Roberto De Zerbi

He’s either not as highly rated within football as he is in TIFO/Twitter tactico land - what with none of Bayern, Liverpool, Chelsea, Juve, Barcelona, Napoli or Milan going near him - or he’s got something lined up. The only job he could have lined up is here? I don’t see what other ones are remaining.
 
jderbyshire said:
I know this not really a big deal, but the fact that he is a smoker is off-putting for me. Not a sign of some being very sensible is it.

Are INEOS going for him purely because he's Italian? Makes him statistically more likely to win the league than a Dutchman, I suppose (marginal gains and all that).
Click to expand...
That's a fair comment, I think it's a negative. It just seems like counterproductive if you're in charge of people who need follow a healthy way of life, what legitimacy could he have?
 
gajender said:
It's so far from the truth don't know where to begin .
Click to expand...

What great arguments you have.

Pretty easy to argue my case: Mourinho was completely dreadful and boring, so was Van Gaal and to an extent Moyes. Had it been enough to just win things here and there, then Mourinho and Van Gaal had gotten an extra year, but the fans crave entertaining football.

It's simple and lays in our history: Busby and Fergie entertained us, that's where our biggest succes has been.
 
The timeline doesn't really match up does it?

My understanding is that he left Brighton behind a wall of confidentiality after an agreement was finalized between him, Brighton and his club to-be.

Since then, it seems like we definitely had talks with McKenna, which naturally would suggest that we are not the club that De Zerbi has agreed to join. Also taking into account the fact that we've apparently not made a decision on Ten Hag yet.

I mean all that said, you never know what's actually happening.
 
The Boy said:
I think he's a brilliant coach, his style of play has been praised, not just at Brighton but at Sassuolo and Benevento before that as well (you can't really rate his Shaktar career because of the war). He took Sassuolo to 8th two seasons on the trot and just missed out on European football to Roma who were ahead on goal difference.

He likes to dominate possession as we've seen at Brighton, even at Sassuolo his team recorded the highest possession share in Serie A. He stretches play relying on full backs and wingers, bringing the goal keeper into a back three while passing out from the back to give his team an extra man. The downside is his teams can concede too many chances and if they're not on top form it can go wrong.

Players seem to love playing for him and certainly develop under his leadership. Dunk said quite early on in RTDZ's time at Brighton that De Zerbi made him see football in a completely different way. In fact I would say the majority of Brighton's squad have played better under De Zerbi than under Potter and I can not think of a player that's got worse.

A lot is made of the injuries he's faced and Mac Allister and Caicedo leaving. But our drop of in form in the second half of the season possibly wouldn't have happened if we'd used the January transfer window more. RDZ wanted to bring in a couple of established players to bolster the squad, but our board refused and only bought in a 19 year old left back, Valentin Barco, typically of Brighton, one for the future. That was really the biggest issue for RDZ and that's when he started questioning the club's ambition vs his.

He is definitely passionate and determined, he develops and improves players, his football is possession based, attacking and exciting to watch using the wings, he's great with young players as well as established ones. I'm gutted, but not at all surprised to see him leave Brighton. He's been highly rated everywhere he has been, even when he was relegated with Benevento, years ago now, the Italian press raved about his innovative and exciting style. I don't get what's not to like about him, I think he'd be a great fit at United if you decide to move on from ETH.
Click to expand...

I'm sold. What's there not to like an attacking and dominate possession based exciting modern coach.
 
I said it in the other manager thread but I think he'd still be my first choice. In possession, he plays the football I've wanted to see us play for ages now. Out of possession, although I like the intensity of his press, his teams defending in general leave a lot to be desired. That's the main worry for me.

At the moment, I think the positives of how we'd likely be a team that inflicted our dominating style on the opposition regardless of their quality outweigh that concern, though.

In saying that, I still don't think he ends up here.
 
Yakuza_devils said:
I'm sold. What's there not to like an attacking and dominate possession based exciting modern coach.
Click to expand...
We already have a manager of that style, that has achieved way more than De Zerbi both in EPL and outside of it and in difference to De Zerbi is not stupidly stubborn. Why would we fire ETH and hire a discount version of him, to disturb momentum of two years with worse odds of success? Just so INEOS can appoint somebody new? That is nuts
 
NewGlory said:
We already have a manager of that style, that has achieved way more than De Zerbi both in EPL and outside of it and in difference to De Zerbi is not stupidly stubborn. Why would we fire ETH and hire a discount version of him, to disturb momentum of two years with worse odds of success? Just so INEOS can appoint somebody new? That is nuts
Click to expand...
Cause ETH has been awful in many ways. Plus he isn't a INEOS appointment and new owners like to bring in their own appointments.
 
