Brighton fans boo Verbruggen? He was playing the De Zerbi way
During the first half of Brighton against Bournemouth at the Amex, 27,000 of us sat with our hearts in our mouths watching Albion goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen repeatedly and slowly roll the ball out into the D to invite the press.
It is the way we have come to expect our keepers and defenders to play under Roberto De Zerbi in the past 12 months. Ball under the foot, waiting for the opposition to try and pounce, pass it through to the midfield or the wings at the last possible nanosecond.
When it works, within minutes the Albion are capable of exploiting the space opened up in the middle of the pitch. Suddenly, our players are off to overload the final third and work a shooting chance.
It is high risk, high reward stuff. The rewards being that Brighton have scored more goals than anyone else so far this season.
Two more than Manchester City. Two more than Newcastle, even after their eight goal spree against Sheffield United.
The rewards are brilliant goals like the ones we saw from Kaoru Mitoma past Bournemouth and against Wolves. The rewards are thrilling, attacking football that is drawing praise from all quarters, neutral pundit and opponent alike.
And then there is the risk. That comes when the opposition do not press but poach, opting to sit back and try to steal the ball. The aim here is to create an overload of their own on the break, as the Cherries tried with some first half success.
With everyone talking about how Brighton play and Roberto De Zerbi explicit that he will not change, it is not surprising that other clubs are copying each other’s approach to nullify the Albion.
For West Ham and AEK Athens, it meant leaving the Amex with victory. Four Bournemouth, it meant they frustrated Brighton throughout the first half. They would have gone into the break with the lead had Milos Kerkez not chosen to score an own goal equaliser in injury time.
And it will happen again. Brighton will come unstuck against such tactics in the future. There could well be a repeat of May’s 5-1 drubbing by Everton this season.
It is not pretty when it happens, with defenders pushing, climbing, pulling and fouling our forwards in the hope of unleashing a break. Or sitting 10 men behind the ball for long, dull periods.
Not one of our goal kicks this season has been the traditional long punt forward. No other team has been so reliant on playing out from the back.
Even before De Zerbi, the short goal kick sideways to Dunk was pretty commonplace in most games over the previous two seasons with Potter at the helm.
Gus Poyet was also a proponent with Casper Ankergren passing to Gordon Greer in that League One title winning season. It can be uncomfortable and nerve-wracking for fans.
Players make mistakes and there are consequences. Adam Webster, probably rightly, bore the brunt of the blame for the West Ham defeat.
Outfield players though can make errors which do not lead to goals. They might be bailed out by a teammate covering or their goalkeeper making the save.
With a keeper, errors are usually accompanied by consequences – unless Lewis Dunk or Joel Veltman are on the line to clear.
Bart Verbruggen fell foul of it against Bournemouth in only his second Premier League start. He is still just 21. Is it justifiable to boo him for following the instructions De Zerbi has clearly issued?
Passion and spirit are terms De Zerbi uses freely and regularly. We would not be fans, spending considerable sums to attend games home and away, on the latest shirts and other things, if we were not emotionally invested in every game, every goal, every nerve-shredding moment.
No matter how well we are doing – and let’s remind ourselves we are in the top three of the Premier League and playing European football every other week – we are going to be frustrated when things go wrong.
I have no doubt even Manchester City fans have reasons for agitation on the exceedingly rare occasion they concede a goal or look like they might drop points.
A groan of frustration or moan in exasperation in the heat of the game is understandable. Pascal Gross and Lewis Dunk, respective captains in our two games last week, could be seen venting their frustrations at their teammates.
I have done it and I will do it again, but I hope I never catch myself booing a player because of an individual mistake.
That is a conscious choice and if we think about it, probably one that we should not be making as fans supporting a team and all those in it.
Yes we pay our money, and the players get theirs in large amounts for pulling on the shirt. But just as we got behind the players when everything was almost lost in 1997, we should be behind them in these glory days when Brighton & Hove Albion are at or near the pinnacle of world club football.
In the next month we will take that high risk, high reward play to some of the biggest names in the sport: Chelsea, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Marseille, Man City and Ajax.
We all need to remember De Zerbi’s words: “Soul, spirit, and balls…big balls.” That is now the Brighton way.
Warren Morgan @WarrenBHAFC
