Roberto De Zerbi *OFFICIAL*

What I find interesting is the respect that RDZ seems to have in the game from players and other coaches. On paper, he hasn't really had big jobs and won so much. However, he seems to have a "Pep" or "Klopp" type attraction to some players who have worked with him before. I'm not sure we've really had that player to manager chemistry at our club since Poch days. It surely has to be one of the key ingredients.

Muttley said:

What I find interesting is the respect that RDZ seems to have in the game from players and other coaches. On paper, he hasn't really had big jobs and won so much. However, he seems to have a "Pep" or "Klopp" type attraction to some players who have worked with him before. I'm not sure we've really had that player to manager chemistry at our club since Poch days. It surely has to be one of the key ingredients.

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Ange pretty clearly had it as well. Almost all his signings said they signed after talks with him (like we are hearing now with RDZ). There was obviously a closeness between Ange and his players here.

Gazza Dazzla said:

Ange pretty clearly had it as well. Almost all his signings said they signed after talks with him (like we are hearing now with RDZ). There was obviously a closeness between Ange and his players here.

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Yeah, that's fair I guess. I remember Davies talking about Ange trying to get him to play with more freedom and go wherever he felt comfortable going. Ange definitely created a togetherness in the group. They definitely played for him. I'm less sure whether they would advocate for him as a pure "technical coach" in the way we saw with Poch though. When it comes to guys like Pep, you just know the players want to learn from him. That's the feeling I get with RDZ as well.

SirPercyHotspur said:

PS Here is another point of view on de Zerbi at Brighton, he wanted ready made players and not to bring on youngsters, so we might see more leaving.

:Owner Tony Bloom remained strictly committed to Brighton's data-led model: buying young, high-potential talent to develop and later sell for a profit. De Zerbi felt this lack of aggressive squad strengthening capped the club’s ambitions.

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Well, Brighton have never matched that RDZ season, so he's been proven right?

Just listened to the latest Game is about Glory podcast and the discussion around how we have so many wingers coming back from injury made me think…is there a possibility we start the season playing three CBs in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1?

I believe that while RDZ has his footballing philosophy, he is at heart a pragmatist and will set the team up to play to their individual strengths.

This would explain bringing in two CBS who are both comfortable stepping out of defense (plus a third if we keep Cuti) and less reliance on building down the wings, allowing us to possibly incorporate Maddison and Gallagher behind a CF (ahead of two pivots), or play two strikers ahead of a #10. We have good depth at both wing back positions too.

I can’t remember if he utilized three CBs at Brighton at all and never watched his Marseille team but we have so much positional fluidity I am really interested to see how an intelligent and flexible coach is going to set us up for the first part of the season till we know how Deki and Kudus in particular are going to be when they return.