Italy is usually well-known for its defensive mindset.
The term Catenaccio is closely connected with Calcio and its tradition of defensive discipline and results over style of play.
Of course, there are several exceptions, such as Arrigo Sacchi, or in the last few years, Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri.
Those coaches have brought the beautiful game to Italy and have been quite successful with that.
Roberto De Zerbi is the next young Italian coach trying to win games by dominating the opponent.
However, De Zerbi is not one of the Sarri school, like Marco Giampaolo, for instance.
While Sarri or Giampaolo use a few concepts of positional play in a less strict way, De Zerbi has fully committed to the philosophy.
Nevertheless, De Zerbi was not only influenced by Pep Guardiola but also adapted a few concepts of Maurizio Sarri.
In this analysis, I will discuss Roberto De Zerbi philosophy and his current issues.
Successful? Not yet
Roberto De Zerbi is like the typical Italian coach.
Similar to Sarri or Sacchi he had to work his way up to Serie A.
Although he was a professional player, De Zerbi started his career at Darfo Boario.
After that, he also coached Foggia, Palermo, Benevento and now US Sassuolo.
With Foggia, he was able to secure the Serie C cup.
But besides that, he hasnt been able to win any titles.
In fact, Sassuolo is the first club besides Foggia at which he has been able to secure more than one point per game.
The problem for De Zerbi so far? He hasnt had teams with the greatest technical abilities.
At Benevento, it was clear that when you give De Zerbi a team of technically gifted players, he is going to be successful.
At Sassuolo he has that team, and the beginning of the season looked promising.
They played the way De Zerbi wants, dominated games, created chances and their performances were usually a joy to watch.
However, defensive issues led to many problems and worse results.
Currently, Sassuolo sit in 13th place and dont really have a chance to enter the fight for the Europa League.
On the other hand, they probably have enough points to avoid relegation.
Its time to look at De Zerbis philosophy and some interesting aspects of his Sassuolo team.
Well-connected shape
Similar to his managerial stints before, De Zerbi either uses a 4-3-3 or a variation of a 3-4-3.
Those formations provide the most triangles and the best distribution of players on the pitch to dominate and use various concepts like the third-man concept.
When they use a 4-3-3 formation, the defensive midfielder is the most important player during their possession phase.
Together with the deeper full-backs and the centre-backs, the defensive midfielder tries to build up play.
He is responsible for attracting opponents, connecting with teammates, and opening passing lanes or moving the ball forward on his own.
De Zerbi positions his players based on the principles of positional play.
In this system, no more than two players should be on the same vertical line, and no more than three players should be positioned on the same horizontal line.
At Sassuolo, the wings are often occupied by two players during the build-up, which is not typical, but helps the team to create more space by stretching the opponent.
Furthermore, the central midfielders are positioned in the half-space, while the striker has an active role and has to participate in the combination play.
With Kevin-Prince Boateng,
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