Author: Ant who watches football ruthlessly

The Italian that Pan Yi had his eye on turned out to be related to Porter.

As for the so-called "origin", it will only happen in the future.

Then when Porter led Brighton to great success in the Premier League and was directly poached by Chelsea, the person who replaced Porter was De Zerbi!

In other words, Porter was De Zerby's predecessor.

For example, before the two men took over Brighton one after another, De Zerbi was at least as famous as Potter.

It can be said that Porter has made a name for himself in the Premier League through his performance at Brighton, while De Zerbi has already been famous in Serie A.

De Zerbi's coaching career began in Serie A. In the 2016-17 season, the 37-year-old De Zerbi took up the coach of Palermo and began his journey in the five major leagues, but that journey was far from what he had envisioned.

So beautiful.

In less than three months, De Zerbi was fired due to his poor record. In 13 games, he had 1 win, 2 draws and 10 losses. The "irritating" record once made De Zerbi unemployed for half a year.

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It was not until October 2017 that De Zerbi returned to coaching and became the "fire-fighting" coach of Benwai Vento.

Because the hole dug by his predecessor Baroni was too big, Benevento had already swallowed the bitter fruit of the ninth consecutive defeat of the East when De Zerbi took over. Although the former led Benevento to win 6 games in the East in the Yudong schedule,

That was not enough to change the team's fate of being relegated.

When Benevento was relegated to Serie B at the end of the season as last place, De Zerbi's second adventure came to an abrupt end.

Through that semi-successful experience of "firefighting", De Zerbi attracted the attention of another Serie A civilian team - Sassuolo.

In 2018, Schadzel slowly signed a contract with "Watermelon Peel", setting off a green wave in the Apennine Peninsula.

During the three years of coaching Sassuolo, although the team never entered the European competition, it never had to worry about relegation.

Despite the difficult conditions of the departure of the main players in consecutive years and limited signings, De Zerbi can still lead the team to make steady progress and stay in the middle of the league for a long time.

In addition, the offensive football concept that De Zerbi had always cherished was finally blossoming on the green field. The hearty cooperation and mercury-filled offense earned the reputation of "Green Barcelona".

In the 2018-19 season, Sassuolo, ranked 11th in Serie A, scored a total of 53 goals, two goals behind Milan, which ranked fifth, and Inter Milan, which ranked fourth, by four goals. It scored one more goal than Turin, which ranked seventh.

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In the following three seasons, Sassuolo's goals continued to increase, reaching 60+ each time. This shows that De Zerbi's mind is full of useful information.

Precisely because of his outstanding performance in "Green Barcelona", he was favored by the powerful Ukrainian team Shakhtar Donetsk, officially becoming the 34th coach in the history of Shakhtar Donetsk.

If we go back to the east, Brighton's Porter was poached, and then Brighton owner Tony Bloom found De Zerby from the name spit out by the machine to replace him.

In fact, Brighton's coaching change can even be said to be an upgrade!

In the focus game of "Previous VS Current" where Chelsea missed Brighton, just when the outside world thought that Porter would drive home in triumph and shoot down the "Seagull" effortlessly, De Zerbi used an unexpected performance.

Beat up the "predecessor".

4:1, that is a surprising score.

After the game, Porter said with a sad face at the press conference: "The score was painful. Brighton played very well, especially in the half. The atmosphere in the away game was really tense, and they did not achieve that.

Strength of."

As Porter said, Chelsea fell behind by three goals at halftime thanks to Trossard's goal and two own goals. Please know that Porter had conceded 4 goals in 9 games since he coached Chelsea at that time.

Not only that, Porter also experienced the first defeat of the Blues career with his old club.

In this game, Brighton coach De Zerby's formation had an immediate effect. Although the ball possession rate was lagging behind, the "Seagull" completed 2 more shots than the wrong leg, thus creating 4 goals.

The good show of tearing his predecessor's legs apart also allowed De Zerbi, who was new to the Premier League, to fully demonstrate his strength.

And the standings at the end of the season also prove that point.

Chelsea, which initially underwent a coaching change, ranked 12th with 44 points, and did not even win the Eastern Conference championship.

Brighton, under De Zerby's command, ranked sixth with 62 points and entered the European War for the first time in team history!

Of course, at this point in time, De Zerbi has hardly made a name for himself.

After he retired, he coached an amateur team called Dalfo Boaglio Terme. Well, the name is too long.

Then he was favored by the Group C team Foggia. He had just led the team for a season, but he was not able to lead the team to Serie B. Now he is unemployed.

It's the right time for Pan Yi to come to De Zerbi now!

The fact is that De Zerbi accepted Pan Yi's invitation almost without hesitation.

The reason is very simple. Pan Yi is his biggest idol! When he is unemployed, he can serve as an assistant coach for his idol's team. What reasons are there for him to refuse?

And the second idol in De Zerbi's heart is...Guardiola.

Well, if it is in the normal timeline, then Guardiola is De Zerbi's biggest idol, and it can also be said that he is a loyal follower of Guardiola.

