Sassuolo flying high in Serie A with flamboyant De Zerbi

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This article was published 20/11/2020 (2099 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“If we’re going to lose, let us choose how to lose.”

You get the feeling Roberto De Zerbi has never encountered a microphone he didn’t like. The charismatic 41-year-old manager of Sassuolo is a veritable quote machine, and if he talks to his players the way he expresses himself in public he’ll already have them believing they can achieve great things this season.

Maybe qualify for the Champions League. Maybe even win Serie A.

“I was giving the team talk today and said I saw a strong starting XI that could win in Naples,” he relayed to Sky Sport Italia earlier this month. “They looked at me and didn’t seem to believe I meant it. I had to stop and explain to them that I wasn’t trying to blow smoke, I was telling them the truth and I genuinely believed it.”

Two hours later his Neroverdi side were celebrating their 2-0 win away to Napoli. Not only had they won the match without several key players —each of Domenico Berardi, Francesco Caputo and Filip Djuricic was sidelined through injury — but they had also confidently controlled possession despite a change in formation.

Diminutive midfielder Maxime Lopez, in just his third appearance for the club after joining on loan from Marseille, scored his first Sassuolo goal, and 20-year-old striker Giacomo Raspadori impressed sufficiently in just his second senior start that he earned himself a four-year contract three weeks later.

“I think they believed (in themselves) eventually,” De Zerbi mused. “You won’t get anywhere without belief in your capabilities.”

The standings support the manager’s faith.

With seven matches played, Sassuolo have yet to lose. No Serie A rival has scored more often or posted a better goal-differential. Only AC Milan are above them in the table, and a Sunday win at Hellas Verona (8 a.m., DAZN) coupled with a Rossoneri loss or draw at Napoli (Sunday, 1:45 p.m., DAZN) would see this unlikely outfit from an industrial Emilia-Romagnan city slightly smaller than Brandon reach the summit of the Italian top flight.

Already, perhaps predictably, Sassuolo are being compared to Champions League participants Atalanta, third-place finishers in each of the last two seasons, as well as Leicester City, surprise Premier League winners in 2016. Naturally, the question now is whether this is sustainable, if a club that has never placed higher than sixth and was playing fourth-tier football as recently as 2006 could actually qualify for Europe, never mind win the division.

Based on the form of their best players, which is as good an indicator as any, the top four would certainly seem to be attainable.

Goalkeeper Andrea Consigli — incidentally the Atalanta shot-stopper until 2014 — has perhaps been bested only by Marco Silvestri, whom Sassuolo’s forwards will attack at Verona. Raspadori, coming off a brace for Italy’s Under-21s against Sweden midweek, will lead the line in place of the injured Francesco Caputo, who last month became the Italian national team’s second-oldest debutant at 33. He’ll be aided in the final third by Filip Djuricic, who has scored three times in five outings, and the excellent Domenico Berardi will work the channels on the right-hand side.

Berardi, with a contract tying him to Sassuolo until 2024, was recently singled out by De Zerbi for “going against the rule” and agreeing to a long-term extension at MAPEI Stadium. At 26 and in his prime, the Italy international could have by now joined a much bigger club.

“Domenico is shocking, because we are used to a world where everyone wants to climb higher, shine more and earn more,” De Zerbi told La Repubblica. “He is genuine, aware of his strengths but also of the fact that it’s the environment that gives him strength.”

Then there is Manuel Locatelli.

Cast aside by Milan, he is the primary reason why Sassuolo retain and distribute the ball better than any other team in Italy. With around a hundred touches per match, the 22-year-old passes at a rate of 88 per cent and also throws himself into tackles each time out. He was exceptional in his Azzurri debut against the Netherlands in September, and ahead of the Verona clash he told Gazzetta dello Sport that he can still improve and that he and his teammates are setting no limits this season.

Juventus covet him, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. He is already being likened to Italy legend and World Cup winner Andrea Pirlo.

De Zerbi, for his part, knows how difficult it will be to keep the likes of Locatelli and Raspadori at Sassuolo without Champions League football.

“Without Europe, the cycle of this group would be over and next year we would start from a new beginning,” he conceded.

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This time next month he’ll have a pretty good idea of what to plan for the 2021-22 campaign.

After facing Verona, the stingiest side in Serie A, De Zerbi will take his team into back-to-back showdowns with Inter Milan and AS Roma. Then, just days before Christmas, he and his players will host leaders Milan. He knows Sassuolo will have to play even better to take anything from those important contests.

“Do you want to know the truth?” he asked La Repubblica rhetorically. “Sassuolo are still at 60 per cent of their potential.” 

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