SteveAWOL
Willie Hall
FTFY.
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Roberto De Zerbi *OFFICIAL*
- Thread starter LutonSpurs
- Start date
FTFY.
WillWeEverBeGoodAgain
Johnny nice-tits
Yes — Roberto De Zerbi is widely regarded as a coach who trusts and develops young players, but with an important nuance:
he doesn’t play youth just because they’re young — he plays them if they fit his tactical system and show technical intelligence.
Key Traits of His Approach
- System-first philosophy: Players must be comfortable in possession, press-resistant, and tactically aware
- Willing to take risks: He’ll give young players big responsibilities early
- Improvement-focused: Many young players significantly develop under him
- No bias toward age: If you’re good enough, you play — regardless of experience
Examples from His Clubs
Sassulou
- Helped develop:
- Manuel Locatelli (became a top midfielder)
- Gianluca Scamacca
- Davide Frattesi
- Sassuolo became known for developing young Italian talent under him
Ukraine
- Continued tradition of using young Brazilian and Ukrainian players
- Improved players tactically in a possession-heavy system despite difficult circumstances
Brighton
- This is where it became most obvious:
- Evan Ferguson — trusted as a teenage striker
- Julio Enciso — given key attacking roles
- Moisés Caicedo — developed into elite midfielder
- Brighton under De Zerbi became one of the best clubs in Europe for developing young talent
Bottom Line
De Zerbi is absolutely known for playing youth players, but:- He’s not a “youth-for-the-sake-of-youth” manager
- He’s a developmental tactician — young players thrive because his system accelerates their growth
Gazza Dazzla
Les Ferdinand
Been hearing talk from some fans not keen on De Zerbi of his Brighton team getting “found out” in his 2nd season, but I don’t think that tells the story, he lost Caicedo, McAllister and Sanchez from the team he took to 6th place, then Trossard the next Jan. That’s going to impact your team!
Yiddo
Dimitar Berbatov
And the fact there was some unrest which led to him leaving.
Ah the good old 'Getting found out' tag that gets thrown at almost every manager at some point. Goes hand in hand with the 'Doesn't turn up in big games' line that gets thrown at countless top players. Pinch of salt required....
Mikey10
Les Ferdinand
Interesting comments on Levy, in amongst the De Zerbi stuff:
www.theguardian.com
Spurs gamble on creative but combative De Zerbi conjuring up an escape plan
With seven games to save their status, Tottenham’s owners have taken risk on a gifted coach who favours tough love
Eriktheviking
Neil Ruddock
100%, terrible. Flip flops in his opinions, depends on the time of the month, funnily enough he always says things in hindsight all well after the fact. most of the time he doesn't actually have an opinion, he just sits on the fence without saying a great deal. For a head journalist, I expected much, much more.
MartyFunkhouser
George Hunt
I think that comes down to modern football and people having zero patience in and out the club. Not many managers keep the message coming through and move forward past year 2/3 these days
yiddo37
Sergei Rebrov
Did you mean 'one for the dislikes'?
yiddo37
Sergei Rebrov
Re: Chris Cowlin
Like the bloke, was greatful for the stadium updates and have stuck with him since.
Has some good guests on his chats.
Like most people he can be annoying but give credit where it's due, to follow this club through thin and thin for years all over the world takes some doing.
Like the bloke, was greatful for the stadium updates and have stuck with him since.
Has some good guests on his chats.
Like most people he can be annoying but give credit where it's due, to follow this club through thin and thin for years all over the world takes some doing.
MartyFunkhouser
George Hunt
Best time to do it and farm engagement
Gazza
Paul Robinson
I think fair play for monetising the channel and making it way in was that he can follow spurs home and away. Got a very premium seat out of it. Just needs to be less of a boring wet sock and he needs to get in line for his hair style which give RDZ a run for his money.
SissokoWasGood (BoL)
Pat van den Hauwe
Interesting comments on Levy, in amongst the De Zerbi stuff:
Spurs gamble on creative but combative De Zerbi conjuring up an escape plan
With seven games to save their status, Tottenham’s owners have taken risk on a gifted coach who favours tough love
Thought this was the most interesting part of the article as it relates to our struggles this season, haven’t seen it mentioned really in the press until today:
“Though there is research to show that managers make negligible difference to performance – the key metrics of success are how much you spend on your players and therefore the quality of your squad – data also has blind spots. The emotional unity of a squad and its alignment with the personality of the manager is vital and can make a significant difference. Yet it is almost impossible to measure and requires a human rather than a data-led judgment to decide whether this manager is the right fit. “Just because you can’t measure it doesn’t mean it isn’t real,” said one football data analyst.”
Lange may well have been one of the early proponents of a data led approach. But swinging so far in that direction is what has gotten us in this mess. My hope is that RDZ gets into the heads of the players as well as being a modern, data driven manger that can fit with the structure of the club.
Ace Face
Carlo Cudicini
Add in the extra European games and an injury crisis that season.
But yeah, his second season performances are a concern. Let’s hope he’s matured in that regard and understands the need to keep evolving like Pep.
Bedfordspurs
Paul Gascoigne
It’s his job now
He makes money on clicks
thfcsteff
Sonny Walters
What is perhaps more interesting are all the things which get said that do not get out. These are young men. They talk. I heard about something post-Forest which has not hit the press, and I am sure there's lots of that. I agree these things are timed and encouraged (or not)..,
thfcsteff
Sonny Walters
Needs a bit more context in fairness (albeit I never said he'd save us from the drop)!
I am, generally, an optimist when it comes to new managers as there is little point being anything else.
What I remember clearly saying about Frank is that he was the best-suited candidate for the club we were; not especially adventurous when the rubber hits the road, not especially the biggest spenders, and largely data-driven by stat crunchers.
Where I placed faith in Frank was his 'tactical flexibility' when the truth was he was as flexible as a lego brick and increasingly scared by the size of the project. He also did lose Levy early on, I always said that was a big blow for him/any new manager coming in with one general and suddenly seeing them ousted rather rudely.
So I know where you're going
...but other than optimistic support, it's a tad different!
MartyFunkhouser
George Hunt
Yeh no doubt mate,
metalgear
Barry Daines
He looks a bit frustrated calling that out. Both imply players need to be brave (to take one...two ...three touches) and run to make himself available for the pass.
It's great because we are severely lacking in those areas but weird at the same time because they are very basic game behaviour. I play with young kids a lot and the problem is usually restricting their love of enjoying the ball by themselves and being the centre of play all the time.
I'm wondering if under Lange we have incomplete individual player performance metrics that have led us down the wrong way. Whatever it is , I am sure we will see better performance from game #1 with dzb.