ROBERTO DE ZERBI: UN ALTRO LIVELLO
In 48 hours Roberto De Zerbi will make his debut as Albion manager at Anfield. Many things have been said about him in the past few weeks since his appointment but these have mainly been about his tactics and background, we wanted to focus on the football that made the man, his history and career from the perspective of his home nation, by way of our go to man on the boot - Marcello Goussot.
Who is Roberto De Zerbi? We need to try to understand how his career as a player and manager developed and how it fits into Italian football over the past few decades.
Ultimately as a player De Zerbi did not have the kind of career his early promise at AC Milan suggested. In the late 90s He was a classic number 10, as is said in Italy a fantasista or a mezzapunta. The kind of iconic players of the era such as Roberto Baggio, Gianfranco Zola or Francesco Totti, but he never reached their heights.
His debut was at Monza in Serie B in 1998-99 but in the following seasons he played only a few games in many clubs of Serie C/1 (third tier at that time) like Padova, Lecco and Avellino.
In 2002/2003 he joined Foggia in Serie C/2 (fourth tier) where he met a man that would become his mentor as a player and as a manager: Pasquale Marino.
Pasquale Marino, is key to understanding De Zerbi. A young sicilian that surprised everybody taking a small club from his area (Paternò Calcio) from the amateur league (Serie D) to the Serie C/1 in three years between 2000 and 2002. Marino did this playing offensive football based on the 4-3-3 and ball possession. A model De Zerbi would replicate throughout his managerial career.
Marino made De Zerbi a real footballer and the two stayed together for four seasons, winning two promotions, in 2002/2003 into Serie C/1 with Foggia and in 2005/2006 into the Serie A with Catania, the first in 24 years for the sicilians. These successes sandwiched between a good 2004/2005 season in Serie B with Arezzo.
After the Marino years De Zerbi had another good season in Napoli (a promotion to the Serie A in 2006/2007) and then a decline with just 64 appearances between 2008 and 2013, the final year being when he retired from playing.
As a manager Foggia was again in his destiny. It was there that he suddenly broke into the attention of Italian football in the 2015-2016 season.
After a bad spell with a small club in the Serie D called Darfo Boario (fifth tier at the time, an amateur level) in 2014 he was signed by the club from the Puglia region who were in Serie C.
It’s important to understand how Serie C is structured: it’s the third and last professional tier of italian football divided into three regional groups based on north, central and southern Italy.
Group C, the southern, was the group in which Foggia were (and still are) included and historically is one of the hardest leagues to prosper in. It’s full of experienced managers with extremely defensive play and very small pitches with passionate supporters and players who make life hard for young managers.
De Zerbi arrived there with different ideas: offensive football with 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, ball possession, high pressing. And it worked! In his first season, Foggia finished 7th and were the highest scorers in the league: 63 in 38 games. The following season was even better: Foggia finished second, again with the best scoring record (61 goals in 34 games), and only lost out on promotion into Serie B at a playoff final against Gennaro Gattuso’s Pisa in a dramatic second leg at home.
His experience with Foggia is the best example of De Zerbi’s ideas about how football should be played. Faced with tradition and resolve De Zerbi found a way out. A model for the rest of his successful career and how he can succeed at the Albion and take Brighton to un altro livello.
In Sassuolo, by far his most important experience as a manager, he exemplified another key tenet of his career - the capacity to launch very important young players: above all Giacomo Raspadori who recently scored for Italy against England. Something that in italian football is very difficult. Clearly his success with young players has been identified by the Albion as they look to continue their strategy of promoting from within.
From an Italian perspective the Albion have made a great call appointing De Zerbi to take on their ethos. His career in Italy provided the foundation and it seems that De Zerbi could be the man to take Brighton to another level.
Words: Marcello Goussot
Illustration: @BHAgullski