‘Players are human’ - Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi on workload as fixtures and injuries pile up

Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi believes the relentless schedule is contributing to so many Premier League clubs dealing with large numbers of injuries.

The Italian says he has 10 players who are unable to start tonight’s Premier League at home to Tottenham, after wingers Kaoru Mitoma (knee) and Simon Adingra (hamstring) were ruled out of action for at least a month. Solly March, Ansu Fati, Julio Enciso and Tariq Lamptey are among the other long-term absentees.

A first ever campaign in the Europa League has added to Albion’s workload this season but they still sit in a good position, ninth in the table and three points off the final European qualification spot.

As well as Brighton, Newcastle, Tottenham, Brentford and Chelsea have been hit hard by injuries, and De Zerbi for his thoughts on why that might be.

“Football in 2023 is very, very fast - very strong. The players are human,” he said.

“Of course, we are playing a lot of games, but the boss of football - the top, top boss - they never played football, and they don’t know football.

“It’s not my business but if you ask me the reason, one [of them] is too many games, I think.

“I watched an interview with Jurgen Klopp and he said in the last 20 days, he worked on the training pitch one or two times. He’s right. You have to prepare the game in meetings, by video.”

De Zerbi also explained how the fixture list can limit the time available to spend on preparation, giving an example from earlier this month ahead of what turned out to be a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal.

“We played against Marseille on a Thursday evening, Friday [we had a ] day off because we spent a lot of mental energy and physical energy. We worked Saturday morning but we didn’t prepare anything.

“We prepared [for the] Arsenal game Saturday evening after dinner, 30 minutes by video, and Sunday morning another 30 minutes. One of the toughest games in the Premier League. But we have to move on and think of how we can do our best in that time.”

Despite the injuries, De Zerbi says he is “really proud” of how his team has dealt with what has been thrown at them this season, and says compared to last season, there is an argument that this campaign has been even more impressive.

“We are doing something great, because we are not used to playing in the Europa League. It’s been the first time for us, for Brighton, but we are competing at our best.

“I think we are playing better this season than last season, in terms of level - I think the first 11 from last season was better than this first 11 - but because we have had a lot of injuries, we have a lot of young players.

“We lost [Moises] Caicedo [to Chelsea] and [Alexis] MacAllister [to Liverpool]. In this moment maybe Billy Gilmour and Joao Gilmour are not [at] the same level yet, but they can reach the same level - or maybe better.”

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