Roberto De Zerbi anger after Brentford draw shows how the horizons have shifted for Brighton

There’s a scene in Moneyball where Brad Pitt’s character, Billy Beane, carries a baseball bat into a stereo because his team, the Oakland A’s, had lost a game and didn’t deserve music.

Having seen what Roberto De Zerbi did to his miniature TV monitor next to the bench, which crashed to the ground after seeing a replay of Brighton goalkeeper Jason Steele’s mistake, you feared for the safety of any other device. electric in the locker room after this. draw.

De Zerbi did not want to see any of the Brighton players happy with this point. Without music. Don’t joke with each other. There were no celebrations after Alexis Mac Allister’s VAR-awarded penalty in the 90th minute made it 3-3.

Many other managers might have been tempted to celebrate a draw against a talented Brentford side. But not De Zerbi, not Brighton, and not when they are fighting for Europe.

Moneyball is relevant because that 2011 movie details a data-driven way of winning and that’s the Brighton model.

They do it differently under owner Tony Bloom. They sign players like Kaoru Mitoma from Japanese club Kawasaki Frontale and Moisés Caicedo from Ecuador’s Independiente del Valle and make them Premier League stars.

Brighton scored the Brentford goal with 33 attempts, the most by any Premier League team in a game this season.

To his manager, this felt more like two points lost than one gained, and for that reason, there was nothing to celebrate about Mac Allister’s late leveller.

“The players understand the game,” De Zerbi said after Saturday’s draw at Amex Stadium. ‘They understand when we deserve to win and when we don’t deserve to win. I love my players. It was difficult to change the result of the match three times. I am proud of this.

“But if you look at the game in general, we can’t say we didn’t deserve to win. We conceded three goals in an incredible way. If we concede goals like this, we can’t achieve our goal.’

And that goal is Europe? “Yes, I think so,” De Zerbi added.

Asked if he’s as open about European football with the Brighton players, he continued: ‘Yes. Safely. But when I talk to my players, I am stronger than at my press conference.’

It’s funny how times can change. If you offered Brighton fans the return of Graham Potter, they’d turn it down in a heartbeat.

They are very much Team De Zerbi now and it was refreshing to hear a Premier League manager speak so brazenly about his ambitions when others might have downplayed such words.

Brighton now sit sixth and Brentford seventh, also taking the Moneyball approach under owner Matthew Benham. They too are on the cusp of something special.

Manager Thomas Frank said: ‘We dream. We dream big. When you lead three times, you want more, especially when you lead in the 89th minute. But I will say that this was a good point.

Pontus Jansson’s header gave Brentford the lead, then Brighton made it 1-1 thanks to Mitoma’s lob. Ivan Toney then scored, then Danny Welbeck headed in to make it 2-2.

Alexis Mac Allister equalized from a penalty in the last minute of the match

Ethan Pinnock had hoped to have scored the winner for Brentford, but Mac Allister’s penalty following a clear handball from Aaron Hickey completed the scoreline 3–3 between these two European clubs.

As a poker player, Bloom is an expert at hiding his emotions. However, like De Zerbi, he will have had trouble hiding his disappointment after this draw.

Bloom and Benham are former friends turned enemies after an acrimonious separation saw them stop working together. And in the end, each one was left with three of the same in the Amex.