The goodwill is running out for a manager who has lost his habit of winning just as he is being linked with a move away
This is an extract of The Score. Click the sign-up box below to receive the newsletter every Monday morning this season for Daniel Storey’s verdict on all 20 Premier League clubsmanager on 24 September last year. His team had just beaten Bournemouth 3-1, making it five wins from six games to start the league season. Brighton were third in the Premier League and had won three consecutive matches 3-1. Newcastle United and Manchester United were amongst the vanquished.
But let’s just say that De Zerbi has burned through most of his accumulated goodwill. The messy Europa League defeat in Rome didn’t help, but there’s a perceived dogmatism to De Zerbi that supporters believe has manifested in an inability to keep clean sheets.Having managed five wins in their first six league games of the season, Brighton have, improbably, added only six more since – Brentford, Forest , Sheffield United, Crystal Palace included.
Losing Solly March and Kaoru Mitoma hasn’t helped, but the accusation is that the defensive uncertainty – defenders who can pass the ball and start attacking moves but get worse at actual defending – has blunted Brighton’s attack a little. Several key players have gone backwards in 2024 from 2023’s higher standards.
Since that win – 28 December – they have scored 13 goals in 13 games and five of those came in 65 minutes against Sheffield United. Brighton have become the opposite of what we’d grown to love: functional, frustrating, even a little forlorn. That has coincided with De Zerbi being linked to prestigious jobs across Europe. It’s not a combination that makes fans happy.
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