Press-resistant football is the key to de Zerbi’s Brighton vision – tactical analysis

Under the leadership of Graham Potter, Brighton & Hove Albion made immense progress in the Premier League, playing an attractive brand of football along the way. With the Englishman exiting to take the reigns at Chelsea, the opportunity to fill Potter’s boots became available. The club acted swiftly in appointing Italian manager Roberto de Zerbi, who had impressed in Serie A during his time with Sassuolo. There were elements in his tactics in Italy that matched the vision that Potter had started at Brighton, so it was a sensible appointment, not to mention an exciting one.

At the time of writing, the Seagulls are flying high following an emphatic 4-1 on Potter’s new club, Chelsea. However, prior to this fixture, their form was less than desirable, going winless in de Zerbi’s opening five fixtures. There were still signs of promise, though, and Potter himself even said during a press conference that his old side have performed well under new leadership, but they were just unlucky – not to mention a number of difficult games against giants like Liverpool, Manchester City, and Tottenham Hotspur.

This tactical analysis will dive into Brighton’s form and tactics in the early days of de Zerbi’s reign, looking at how his team perform in a press-resistant manner, as well as a breakdown of their tactics off the ball too, including an analysis of their pressing.

Welcoming the press to create attacking space

As we have seen in his early days at Brighton, de Zerbi has a particular way of playing football and is showing signs of success in terms of instilling this into his squad. One key tactical component that he has carried over from his Sassuolo days is the method of drawing the opposition deep into their own half to create space either further forward or on the opposite flank. This segment of analysis will look at some examples of that.

As we can see from the first image above, Brighton are not afraid to play out from the back but do so with the required urgent energy. In this case, Chelsea already had some numbers high up the pitch, which actually suited Brighton even more.

The pattern involves a more attacking player dropping in deeper to offer himself as an option – this also drags an opposition player from their position to mark him. From there, Chelsea, and other teams that have succumbed to de Zerbi’s tactics, think they have recognised a pressing trigger and look to surround the man on the ball (picture two). This is where de Zerbi puts his faith in the individual technical ability and composure within his squad, as the midfielder on the ball will look to create an opening for the next pass out of danger.

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