NewGlory said:
We already have a manager of that style, that has achieved way more than De Zerbi both in EPL and outside of it and in difference to De Zerbi is not stupidly stubborn. Why would we fire ETH and hire a discount version of him, to disturb momentum of two years with worse odds of success? Just so INEOS can appoint somebody new? That is nuts
Click to expand...
But Ten Hag isnt that, have you seen our season at all?
We dont dominate possession and invite pressure by conceding a record number of shots. Its what Ten Hag was supposed to be.
 
NewGlory said:
We already have a manager of that style, that has achieved way more than De Zerbi both in EPL and outside of it and in difference to De Zerbi is not stupidly stubborn. Why would we fire ETH and hire a discount version of him, to disturb momentum of two years with worse odds of success? Just so INEOS can appoint somebody new? That is nuts
Click to expand...

That was what essay writers told us before he came here. We have seen nothing of that in his two seasons here. Did you?
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I'd rather keep Ten Hag then go for this flavour of the (last) month.
Click to expand...
Pickle85 said:
Same. Not too sure why some folks are so excited about this guy.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Alot of fans talk about United's poor performances this season but Brighton who everyone raves up for their transfers have been battered 3/4 -0 many times this season too.

Also, one thing is mentality, alot of united fans will scream, we need a manager that wants to win etc.. when Di Zerbi on multiple occasions has said he isn't motivated by winning, he is satisfied with good football.

Will the fans be happy with 3rd - 7th place finish if we play good football?
 
romufc said:
Exactly. Alot of fans talk about United's poor performances this season but Brighton who everyone raves up for their transfers have been battered 3/4 -0 many times this season too.

Also, one thing is mentality, alot of united fans will scream, we need a manager that wants to win etc.. when Di Zerbi on multiple occasions has said he isn't motivated by winning, he is satisfied with good football.

Will the fans be happy with 3rd - 7th place finish if we play good football?
Click to expand...

I understand all that and I’m not pro Di Zerbi at all as I’m fed up of players not being allowed to think for themselves.

However you cannot believe his football will be any worse with better players in comparison with what he has at Brighton. Thats the issue with ETH he has a top 4 team it is unacceptable to have us finishing 8th if your football philosophy holds any weight. For instance… I believe Ange will do a lot better if he gets better players.
 
It's very odd to see Bayern and Chelsea passing him over in favour of Kompany and Maresca.
 
romufc said:
Also, one thing is mentality, alot of united fans will scream, we need a manager that wants to win etc.. when Di Zerbi on multiple occasions has said he isn't motivated by winning, he is satisfied with good football.

Will the fans be happy with 3rd - 7th place finish if we play good football?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the odd quote he has also said (found in a 30 second google search):

"All that I do during the week has one aim: to win. Then, one has to choose how to win games. "
"We want to win, we are serious people and when we work, we want to show our best"

I'm guessing you're referring to him saying I don't work to win trophies but to enjoy and be happy, but given he has over performed with every team he has managed, I wouldn't worry too much, the guy plays to win and when you see how passionate he gets, there's no doubt.
 
B20 said:
It's very odd to see Bayern and Chelsea passing him over in favour of Kompany and Maresca.
Click to expand...

Think it makes sense in terms of Chelsea. One of the reasons they got rid of Poch was due to disagreements over transfers and that's one of the reasons De Zerbi left Brighton.
 
B20 said:
It's very odd to see Bayern and Chelsea passing him over in favour of Kompany and Maresca.
Click to expand...
Not odd to me at all. Said months ago and consistently ever since that in the real world he won't get a top job. He's a media hype. Real life football people running the best clubs in the real world won't touch him.
 
romufc said:
Exactly. Alot of fans talk about United's poor performances this season but Brighton who everyone raves up for their transfers have been battered 3/4 -0 many times this season too.

Also, one thing is mentality, alot of united fans will scream, we need a manager that wants to win etc.. when Di Zerbi on multiple occasions has said he isn't motivated by winning, he is satisfied with good football.

Will the fans be happy with 3rd - 7th place finish if we play good football?
Click to expand...

To be fair, probably happier than they'd be with an 8th place finish while playing terrible football.

I have been a fan of De Zerbi for a while and he was oft-touted as the the next great thing in European football during his time at Sassuolo. That being said, he's definitely a very emotional manager, who requires delicate handling if he is to thrive. He could be a big success at United and really a be step forward in developing our possession game, but it could also be an embarrassing disaster. High-risk, high-reward kind of appointment. My guess is that INEOS would prefer to continue their working relationship with Ten Hag, who is definitely more level-headed, more pragmatic and generally easier to deal with than the rather more combustible De Zerbi. I don't think he'll be their fist choice if they dispense with Ten Hag's services this summer.
 