In 2013, when Guardiola was leading Bayern in Bavaria, an uninvited guest visited Bayern's training base, but he did not dare to go in. Instead, he rented a house next to Bayern's training base so that he could visit it every day.

Watch some of Guardiola's training sessions.

That person is De Zerbi.

At this time, De Zerbi was not well-known. Guardiola once stepped forward and personally wrote a letter of recommendation to the manager of Las Palmas, but the Spanish team rejected that person - he had almost no background in the five major leagues in his career.

His coaching career was in Italy. That kind of experience is not bad, but it does make it difficult for him to get into the eyes of Spanish teams.

But having such an experience made De Zerbi extremely admire Guardiola's character or level.

In an interview with the media, De Zerbi once said: "For him, Guardiola is the best coach in the world. He admired him when he coached at Barcelona, ​​Bayern and Manchester City."

Whether in the early years of training or in the stage of fame in Sassuolo, De Zerbi always adhered to the concept of passing and controlling. For him, the amount of ball possession is the primary factor that determines victory or defeat.

In the 2018-19 season, Sassuolo's average ball possession rate per game was as high as 53.1%, ranking seventh in Serie A, only 0.3 percentage points behind AC Milan, followed by the Roma duo.

After two seasons of tempering, De Zerbi has brought his passing and control concept to the extreme. In the 2020-21 season, Sassuolo averaged 58.2% of the ball possession rate per game, ranking first in Serie A, 3.2 ahead of second-placed Juventus.

As much as %.

Although De Zerbi focuses on possession of the ball, he does not "possess the ball whether or not". When controlling the ball in a game, De Zerbi will ask the players to try to find a way to defeat the enemy through precise and efficient transmission and cooperation.

In this link, De Zerbi’s tactical purpose of excellence was also reflected in Sassuolo.

In the 2018-19 season, Sassuolo's average pass success rate per game was 84%, ranking sixth in Serie A. One season later, they improved this value to 86.8%, trailing only Napoli's 88.2% and Juventus' 88%.

In the 2020-21 season, Sassuolo increased their passing success rate by nearly 1 percentage point. That time, they were left behind by traditional strong teams such as Juventus, Milan, Roma, and Naples.

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Judging from the data of ball possession rate and passing success rate, De Zerbi not only "copied" Guardiola's tactical system, but also understood its tactical essence to a certain extent.

In Italian football, which has always focused on defense, De Zerbi, who goes in the opposite direction, can be regarded as an alternative existence.

After arriving at Brighton, De Zerby created a new system. According to McAllister: "The head coach wanted them to attack in front of their own penalty area, but they really didn't expect the effect to be so good."

In terms of formation design, De Zerbi chose 4231 to kick off, and when the attack started, the team's formation would change to 2422. Two central defenders would be left as soon as the ball came out of the backcourt, and double midfielders would be set up to protect the ball.

, the two full-backs were waiting for the opportunity.

Under his tactical system, Japan's three-goal champion has become the top winger in the Premier League. In addition, center Ferguson and shadow forward Enciso, who are less than 18 years old, have both shined, which shows that he is wrong for young players.

Growth also has its own way.

That tactic still focuses on possession of the ball, but in terms of the outside core, De Zerbi's tactic at this time is actually a bit like Rangnick, with a duo forming a formation to control the center, and the full backs on both sides moving flexibly.

In terms of specific execution, De Zerbi's team also has Yongxuan from Rangnick's team: straight through the middle, advancing quickly, and running full.

As for Pan Yi, isn't it true that Dezell is what York City wants as a coach who inherits the essence of Guardiola's football and is flexible at the same time?

On the other hand, Pan Yi's York City team also had many of Guardiola's tactics - what Scaloni learned from Pan Yi, weren't they many things that were not used by Guardiola in his previous life?

Of course the two hit it off right away!——

Like many people who came to the York City training base for the first time, Porter and De Zerby were a little unbelievable when they arrived there.

Because as a League One team, York City’s training ground and training facilities are really too complete!

As a player, Porter once played for York City, and he has never found the shabby feeling he had back then.

And De Zerbi, who has coached a Serie C team before, also feels that he is also a third-level team. Why is the gap between the two so big?

Too standard and too modern!

That means Pan Yi has always insisted on gradually updating and upgrading the club's infrastructure as part of the project. From this, we can also see Pan Yi's determination to run the club.

Pan Yi looked at the two stunned faces and said with a smile: "Now the club's hardware is gradually getting better, but more talents like us are needed to join, otherwise everything will be a mirage and a castle in the air. So the future of the club

, please rely on us!”

That flattered Porter and De Zerbi.

But no matter what Bu Sheng said, Pan Yi was definitely a boss who understood the laws of football management, and would not be like other rich people who always think that just throwing a little money is enough, and would not respect their employees or anything like that.

After all, no matter how good the training venues and infrastructure are, if there are no good talents to manage and use them, they will be equivalent to a pile of garbage and of little use.

Passing through the first team training ground, Porter and De Zerbi also saw the youth team training ground, where some youth team players were training.

"Those are not their future, but they are very good." Pan Yitong said, "So they need a technical director like me to help them."

Potter nodded slightly.
To be continued...