Brighton coach Roberto De Zerbi opened up about the Europa League knockout clash with Roma, his happiness in the Premier League and what his Serie A return could look like.
The Seagulls have looked positive in their first ever European campaign so far, topping their Europa League group after wins over AEK Athens, Olympique Marseille and Ajax , comfortably taking them to the Round of 16.
Things were a little more difficult for Roma, who ended up second in their group behind Slavia Prague, forcing them to beat Feyenoord in a two-legged knockout play-off to qualify for the Round of 16 of the Europa League, where they drew Brighton.
Speaking in a press conference via TMW, De Zerbi first discussed the quality of Italian coaches and the strengths of Daniele De Rossi at Roma.
“I always spoke in general about the typical mentality of the Italian tradition, then if we talk about the last seasons, I think the reality is very different compared to 10-15 years ago.
“Gasperini is ahead in this, Italiano, Thiago Motta have taken Serie B teams, Vivarini’s Catanzaro has also taken a different direction.
“De Rossi was born to be a coach, two years ago during the World Cup break I think he still wasn’t coaching SPAL but I don’t want to be wrong, I had highlighted him as one of the possible great coaches, he has all the components such as personality, charisma with the players.
“I’m happy because he is changing a strong team, after two finals, he has made an impact on the game and is getting results and it wasn’t a given, from my point of view he is a great coach. I don’t know if he will play a back four or three, I don’t even know how I will play.”
He was asked if he felt like a genius, as suggested by De Rossi, and the quality of his Brighton squad.
“I don’t feel like a genius, or better than others. Work certainly doesn’t scare me and I don’t lack the courage to do things that others don’t, which may be right or wrong. I live for football, this is the difference that gives me this career.
“I don’t think I was born smarter than others, I always say it but it’s clear that if I have to do something different that I believe in, if I have to do something new because I believe in it, I do it without thinking about the implications or negative aspects that could block that.
“I respect De Rossi because he is my friend, we are very similar as people, so much so that our daughters have become friends because we have the same values.
“I appreciate what he said, Roma are strong with Mourinho and De Rossi, we have no experience but we came here to play for it, we know what stadium we’ll play in but we know what we are worth and what we have done in a year and a half and we are proud.
“We’re not just playing for the quarter-finals, we’re playing because we are writing history and we are doing something unthinkable, for everything Brighton is, it is something we feel very strongly about.”
De Zerbi commented on the atmosphere at the Stadio Olimpico and the injuries in his squad.
“We’ll see tomorrow whether the stadium will intimidate us or not, we played at Old Trafford and we won, we drew 2-2 in Marseille, we played at AEK Athens and we won. I know the push of the Olimpico, let’s see tomorrow, it will be a test for us.
“I believe that we need to be given even more strength, I have been coaching for 10 years and I have changed five or six teams, I feel that these Brighton players are temperamentally closer to me in terms of pride, hunger and dignity, motivation, values, in how they experience football.
“The old and the young live football like me, I’m confident but the pitch will decide. Regarding injuries, I’d say that it is a topic to be taken in two ways, either we cry and say how many important players we have out, or we take it as an opportunity because we aim to go through and compete with all these injured players.
“Nobody gives us a guarantee that with Mitoma, Joao Pedro, March, Milner, or with Enciso in form we will get through, I don’t want to hear about injuries, we have enough for tomorrow.”
De Zerbi discussed how it feels to return to Italy with Brighton and which team his daughter will be supporting.
“My daughter doesn’t support Roma, she is friends with Gaia, Daniele’s daughter, and my daughter keeps her company. My daughter supports me, that’s clear, then when we have friends from another team I cheered for Daniele against Feyenoord.
“As for my daughter, I have no doubts about who she will support. It is a pride to return to Italy especially with this team, I fall in love with teams I have coached like Foggia, Benevento, Sassuolo, Shakhtar Donetsk but this team gives me pride.
“We can also lose 3-0 or lose overall, but we need to understand what kind of level Brighton are before saying this.
“After every heavy defeat, this team have always risen again and have always emerged from suffering by fighting with play and hunger. Returning to my country with these players and with this club is a source of great pride.”
He spoke about if the match against Roma could give Brighton their spark back.
“We’ve made the choice to honour all competitions to the fullest, the match against Roma is no more important than Brighton-Nottingham on Sunday.
“It’s clear that we’re not used to playing three games a week for such a long time, so much so that we had 10 injured players at the same time.
“We don’t have such a large squad and if you think that West Ham reached the final of the Conference League and fought not to be relegated, Leicester made the Conference semi-final two years ago and then were relegated the following year.
“Freiburg is 10th in the Bundesliga, Union Berlin made the Champions League for the first time this year and has suffered in the league, Sevilla and Villarreal are mid-table, Rennes are a strong team, Toulouse has also suffered, Lens is recovering a bit but they have been eliminated from European competitions.
“It’s normal that not being used to playing European competitions, you definitely lose something because you’re not used to it. Before the Europa League started, we won four games and lost one, then it was difficult to compete like last year and as we were used to.”
De Zerbi commented on the impact of playing a tie over two legs.
“For us it’s the first time, but at Shakhtar Donetsk I won the Champions League preliminaries, eliminating Genk and Monaco.
“The match is 180 minutes and we will have to be good at not losing our identity, knowing however that the match is 180 minutes and quickly finding the balance between being ourselves and also thinking that tomorrow night it won’t be over.
“There are another 90 minutes and this is something new for Brighton.”
Finally, De Zerbi was quizzed about his possible Serie A return and if money was a factor.
“It’s not true to say that I don’t think about Italy, it’s my country, but I do what I like and what makes me happy, like staying at Brighton.
“I’m lucky enough to have a team that allows me to play these competitions, it gives me satisfaction but even when we lose I find good things from the players I coach. Later, I don’t know when, I will return to Italy but there is no pre-established reason.
“Of course, the choice I made three years ago was to go to Shakhtar, I also wanted to create a path for myself outside of Italy by choice and because, without going into detail, there were some things that I didn’t like and I wanted something else.”
Read more about De Zerbi
De Rossi and De Zerbi’s different journeys to Roma-Brighton
Chelsea join Milan in race for Italian coach De Zerbi
Guardiola recommends sought-after De Zerbi for Barcelona job