Four games into the season, Sassuolo sit unbeaten in 2nd in the Serie A table, having outscored all teams in the division bar Atalanta. They’ve scored four goals in each of their last three league games and look capable of challenging Atalanta and Napoli for the title of being Italy’s chief entertainers this season. They have a wonderful cast of attackers including the mercurial Domenico Berardi, the ruthless Francesco Caputo, the skilful Jérémie Boga and, of course, the brilliant Filip Đuričić. Such exciting attacking players need someone to supply them with clever passes and there’s few better at that then the rejuvenated Manuel Locatelli who is pulling the strings in central midfield. All in all, it’s a brilliant team built by sporting director Giovanni Carnevali and fine-tuned by the extremely talented head coach, Roberto De Zerbi.
This is not the story of how president Giorgio Squinzi masterminded Sassuolo’s rise through the divisions; rather, this piece will look at the benefits Sassuolo has shown can come from trusting talent.
Roberto De Zerbi’s stock was low. After a promising, exciting and interesting spell at Lega Pro side Foggia, who became well-known across the Italian game for their attacking style of play, De Zerbi had opted to join Palermo. Very few coaches emerged from working under Maurizio Zamparini with their reputations enhanced, and De Zerbi was no different. Replacing Davide Ballardini after the second matchday, De Zerbi’s Palermo went on to lose its following seven games. De Zerbi was swiftly removed by the notorious owner. De Zerbi would always have needed time to implement his expansive ideas, but time was never given under Zamparini and, frankly, results were extremely poor. Palermo feared for their safety and removed De Zerbi, but were still relegated at the end of the season.
De Zerbi’s reputation had therefore taken a hit. Was he not capable of transferring his ideas from Lega Pro to the top flight? At least one club thought he could: Benevento. The 2017/18 Serie A first-timers had started catastrophically, losing its first nine matches before De Zerbi got the call. He instantly got a reaction out of the team, especially when running Juventus close in Turin, but the losing streak continued and would eventually reach 14 before the first point arrived in dramatic fashion against AC Milan when goalkeeper Alberto Brignoli scored a stoppage time header. In the end, De Zerbi’s Benevento managed six wins, three draws and twenty defeats out of his 29 games. Despite this poor season, De Zerbi was praised for the way Benevento played after he established an attacking possession-based style. Benevento ran many games, but were too weak defensively to turn performances into results.
Sassuolo had seen the signs, though, and trusted the talent De Zerbi undoubtedly possessed after a poor season following their failure to replace Eusebio Di Francesco when he departed for Roma in 2017. In De Zerbi, Sassuolo had identified a coach in the mould they had built their ascent on. A front-foot, attack-minded coach was exactly what Sassuolo wanted to build a new era at the club and De Zerbi was the man chosen.
Since June 2018, De Zerbi and Sassuolo haven’t looked back. They finished eleventh in his first season, eighth last year and look poised to challenge for Europe this season. The team is packed with talented players, and De Zerbi has trusted them when others have not. So far, he has been richly rewarded with superb performances. In his first season, it was Stefano Sensi who caught the eye and his subsequent performances for Inter highlight what a player he developed into under De Zerbi’s guidance. Last season, the likes of Boga, Berardi, Caputo and Locatelli thrived under the innovative coach and the start of this season has seen Đuričić in the form of his life. Trusting these players’ talent and giving them the platform to perform in an attacking style of play have seen both club and coach reap the rewards so far.
Locatelli had burst onto the scene at AC Milan but then gradually fell out of favour at the dysfunctional giant of a club. He joined Sassuolo in 2018 and immediately found a coach who trusted his talent. Two years on, Locatelli looks likely to break up the midfield three of Jorginho, Marco Verratti and Nicolò Barella for Roberto Mancini’s Italy ahead of next summer’s European championship. Similarly, Berardi had earned rave reviews during his first few seasons in Serie A before things started to go a bit stale for the talismanic wide man. De Zerbi has trusted him and the response from Berardi has been a return to his best form. Berardi, still only 27, is Sassuolo’s highest ever goalscorer with 91 goals for the club. Đuričić is another example. The Serbian joined Benfica in 2013 but struggled to make an impact. Since then, he spent time at Mainz, Southampton, Anderlecht, Sampdoria and Benevento before signing for Sassuolo in 2018. Crucially for him, he spent half a season at Benevento under De Zerbi and forged a good relationship with the coach who then brought him to Emilia-Romagna.
De Zerbi is a very progressive coach and his tactical model is extremely interesting and innovative. He implements his own version of positional play with players positioning themselves in positions between the lines of the opposition where they can achieve positional superiority and make the opponent react to their movements and positioning rather than vice versa. He wants certain spaces to be filled, with his main focus seemingly to create good options for central combinations inside the central of the five vertical zones of the pitch. In this central zone, De Zerbi positions his two centre-backs in the first line, his two central midfielders in the second line and, finally, his number ten and striker in the third line. Thus, in De Zerbi’s nominal 4-2-3-1, Sassuolo have six players staggered centrally in a 2-2-2 setup with four players, both full-backs and both wingers out wide. In the final third, both wingers make inward movements whilst the striker, Caputo, attacks the space in behind with devastating timing.
Going forward, Sassuolo are great to watch but there remains work to be done when they defend, as they concede more goals than their performances deserve. If they can shore up in this area, especially in defensive transition when defending counter-attacks, Sassuolo can really stake a claim for stealing a top six place ahead of some of the bigger clubs. Improvement in the defensive setup of his side could also be the last piece of the puzzle where De Zerbi is concerned since his attacking ideas surely appeal to a lot of the big clubs. By improving defensively, he can show them that he is ready for a bigger job next season.
All through is time at Sassuolo, De Zerbi has trusted the talent of his players and got them to play their very best football in a system that suits them. In particular, Caputo, Berardi and Locatelli have benefitted and been picked for Italy as a result. The team is soaring, and Sassuolo are probably happy that they trusted in the talent De Zerbi had showed as a coach, despite mixed results, and are now reaping the rewards of that leap of faith.
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