Roberto De Zerbi has admirers at Manchester United after his impressive work at Brighton and Marseille but his appointment would come with a number of red flags
Roberto De Zerbi will almost certainly be one of the names among Manchester United’s shortlist at the end of the season. The Italian is currently out of work after leaving Marseille last month.
His stock is relatively high after his time at Brighton & Hove Albion between 2022 and 2024. He succeeded Graham Potter and led the Seagulls to Europe for the first time in their history.
De Zerbi left Brighton at the end of the 2023/24 season after publicising his displeasure at the recruitment strategy at the AMEX Stadium. After spending a year-and-a-half at Marseille, leading them to a second-place finish in his debut season, De Zerbi left this year.
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According to The Telegraph, the 46-year-old is keen on the job at United. He has previously been of interest at Old Trafford, but this summer appears to be the most likely time for him to become the new man in the dugout.
De Zerbi’s front-foot style of football makes him highly-attractable for most clubs, with him precise on his teams dominating the ball. At Brighton, De Zerbi’s team averaged possession of 60.8% in the 2022/23 season and 59.8% the following campaign. Marseille averaged 63.3% in his first season in France.
However, there are doubts over him that can’t be ignored by United this summer. The most recent example being his consistent heavy losses against better teams, with Marseille losing 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in his final game, 3-0 to Club Brugge and 3-0 to Liverpool.
In the Champions League this season, they also lost to Atalanta and Sporting. During his Brighton days, De Zerbi suffered heavy defeats to Manchester City, Arsenal, AS Roma, Luton Town, Aston Villa and Everton.
Another concern is his track record of throwing other people under the bus when the cards are against him. At United, with the concerns over the hierarchy’s ability to perform at the top level, that may be music to the ears of supporters, but it causes friction off-the-pitch.
In his last season at Brighton, the club sold big players like Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister and Robert Sanchez. In came Bart Verbruggen, Joao Pedro and Carlos Baleba, with Mahmoud Dahoud arriving for free and Ansu Fati coming in on loan.
De Zerbi admitted his frustration at not being financially backed to the level he believed he deserved after finishing sixth in the Premier League and qualifying for the Europa League. “That year after finishing sixth, the squad should have been strengthened as they did the year I left,” he said, after the club spent nearly £200m in Fabian Hurzeler’s first window.
“We reached a point where after qualifying for the Europa League, I didn’t understand what the next step forward was,” he added. “And you can offer to double my salary, but if I can’t see a dream or goal to achieve, I can’t give my all as I would like. I would lose motivation and a purpose I always had in football.”
There is also De Zerbi’s track record at clubs. His three-season stint at Italian side Sassuolo is the longest he’s been at a club since he came into management in 2013. He lasted 85 days at Palermo, less than a year at Benevento 30 days at Shakhtar Donetsk.
After Michael Carrick came in as an interim head coach until the end of the season, United are expected to want to bring a new man in to overstay their turnaround for years to come. In an ideal world, they won’t be searching for a new manager after two or three years.
If attacking, dominant football is what United want to maintain at Old Trafford with their next appointment, De Zerbi will be among the top contenders. There are just some warning signs they must consider before the appointment.