal not thrilling, or Caciedo’s home to ManUtd, or Mac A v Leicester?

Many of these comments to downgrade Potter, they’re actually downgrading what the players achieved, the performances they put in, the results and exciting football they gave us.

Suddenly anyone coming to these boards would think we weren’t performing before RDZ arrived - all because of the need to vilify the previous manager.

I got an idea - forget him. But don’t forget it was the players who got the results over the last few years and start of the season, it’s their legacy and their reputation, their performances.

I don’t care about Potter, he’s gone, but I do care how people are rewriting how good our team have been for sometime now just because they need to run the previous manager down.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Brighton so far under RDZ played against two (Nottingham, Spurs) or arguably three (Brentford) teams playing in a way that has been difficult to break down in the last few years.

Those games did not end well.

I'd hold my horses a bit when it comes to Brighton suddenly turning into a free-scoring team. We saw against United and against Leicester and against Wolves and Villa that moving the ball forward quicker is easier when there's not 10 or 11 players on the opposition half every time its time to start attacking.

As for the talk he talks, it is good and will only get better. When he was rumoured to Brighton I read some old press conferences from Italy and he's got a mouth of gold and can't express everything he wants in English yet.

I think things are looking extraordinarly promising, but I'm not getting myself an RDZ tattoo on my arse just quite yet. Eventually every team that isn't City has a poor run of results and opponents are going to develop a better understanding of what RDZ wants to do. Those challenges are the real ones, and it remains to be seen how it is dealt with. But I'm optimistic and think it will go well.

Something tasteful, next to the Billy Reid one?

 

[Wozza]

Amazing. Deserves its own thread tbh.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I wish we could put this against one of the moves against Chelsea, I’m pretty sure it’s almost a carbon copy which


I’m trying to remember the game, but I think we’ve used a similar move to draw out the opposition. Deja vu.

Man City? I'm sure there was an amazing move from one end of the pitch to the other that finished with a Lamptey header?

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Tbf I'd f***ing love to see a documentary about Evan Ferguson travelling around in Qatar looking for beer in everything from five star hotels to shady basements in small fishing villages.

“Blood Thirsty Ferguson” ?

 

[Swansman]

That’s is SO much De Zerbi and SO little Potter.

I think the similarities are almost frightening.

Was Mwepu’s goal at Arsenal not thrilling, or Caciedo’s home to ManUtd, or Mac A v Leicester?

Many of these comments to downgrade Potter, they’re actually downgrading what the players achieved, the performances they put in, the results and exciting football they gave us.

Suddenly anyone coming to these boards would think we weren’t performing before RDZ arrived - all because of the need to vilify the previous manager.

I got an idea - forget him. But don’t forget it was the players who got the results over the last few years and start of the season, it’s their legacy and their reputation, their performances.

I don’t care about Potter, he’s gone, but I do care how people are rewriting how good our team have been for sometime now just because they need to run the previous manager down.

Yeah. I wouldn't call it "strange" that the narrative has changed from the old one where Brighton were playing "the most exciting football I've seen under my 50 years" etc. to the new "Brighton played turgid, slow, purposeless football for years and we're now finally saved", but it certainly has nothing to do with reality.

Doesn't take long to find sequences and sometimes entire games of excellent football played over the last three years.

 

[Jim in the West]

only saw the assist and the finish of mitoma's goal, but the full move here is a thing of beauty

That little triangle move between Veltman, Enciso and Sarmiento was amazing. They tried something similar a few other times but it didn’t quite come off. There were also maybe a dozen other occasions where a slick series of one-touch passes didn’t quite work (generally the final ball being a little too long or short)….if we keep getting better at those I can see us scoring more than three a game!

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I don’t care about Potter, he’s gone, but I do care how people are rewriting how good our team have been for sometime now just because they need to run the previous manager down.

You make good points. We were on the verge, or at least it felt we were, of something unprecedented and wonderful. We had glimpses of it over the past couple of seasons and then I think that during the Leicester match, pretty much all the fans were swayed that we were becoming as De Zerbi said, great or big. I know we have had more significant games in our history, but after the Leicester game, something changed in me and I fully believed. It was from this height of pure bliss that Potter/Chelsea whatever, dashed our hopes so cruelly and so quickly, which in some part has led to the outpouring of animosity towards Potter and co. Whether Potter leaving and De Zerbi coming, has hastened this effect, or simply continued it is open to question. But no doubt, we have some very talented players. I think it's fine to be pissed with Potter but also a little stupid to question that a large part of our progress was not down to him.

 

[Triggaaar]

It's not outside the bounds of possibility that RDZ had an impact on that 3-3 at Liverpool. He had, from memory, almost two weeks to prepare for the game. He was also a bit of an unknown quantity, so Klopp would probably not have been as prepared as he usually is.

In which case, 1 goal in the next 4 games is pretty poor

 

[Hugo Rune]

I think the similarities are almost frightening.


Yeah. I wouldn't call it "strange" that the narrative has changed from the old one where Brighton were playing "the most exciting football I've seen under my 50 years" etc. to the new "Brighton played turgid, slow, purposeless football for years and we're now finally saved", but it certainly has nothing to do with reality.

Doesn't take long to find sequences and sometimes entire games of excellent football played over the last three years.

For me, as your clip shows, Potterball drew the high press into and around our penalty area.

De Zerbiball tempts a mid press into moving dangerously out of defensive positions in and around the halfway line. Happy for you to find a Potterball clip where this happens. I can’t remember us laying traps and striking quickly in this area of the pitch although we did it many times from much deeper.

 

[B-right-on]

I think the similarities are almost frightening.

Definitely.

Especially not being able to score a goal at the end of a move.

 

[Weststander]

Definitely.

Especially not being able to score a goal at the end of a move.

Hello Row Z, my old friend.