Prior to the January transfer window, Roberto De Zerbi states that Brighton needs players in “three or four positions”.
For almost £80 million in the summer, Albion signed forward Joao Pedro, midfielders James Milner, Carlos Baleba, and Mahmoud Dahoud, goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, and attacker Ansu Fati on loan from Barcelona.
On the other hand, the Seagulls received about £175 million for the sale of midfielders Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister, as well as goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
Although it can be improved, head coach De Zerbi has stated that his starting lineup from the previous season was stronger than his current one, and a plethora of injuries have not helped his cause.
The Italian has discussed the squad’s requirements ahead of the winter transfer window before the team takes against Crystal Palace on Thursday. Let me clarify what we need from the transfer market. We need three or four positions in addition to full backs, but ultimately, Tony Bloom, the club’s owner, and the team must decide whether to add someone or not,” he stated. “I can say my opinion, I can say my idea, I can explain my idea if we want to compete in this way, otherwise we have to accept the different opinions. Brighton’s injury list presently includes injured full-backs Tariq Lamptey and Pervis Estupinan, injured forwards Fati and Julio Enciso, a possible season-ending injury to winger Solly March, and unavailable defenders Adam Webster and Joel Veltman.
In addition, Danny Welbeck missed a few months due to a muscular issue, Jakub Moder is recovering from a long-term ACL injury, and Adam Lallana and Milner’s minutes must be controlled.
“The market is not important,” De Zerbi continued. However, Adam Lallana, Milner, Welbeck, and Moder are not allowed to start or participate in the first eleven tomorrow (Thursday). I mean, you can only image how many options I have. Not an excessive number of options. Twelve players are eligible to start, possibly thirteen. We must analyze the transfer market in order to do that. What level of players and in what quantity do we plan to bring? The target can then be fixed.
“You need to evaluate the long-term injury scenario. Take Solly March, for instance. How many months he needs to heal is unknown to me. Julio Enciso is not able to play before the end of March or February. We have been playing without the full-back for the past two months. Since we lack full-backs and must organize, we are altering the build-up and playing with three defenders at the back.
“I was sincere when I stated that I wanted to turn the challenges into possibilities. We seem to be working harder now than we did at the beginning of the season. We didn’t alter our methods during the first half of the season; now, we need to, and we’ll have to put in more effort to come up with an alternative.
Brighton will have an intriguing January transfer window.
