Thrilling: Roberto De Zerbi is Threading on the Path of Jürgen Klopp in a ‘Twist of Fate’

Brighton’s stratospheric rise has recently hit a few speed bumps, with Roberto De Zerbi encountering a situation that Jürgen Klopp has had to deal with at Liverpool over the years.

Brighton returned to winning ways over the weekend, edging Nottingham Forest by three goals to two. But it was the conclusion of a fantastic Premier League run that had gone somewhat unnoticed.

Roberto De Zerbi has been properly lauded for his performance since taking over from Graham Potter. He has mostly been considered as a potential successor to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, but he would undoubtedly be on the list of candidates to succeed Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool as well.

Despite this, Brighton had gone winless in its previous six Premier League games. Three consecutive 1-1 draws with Sheffield United, Everton, and Fulham were preceded by a 2-1 loss to Manchester City, a tie with Liverpool, and a 6-1 thrashing by Aston Villa.

What went wrong with De Zerbi? With eighth place in the table and an eight-point margin to the top remaining quite respectable, something has certainly taken the wind out of Brighton’s sails.

One argument is that the Italian has run into an issue that Klopp is all too familiar with at Liverpool. With each single victory, Brighton’s reputation has grown, and opponents have approached the game differently as a result, calming a major weapon in the manager’s armory.

De Zerbi’s ‘pressing traps’ have received a lot of attention. These are brilliant small sequences in which Brighton baits opponents into a challenge only to maneuver it around them and open up space for an assault.

The obvious counter is to just do not press. That’s doubly unpleasant for managers like Klopp and De Zerbi because it’s antithetical to their way of thinking about the game, but it’s also annoyingly effective.

The statistics for Brighton support this. According to Hamzah Khalique-Loonat on X, its victory rate under De Zerbi is now inversely related to its possession share.

The solution is simple enough in theory, but devilishly hard in practice. Teams facing this problem have to find ways to win that do not rely on opponents pressing, becoming more controlled and methodical without losing the intense identity that made them so good in the first place.

Klopp has grappled with many solutions over the years. Thiago was meant to be the grand fix, but his injury record has prevented that from really happening.

As a result, the summer’s renovation gave a significant chance. Liverpool brought in willing pressers, but they are all lot more technical than those who came before them: Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, and Ryan Gravenberch have a far better chance of breaking down obstinate defenders than their more functional forefathers.

Meanwhile, Klopp has continued to squeeze every last drop out of fast-break opportunities when they come. Opponents might not press much, but they still commit players at corners and free kicks, and Liverpool has become renowned for its rapid counters from these situations.

Even then, it’s not perfect. Liverpool has been frustrated by Luton and Toulouse already this season. But Klopp looks to be closer than ever before to ‘cracking’ a puzzle that in truth can never be fully solved.

That’s the next step for De Zerbi if he wants to continue growing his burgeoning reputation. Brighton is earning its growing status — a truly elite manager must work out how to deal with the consequences of that, as Klopp continues to do at Liverpool.