Brighton & Hove Albion manager Roberto De Zerbi reckons his high-flying side suffered from a mental block in their shock 5-1 thrashing at home to Everton.
The emphatic victory saw Sean Dyche’s side climb out of the relegation zone against a side who are seventh in the Premier League having already eclipsed their points total from last season when they finished ninth to achieve the highest position in the club’s history. De Zerbi said: “Of course we can lose the game, we can lose against Everton but I’m disappointed with the first half because we showed we are not yet ready to compete to achieve the big target. I’m speaking about mentality, not other things, not other parts of football.
“It’s not easy because playing the last period of three games in a row per week is difficult if you’re not used to playing so many games but if you want to improve and you want to fix our target higher, we have to improve very fast.
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“I think we didn’t forget the victory against Manchester United, the biggest quality of the big team is to forget when you win. You have to be ready to play every day, every game and today we arrived at the stadium late in the second half.”
The Italian added: “I told the players the same as I’m saying to you. This day is my responsibility because the coach is the most-responsible person.
“I’m still proud of my players, always, because they are different than the other teams. They are great people and I’m proud always for them.
“We are not used to playing so many games but I’m pushing to help them to continue in our dream, in our target.”
De Zerbi steered his side to a 4-1 victory at Goodison Park in the reverse fixture in January when Frank Lampard was still in charge of Everton. However, following this match, Dyche proclaimed that the most-satisfying aspect was the players’ implementing of the special game plan he deployed and his opposite number admitted that the style of play was pivotal, even if he didn’t think it was down to tactics.
The Brighton & Hove Albion boss said: “It can happen that you lose this type of game, if you attack, you concede more goals and I think on Sunday we will show our quality and go back to playing in our style and the true Brighton.
“I think when you are losing, you attack with many players – maybe too many – and the risk is to concede many goals. The problem is not a tactical disposition, before this game people were speaking about the quality of Brighton’s football but we made mistakes in every situation in the first half – with the ball, without the ball, defensive phase, offensive phase – but we shouldn’t focus on the tactics because if you watch the Manchester United game and the game here you can see two completely different teams.
“What is the problem? The problem is mentality, in the head no? We can improve a lot on today – we can improve on the football, what you did in the past is not important, it doesn’t count.
“We are Brighton, we won against Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal in the Carabao Cup and against Chelsea not because there is a top coach, not because there are top players but because we show pride, courage, energy and patience. I am sure we will show that attitude and mentality again for a long time.”
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