Meet the coaching team of new Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi
Roberto De Zerbi has made the first appointments to his Brighton coaching team. They are an eclectic mix of new faces, familiar individuals and a bloke who looks suspiciously like Greg Wallace from Masterchef.
De Zerbi has so far found an assistant and a new first team coach. He has also appointed two ‘athletic coaches’ who will have specific oversight of player’s fitness levels.
This would appear to be a break from how Graham Potter operated, although it is nothing new for De Zerbi. Whilst Shakhtar Donestk manager, De Zerbi had three specialist fitness coaches in his nine-man backroom staff.
He also had two skills coaches and a methodology coach. Time will tell if those are roles De Zerbi will bring to the Amex.
One position he is certain to fill is goalkeeper coach, left vacant following Ben Roberts’ decision to follow Potter to Chelsea.
The Albion have confirmed that Roberts’ assistant Jack Stern remains in his current role, suggesting that De Zerbi will appoint as his own man to the top job in due course.
Here is the Brighton coaching team of Roberto De Zerbi so far.
Andrea Maldera – Assistant head coach
Andrea Maldera started out as a youth team coach with AC Milan in 2006. Over the next decade, he worked his way through several roles before becoming chief video analyst in 2015.
During his time at the San Siro, Maldera became friends with Andriy Shevchenko. The legendary Ukrainian striker was suitably impressed by Maldera’s coaching talent to bring the Italian into his Ukraine coaching team when appointed national boss in 2016.
Maldera served as one of Shevchenko’s assistants with a specialist focus on match analysis across all Ukraine’s age group sides. With his help, Ukraine won the FIFA Under 20 World Cup in 2019 for the first time in their history.
There was further history made at Euro 2020 (in 2021) when Shevchenko and Maldera led Ukraine to their first ever quarter finals at a major international tournament.
Brighton will be the first time that De Zerbi and Maldera have officially worked together. They are familiar however through being Italians in Ukraine, which sounds rather like a song by Sting.
Andrew Crofts – First team coach
One chap who needs no introduction is Andrew Crofts. De Zerbi has promoted the former Brighton captain from Under 21s manager to become first team coach in his new-look Brighton coaching team.
Crofts had two spells as a player with the Albion. Originally signed by Russell Slade in the summer of 2009, he was given the armband by Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named in one of Poyet’s You Know Who’s first acts as Brighton manager.
After just one year at Withdean, Crofts did enough to earn a move to Norwich City in 2010. Two years later and Poyet The Dark Lord brought the midfielder back to the Amex, where he remained until the summer of 2016.
There was much joy at the strange scenario of Crofts returning to Brighton again in the summer of 2019, this time as an Under 23s player despite being aged approximately 54 at the time.
Crofts put his experience to good use along his younger teammates as well as helping out on the coaching side. He subsequently moved through the ranks, becoming Under 23s assistant and then manager before his latest promotion to the first team.
The Albion clearly rate his abilities very highly and now he has the chance to prove himself with the senior squad.
Croft’s promotion instigates a bit of a merry-go-round in the development department; Shannon Ruth takes over from Crofts as Under 21 boss and Gary Dicker becomes his number two having previously worked with the Under 18s.
Vincenzo Teresa – Athletic coach
The only thing you need to know about Vincenzo Teresa is that he looks like Gregg Wallace. There is very little information about Teresa available online, other than the fact he is 60-years-old, has a UEFA B Licence and has worked with De Zerbi at Palermo, Benevento, Sassuolo and Shakhtar.
To pad out this little section about Teresa, here are three of Greg Wallace’s best quotes:
- “Like a deadly assassin, the chilli comes creeping into your palate.”
- “It’s not burnt – it’s just enthusiastically crisp.”
- “There’s no place in MasterChef for pink food. There’s no place in the world for pink food. And either he really has made a green, pink and red dish or you and I have just had an acid tablet.”
Marcattilio Marcattilii- Athletic coach
Good luck spelling Marcattilio Marcattilii after a few bottles of Angello Poretti and a shot of grappa. Marcattilii is the second fitness specialist brought to Brighton by De Zerbi.
They first worked together at Foggia in 2015, making Marcattilii one of De Zerbi’s longest-serving generals. In an interview with the Shakhtar website shortly after De Zerbi and co moved to Ukraine, Marcattilii explained his role and approach to the job.
“Mister demands that the players have an optimum physical form, so we coordinate our work with him. We do lots of ballwork. That’s important to our philosophy.”
“We have a goal to improve the players’ fitness. Each of them has their own position and based on that we can plan the work. We look at each player, their parameters and therefore we can organise individual sessions for everyone to raise their level.”
Interesting stuff. My favourite bit was Marcattilii referring to De Zerbi as “Mister.”
Nick Stanley – Set piece coach
Stanley first began appearing in the technical area around the turn of the year, popping out of his seat whenever Brighton had a corner or free kick. Who was this geezer?
It was soon revealed that Potter had promoted Stanley from his previous role as an analyst to become the Albion’s first specialist set piece coach.
He was the only member of Potter’s first team backroom staff that the former Albion boss did not take with him to Chelsea.
Stanley instead remains in position as part of the Brighton coaching team of De Zerbi, offering the smallest amount of continuity between the old regime and the new.
