Roberto De Zerbi, manager of Brighton & Hove Albion, has praised Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola for making subtle tactical changes that destroyed his own plans.
The Brighton manager spoke to Brescia Oggi, which was carried by Sport Italia, about tactics and the differences between life in Italy and England.
After managing in Serie A with Sassuolo and now in the Premier League with Brighton, he can talk with some authority on both.
The two leagues are often considered as significantly different, with the Premier League widely recognized as the greatest in the world for its high energy, endurance football, in contrast to Italy, which is renowned to be more tactical and slower than some other European leagues.
Indeed, Italian coaches are frequently perceived as more defensive than their counterparts, but the Brighton manager has worked hard to debunk that stereotype since arriving in England, with the Seagulls now one of the division’s more open and potent teams.
That’s because De Zerbi’s style is regularly tweaked and changed between games, something he concedes doesn’t always succeed, as it did against Liverpool and Manchester City.
Brighton drew 2-2 with Liverpool in early October and were beaten 2-1 by Manchester City later that month, and De Zerbi acknowledges that his rival managers may have gotten the better of him.
“It is fundamental and essential to take care of your physical condition,” he stated.
“As well as the evolution of the goalkeeper’s role: today, he is becoming an additional player on the pitch during construction.”
“I’ll give you an example from this year’s Brighton matches against Liverpool and Manchester City: I had prepared the defensive phase in both cases, going man for man.”
“However, Klopp and Guardiola raised the goalkeeper a lot in relation to the penalty area, transforming him into an outfield player and definitely putting me in difficulty.”
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