Roberto De Zerbi has said he understand what Albion fans are feeling ahead of today's game against Crystal Palace from his own experiences growing up as a Brescia fan.
"I want to explain one thing,” the Italian said ahead of today's trip to Selhurst Park. “I was born in Brescia and the derby was against Atalanta. I am a fan of Brescia, all week, and there is only one thing in the head [when I was growing up].
"For this I know how it can be in derbies. It is a different game, but we are coaches, we are players and we have to be focused on the game and what we can do on the pitch.”
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The head coach wants his team to ‘play a bold game’ this afternoon.
“I live for these games and it's an honour to play these games. We have to be clear to play this type of game with our quality.
“We must play a bold game, an aggressive game but I don’t want to lose our quality and our style of play. We are Brighton and the first part of the season has been fantastic in terms of results and in terms of quality of play. And we have to continue in this way.
“We won’t want to forget our stye but today is a different game.”