NewGlory said:
We already have a manager of that style, that has achieved way more than De Zerbi both in EPL and outside of it and in difference to De Zerbi is not stupidly stubborn. Why would we fire ETH and hire a discount version of him, to disturb momentum of two years with worse odds of success? Just so INEOS can appoint somebody new? That is nuts
Click to expand...

Sorry. A manager who spent more than 400M, can't implement any style of play, finish 8th, negative GD, record losses, record chances conceded, bad in signings players have to go, no ifs and buts.

ETH is not good enough for Man Utd, period. End of discussion.
 
Not sold on this guy either. I just don't see anything about him. I mean, he plays possession football and is pretty lively. But is that enough? I wouldn't necessarily turn him down, but the hype around him seems quite a bit over the top as far as I'm concerned.

It would be a strange appointment.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
Not odd to me at all. Said months ago and consistently ever since that in the real world he won't get a top job. He's a media hype. Real life football people running the best clubs in the real world won't touch him.
Click to expand...
What is it you see in Kompany and Maresca that makes it not odd at all that they should be targeted over him?
 
I don't understand why he's so highly rated. He's never won anything and his teams tend to leak lots of goals. He's been passed over by all the big clubs too. I think he'd be a disaster here.
 
SilentWitness said:
Think it makes sense in terms of Chelsea. One of the reasons they got rid of Poch was due to disagreements over transfers and that's one of the reasons De Zerbi left Brighton.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Was it lack of funds for both or diverging player recommendations for the expected style of play? Brighton must have made a fortune selling players and staff to Chelsea.
 
I have been firmly in the ETHout camp but if this is the guy we are sacking Ten Hag for then I'll gladly keep Ten Hag.
 
Going by here, he's gone from being overrated to now being severely underrated.

He's clearly a good coach, whether he's better than midtable management is another thing, which is still a very good level.

This place is full of extreme takes in the FF. You're either hotshit or shit.
 
FrankDrebin said:
Going by here, he's gone from being overrated to now being severely underrated.

He's clearly a good coach, whether he's better than midtable management is another thing, which is still a very good level.
Click to expand...
About right
 
Yakuza_devils said:
Sorry. A manager who spent more than 400M, can't implement any style of play, finish 8th, negative GD, record losses, record chances conceded, bad in signings players have to go, no ifs and buts.

ETH is not good enough for Man Utd, period. End of discussion.
Click to expand...

I’m with you. ETH just isn’t premier league quality. In the two seasons he’s been here we’ve had 7-0 (Liverpool), 4-0 (Brentford), 4-0 (Palace), and 3-0 (Bournemouth) losses, despite spending 400m on an already expensively assembled squad. We still can’t play any brand of discernible football, can barely score goals, and are the most defensively porous I’ve ever seen us- not because of personnel but because of set up.

I would take De Zerbi over this clown in a heart beat.
 
bringbackbebe said:
Interesting. Was it lack of funds for both or diverging player recommendations for the expected style of play? Brighton must have made a fortune selling players and staff to Chelsea.
Click to expand...

Which? De Zerbi? He wanted more established players and for the model of the club to change essentially whereas Bloom is all about following the model of cheaper younger signings they can develop and succeed or profit on.
 
simonhch said:
I’m with you. ETH just isn’t premier league quality. In the two seasons he’s been here we’ve had 7-0 (Liverpool), 4-0 (Brentford), 4-0 (Palace), and 3-0 (Bournemouth) losses, despite spending 400m on an already expensively assembled squad. We still can’t play any brand of discernible football, can barely score goals, and are the most defensively porous I’ve ever seen us- not because of personnel but because of set up.

I would take De Zerbi over this clown in a heart beat.
Click to expand...

You'd take De Zerbi as your 1st choice EtH replacement?
 
I can only see him signing for Barça now. Our dutch Calilou will probably remain on the wheel after the FA Cup win.
 
B20 said:
What is it you see in Kompany and Maresca that makes it not odd at all that they should be targeted over him?
Click to expand...
I've never heard of Maresca. I think Kompany has much more about him. I can spot potential and I don't think that's something you can teach
 
SilentWitness said:
Which? De Zerbi? He wanted more established players and for the model of the club to change essentially whereas Bloom is all about following the model of cheaper younger signings they can develop and succeed or profit on.
Click to expand...

Got it. I think it's a typical agency problem. Managers want fast results while owners want to maximize profit. It's difficult for a manager to survive in the game otherwise these days. I can empathize with De Zebri.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.