[Albion] Roberto De Zerbi - JOINS AS NEW HEAD COACH (4 year contract)
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Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo
I believe in Joe Hendry
- Oct 4, 2003
- 12,063
He calls them the hard core in the locker room. So it’s not just what they offer on the pitch that he’s talking about but more what they bring to the club, they are the players the younger ones can look up to. They are those that always work hard in training and are willing to take those younger players under their wing and help them when needed. Plus their willingness to do whatever is asked of them on the pitch no matter how much game time they get.
A successful team is built on more than just the 90 mins we see during a match. This is what RDZ is getting at.
Sepulveda
Notts County's younger cousins' fan
It's a very well-established concept here in Italy, we call those players "the senators" in a team/locker room. They're usually the ones with more experience at the club or in general.
I would imagine the reference to Steele is primarily around his character, esp in the dressing room. Sanchez is an excellent keeper, but strikes me as a quiet guy who just gets on with his own game.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
This is a good point. We don't have too many in our first team squad in the 23-26 age range. Sanchez, Mitoma and Ali Mac -- can't think of too many others.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
Yes, but to add, RdZ did point out in an early interview that CBs are the most important players in his system, because the whole passage of play begins with them (he might have added the importance of a ball-playing GK too, but didn't).
I hope you're right - but I still think Big Bob might be wanting away in the summer rather than being no.2 here. There is apparantly "interest" (whatever that means) from several other PL teams. Probably just the press flying a kite, but still a bit of a concern. (IMHO)
Sheebo
Well-known member
- Jul 13, 2003
- 29,319
I don’t think Sanchez will go. Stay and fight for his place - Steele isn’t exactly young. Wait for your chance and prove a point Sanchez…
I hope you're right too!
Seagull58
In the Algarve
Great to have you on board and thanks for confirming that Dunky has "hot blood and big, big balls".
I realised very quickly that you were a genuine Italian who has learnt to write English correctly due to the complete lack of "could of", "should of", "would of" and "f**k of" in your posts.
Mancgull
Well-known member
Roberto said ‘ big heart, hot blood, and balls, big balls.’
Let’s be accurate.
Let’s be accurate.
Well you haven't caught me yet
Seagull58
In the Algarve
Roberto rates Dunk as one of the top 5 central defenders in Europe, while Gareth rates him below Stones, Maguire, Coady, Mings, Dier, and Tomori.
Who is the idiot?
Imo, they're both wrong... but Southgate is a lot more wrong.
- Apr 5, 2014
- 25,903
For the manager too. The English image of Italy is that if you lose three matches in a row you get the sack. It's not quite the same here. Managers tend to get time. There are some exceptions, Watford being a famous one. Watford are owned by an Italian..Trying to summarize what he said in another part of the same interview (I remind you it's from January the 30th):
There's also this written general summary of the whole interview where he also adds how if you go to coach in England you have to adapt to the different way of thinking and traditions of the PL, like not organizing team retreats in intense periods, considering the day off nearly sacred, players being a lot less tactically-minded and a lot more daring - e.g. a player just sprinting forward without worrying about whether the team has it covered or not behind him (and this ties in with his anecdote on Dunk and Haaland in my previous post.) He modified his training methods there in the PL, making them more playful and continuous and adding more video analysis sessions. He says he enjoys training your team a lot because it's a team of strong people. He thinks the reason why PL players are more daring is also that the weight of the result is different there compared to here. I don't know what he meant by that but I can infer that maybe in the PL there's more focus on the performance rather than the result(?).
- They asked him to confirm if he had more freedom in deciding market targets given that - compared to Italian ones - English clubs usually grant more freedom in that particular field to their managers, and RDZ replied (laughing) "Then it must be all clubs but mine, because mine are very tough on the market." From his tone I think he meant that you have a very tried-and-trusted working strategy on the market and don't allow a newcomer like him to have a say in it, which seems fair to me. He didn't seem particularly annoyed by it. And he did obviously add that the PL is much richer than Serie A, just looking at the winter window spending paints you the picture.
- They asked him if Zaniolo was ever a target for the club (I've no idea why) and he replied that he wasn't, and also that he thinks Zaniolo would be a bit out of range for your club economically-speaking.
- They asked him what he thinks Brighton is still missing in order to grow even more, especially this year when Liverpool and Chelsea are struggling. He replied that 1) he thinks you have a complete squad but you have many many youngsters and some new foreign arrivals among the substitutes, and yours is a very high-level league, so when a first-team player is injured you inevitably suffer a bit. Basically you do have players for every position but that depth in the squad is filled with youngsters who have very little experience and that's risky. And 2) he thinks the other thing you're missing is the awareness that you can go for it, that you can really beat any team on the day
He hopes that that past month has made you aware once and for all that you have played against all the strong/top teams, and maybe you've lost but it was always hard-fought and you've always had the chance to win, against all of them. And so they can talk all they want about the market and the value of the team on paper but it's always the pitch that decides a season. And the pitch says that you can go for it, you can go for all your objectives (keeping in mind your current position in the table.)
- They asked him why he thinks the big clubs in Italy didn't try and hire him after his tenure at Sassuolo or Shakhtar and if he think it was fair, and he replied that he's always admired Ranieri because he went and coached abroad in different leagues, and it was his own decision to go to Ukraine despite having some offers in Italy. He has no interest in discussing past possibilities and he says there will surely be a moment in the future when the time is right and he'll come back to Italy. Seemed pretty pleased to make experiences abroad to me.
- The last segment of the video is just a lighthearted mocking of some low-grade Italian actor who's a Milan fan, given that Milan were just beaten by Sassuolo 2-5 at San Siro the day before (lmao)
A question. My Italian team is Lazio. This pre-dates Gascoigne. I kind of stopped following them a little bit because I was told that their fans were right wing fascists and somehow liking them made me a bad person. How true is this ?
They're no Livorno...
Sepulveda
Notts County's younger cousins' fan
Well, let's say their ultras have famously had an affiliation with the far (far) right - which the league and the club have tried to rein back in recent years. But there's plenty of the normal casual fans of Lazio who hate to be associated with that and hate their ultras for it. And they're probably the majority. Obviously opposing fans jump on that chance to insult any Lazio fan and call them fascists etc. Just like they use various puns on thieving and stealing when referring to us.
Really? They’re skint.
Skint or not, I think they will spend money in the summer if they stay up and I'm guessing finding a goalie will be one of their main objectives.