Why Roberto De Zerbi should be Premier League Manager of the Season
You could make strong cases for multiple candidates in the reckoning for the 2022/23 Premier League Manager of the Season accolade.
Pep Guardiola may yet become just the second manager in English football history to complete the treble, while the amazing job Mikel Arteta has done at Arsenal has only been tinged by their late collapse at the end of the season.
Eddie Howe is within touching distance of bringing Champions League football back to Newcastle, while Unai Emery has impressed with Aston Villa and Gary O'Neil has somehow kept Bournemouth up.
Any would be worthy winners. But do their claims match what Roberto De Zerbi has achieved since succeeding Graham Potter at Brighton?
Here are five reasons why it's De Zerbi who should be the 2022/23 Premier League Manager of the Season.
1. Took over a club stripped of staff by Graham Potter
Losing a manager and one or two coaching staff is one thing. Normally, a couple of coaches remain and provide a bit of continuity from the old regime to the new.
Potter, though, asset stripped the Albion of its entire first team staff, taking five coaches with him to Chelsea including long-serving goalkeeper coach Ben Roberts and former club captain Bruno.
De Zerbi found himself coming into a new club with the season six games old, working with players who had overnight lost the coaching team they had spent the past three-and-a-half years working with.
The disruption, upheaval and impact caused by Potter's departure could easily have led to Brighton tumbling down the table. That the Albion not only survived but have thrived is testament to De Zerbi's ability and personality.
2. Working with a squad built for Potter
Brighton made only two signings in the January transfer window and both were teenagers bought with an eye on the future rather than the here and now. Facundo Buonanotte arrived for £10m from Argentine side Rosario Central and Yasin Ayari cost £5.2m from AIK in Sweden.
De Zerbi is essentially working with a squad built for Potter's favoured three at the back system, rather than his own 4-2-3-1. You see this difference in the lack of full backs at the Albion.
Pervis Estupinan is the only natural option on the left with Joel Veltman and Tariq Lamptey on the right, hence why De Zerbi has redeployed Pascal Gross and Moises Caicedo from their normal midfield berths at various points this season.
Most managers only begin to cook once they have shaped their squads with players suited to their tactics and style of play. De Zerbi though has taken what he was given and found a way to make it work for his formation.
It is arguably the most underrated aspect of his tenure at Brighton so far. And it should also terrify the rest of the Premier League. Because if the Albion can play this well with several square pegs in round holes, imagine how good they will be once De Zerbi is backed in the summer.
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3. Significantly improved majority of Brighton players
The need to sign new players has been made less pressing by the incredible improvements De Zerbi has managed to drive from the current squad. Solly March is often held up as the shining example; three goals and four assists in 81 appearances under Potter giving way to seven goals and seven assists in 27 matches since De Zerbi took charge.
Likewise, Adam Lallana found himself in the best form of his Albion career before a January injury cruelly struck. Caicedo has gone from great to world class, made even more remarkable given the events of January and his non-sale to Arsenal which could easily have turned his head or led to a downing of tools.
Kaoru Mitoma has gone from bench regular to indispensable attacker, Evan Ferguson from the Under-21 squad to the future of Irish football and Julio Enciso from raw teenager with questionable decision making to a player with the world at his feet.
And as for Jason Steele. Nobody in their right mind would have guessed that he would be transformed from unwitting comedy character in Sunderland Till I Die to number one in a Brighton side pushing for a top six finish. De Zerbi is some coach.
4. Transformed the way Brighton play
The way Brighton play has drawn praise from all quarters, including most notably Guardiola. The City manager said last month: "The best team at making the build up in the world is Brighton." It's a subject Guardiola knows plenty about.
On the face of it, the premise is pretty simple. The Albion will keep the ball with their defence and goalkeeper, draw the opposition press and then attempt to break forward at lightning quick pace via precision passing using their inverted wingers.
It is, however, hugely risky. Steele, Lewis Dunk, Levi Colwill, Adam Webster and the rest are often millimetres away from losing possession in tight, dangerous areas. And with players charging up the pitch to attack, Brighton leave themselves very open on the counter.
When it works, DeZerbi-ball is glorious. When it goes wrong, it can go very wrong as the world saw when Everton won 5-1 at the AMEX, picking Brighton off clinically on the break. But it is never dull and that is why the Albion are becoming a must-watch team.
Guardiola has also said that De Zerbi is "changing English football." Not many clubs on the planet play the way Brighton do. But with the success it is bringing the Albion, it will surely not be long until others are attempting to copy what De Zerbi the innovator has done on the Sussex coast.
5. Rewriting Brighton history
In just eight months at the helm, De Zerbi has already started rewriting the Brighton history books. If the Seagulls do secure a top seven finish, they will qualify for Europe for the first time ever. That is the ultimate goal.
There have been other milestones along the way. The Albion had never scored six goals in a top flight match before hammering Wolves 6-0 at the AMEX, nor had they managed four away from home prior to winning 4-1 at Everton in January.
De Zerbi became the first Brighton manager to mastermind a league win over Chelsea and then followed that up with a first win at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool had not been beaten in a league game in Sussex for 60 years before their 3-0 January defeat and the Albion were within a March missed penalty of making it through to the FA Cup final.
2022/23 is going to go down as the greatest campaign in Brighton history. You would have got long odds on that when Potter walked out in September. And it would make De Zerbi a deserved winner of Premier League Manager of the Season.