Roberto De Zerbi gives his initial assessment on Brighton squad before first game as manager against Liverpool
The 43-year-old spoke to the media today (September 30) before tomorrow’s game against Liverpool, when the Italian will be in the dugout for the first time as Albion boss.
De Zerbi was named manager on Sunday (September 18), but only led his first training session with the full squad today, due to the international break.
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Hide AdDespite this, he says he has found a strong mentality within the small group he has worked with so far and trusts his new side to get a result at Anfield tomorrow.
De Zerbi said: “This [the mentality] is the main aspect I have found already in the squad. They are brave, they trust in themselves, they know they are a strong team, but of course we have to be humble together, we know perfectly well where we have started."
The former Shakhtar Donetsk manager was appointed by Albion chairmen Tony Bloom after Graham Potter left the club to join Chelsea, replacing the sacked Thomas Tuchel.
Potter has given De Zebri a club in a strong position – having lost only one of their first six league games – sitting above Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United in fourth place.
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Hide AdThe Italian believes his situation is not easy, but says he is looking forward to implementing his ideas into the squad.
He said: “My situation these days it's not that easy, because of course the team was already doing very well. The head coach has been changed, but I cannot do and I don't know how to do the things that Potter was doing.
"I hope I can do whatever is up to me and to my knowledge. At the moment I have a lot of faults about not doing too much, but at the same time I want to do something.”
Despite being above the Reds in the league, Brighton will still go into tomorrow’s game as underdogs against Jurgen Klopp’s side.
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Hide AdIn the last four years, Liverpool have only lost 6 home games in the league, all of which were behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
One of those defeats was to Brighton, thanks to a single Steven Alzate goal in February 2020, who are unbeaten in their last two visits to the red half of Merseyside, coming from two goals to grab a draw in last season’s fixture.
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De Zebri is hoping his new side can take this recent record and their strong mentality into tomorrow’s game and pick up a positive result.
He said: “Mentality never changes, a strong team always has a strong mentality despite the opponent you are playing with.
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Hide Ad"This is the challenge, but of course there is always the opponent and depending on how the opponent will play, maybe the game will come up differently, considering what is in your brain or your previous meetings with them.
"But when I'm thinking I'm talking about this as our biggest challenge, I thinking about how we can raise the bar. It doesn't mean we are arrogant, it’s that we are being ambitious. There is a big difference between being arrogant and being ambitious.”