De Zerbi understood the Premier League

Pep Guardiola had said it: “It’s only a matter of time. English football will soon find out how well teams play Roberto De Zerbi”. Or how badly they can make their opponents play: “I can’t remember a worse game by my players in my entire career,” admits Jürgen Klopp after facing the Brighton and Hove Albion. Among the statements of the two gentlemen of the football it’s only been three months. From Liverpool to Liverpool, from the pyrotechnic draw at Anfield to the resounding 3-0 recorded in East Sussex (where the hosts hadn’t beaten the Reds since 1984). That was enough for the coach from Brescia to adapt to the rhythms of the Premier League. And get the applause of the best.

For De Zerbi, strategist of extended phrasing, in reality the name is above all one: “The one who invented the tiki-taka, master without equal in the last thirty years”. He had known him before, before signing with Brighton last September. Visit to Manchester, a few dinners together and endless football chats. With a common vision: “I admire Roberto a lot”, Guardiola said, almost evoking Stanis La Rochelle and the ‘Boris’ repertoire, “for his non-Italian way of interpreting the culture of work”. Which in football means attacking rather than defending, imposing one’s game regardless of who is in front of it. Note the timing: Pep spoke like this on the eve of the direct match at the end of October, after De Zerbi’s first four games at the helm of the Seagulls had ended with two draws and as many knockouts. Graham Potter’s legacy, flown to the Chelsea court, was beginning to weigh. The audience to boo. “But be patient and you will see,” Guardiola guaranteed.

Brighton will also lose that match, away to Manchester City. But then he turns the page: poisoned poker against Chelsea and from then on seven victories in the last ten between the championship and the cups. The Europa League is back in the crosshairs, the honor of arms even by those who pursue other philosophies. “Before, Brighton footballers played Potter-ball,” Klopp smiles bitterly, “now they’ve switched to De Zerbi-ball. We have experienced it firsthand: a tough team, in confidence, no one takes them lightly anymore. Who would have guessed that the ball possession stats”, 62 per cent against Liverpool last matchday, “would even improve under the new manager? So kudos to them.”

The great merit of the former Shakhtar and Sassuolo, 43 years old, goes beyond what is attributed to him. He didn’t come to split the Premier League: he would have split. Instead, he waited. Raising the antennas and trying to understand the virtues and quirks of that new world. Sun Tzu wrote in the Art of War: “Know the ground and the sky and your victory will be total”. Reformulate De Zerbi to Sky Sport: “The day off in the middle of the week it seemed like a day of work thrown away. But for the boys here it is sacred: and so here is the beauty of learning, because football can also be experienced in a different way from ours”. Without clashing with the technical base left by its predecessor. “We have to take care of the details in the last 25 meters,” he explained after the first defeats. “But I know how to improve and we have to do it quickly.” And only then, with the equilibrium achieved, De Zerbi allowed himself to leave traces of his signature: change tactical deployment (from the three-man defense to the four-man line), lock down his champions (of the world and from market sirens, see Mac Allister ), allow himself the luxury of excluding the team’s most prolific talent (Leandro Trossard) for disciplinary reasons. “Sorry, but you have to understand that I’m the coach and I decide the rules in the locker room.”

The story of the unsuspected Solly March is better: 28 years old, a life in Brighton, in the last three weeks he has achieved an exploit of 4 goals and 3 assists including the brace that knocked Liverpool down. For his fans it is the crowning achievement of self-denial. “And for us players, De Zerbi is like this: a perfectionist, a motivator obsessed with football. If an intuition comes to his mind at one o’clock in the morning, don’t worry he wakes us up”. So March describes it with the term ‘animated’: lively, animated, gesticulating on the sideline. That’s very Italian, though. “And we love it!”. Even Guardiola will turn a blind eye.