The manager of olympique Marseille Genaro Gattuso has erased the dust raised by the up coming match between the two sides by praising his counter part and drawing attention to threat Brighton pose in their European league clash.
Gattuso took over at the French club last week after the departure of Marcelino, tasked with restoring order after the team’s disappointing start to the new season.
The Italian coach’s first match in charge was a thrilling 3-2 loss to Ligue 1 leaders Monaco, a match where his team showed a number of positives ahead of their clash with Brighton, who are one of the most exciting teams in the Premier League under De Zerbi.
Speaking in a press conference via TMW, Gattuso first discussed what he and Marseille expect from De Zerbi’s Brighton.
“We will play against one of the three best teams in Europe for ball possession. A team that can change ten players and still maintain the same mentality and philosophy of play. I have known De Zerbi for a long time, he is a great coach. There are no secrets.
We don’t have a magic wand, we must not lower our intensity and we must stay focused. I see that the players have desire, the mood is positive. We will have more time during the break to work, hopefully we won’t have too many players called up.”
He commented on the atmosphere he expects at the Stade Vélodrome.
“I think there will be almost 60,000 or 65,000 fans at the Vélodrome. It is the team that has to transport the fans. The fans help you, but it becomes more complicated if you start the game badly.
If you play badly the atmosphere can become negative and the shirt becomes heavier because of the pressure.”
Finally, Gattuso praised De Zerbi and touched on what Marseille need to do against Brighton.
“I think Roberto is one of the best Italian coaches at the moment. He knows what he wants, he already knew it when he worked in Serie C. In my opinion he is one of the greatest Italian coaches right now.
We both have a strong temperament, we had a little clash in the Serie B promotion final a few years ago but that’s football. He is a young coach, I respect him a lot. We have to respect the opponent but play with personality and courage, we can’t just have 20% ball possession.”
Gattuso is also aware how Brighton is doing in their domestic league the English side sitting on the sixth position on the English premier League table winning five games and losing two after seven games.