Captain Lewis Dunk reveals that radical changes – delivered through a translator – were shocking at first, but have become second nature
There was a language barrier, confusion among players and a sea change in the way Brighton players were training when Roberto De Zerbi arrived at the club a year ago. As Lewis Dunk recalls, it was “a carnage two weeks” as the Italian ripped up the tried-and-tested coaching methods of Graham Potter.
Speaking through an interpreter, De Zerbi’s changes were radical. Relatively unknown in the Premier League, the methods which saw him stand out as a promising coach at Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk were now at the Amex Stadium, with a level of detail unseen in English football.
His brand of football looks risky as Brighton pass their way through the opposition press but as Dunk explains, it is all rehearsed. Every day at training, every scenario at every angle has a walk-through with the precision of a West End play. When Dunk receives the ball in his six-yard area, he has rehearsed his way out depending on the angle of the players chasing him down.
But it was not so easy a year ago when De Zerbi arrived. “If I am being honest, the first couple of weeks were horrendous … I wouldn’t say horrendous, they were baffling. The first meeting when he went in, I was so confused – who to look at, what to listen to, and you slowly pick up. Basically don’t listen to the manager, wait for the translator to speak and you get there in the end.