How to play like Albion on Football Manager 23

This piece was written by Football Manager's Dan Gear, with the full piece on how to set up your team like Albion now live on the FM website.

Since his appointment as Brighton & Hove Albion manager in September 2022, Roberto De Zerbi has received plaudits for his entertaining and effective style of play.

Making the most of a lot of the good work done by his predecessor, the Italian has crafted a bespoke tactical approach that is paying off for his side in league and cup.

Having studied a lot of the Seagulls’ recent games, Dan Gear has put together this explainer to show how you get your sides playing just like them in Football Manager 2023.

What are Brighton’s principles?

Favouring a 4-2-3-1, Brighton like to retain possession in their own half, making a lot of short passes to move the opposition around the pitch and bait their press.

In a typical 4-2-3-1, one of the two central midfielders tends to drop deep when in possession to offer another passing option. To complement this, the full-backs then push higher up the pitch to offer width and the wide forwards tuck in, essentially creating a 2-1-4-3 when in possession.

Brighton’s approach is very different though.

Under De Zerbi, their full-backs tend to stay wide but closer to the defence in midfield. This essentially gives them a 2-4-4 in possession, with the wide attacking players pushing up alongside the striker and attacking midfielder behind the opposition’s defence.

From here, the team invites on the press and plays through it by passing the ball vertically to one of the two players in the centre of midfield.

Brighton’s two central midfielders usually sit quite close together so that they can rotate passes between each other or back to the defenders to keep the ball moving at all times. In this sense their style is a quite patient one, focused on moving the ball around until there’s a suitable opportunity to pass vertically to bring the four attack-minded players into play and create 4v3 situations against the opposition defence.

When in the opposition half, Brighton’s shape is almost a 2-2-6. The widest players in the system are encouraged to cut in with the ball rather than crossing, getting it into the area with a series of passes and player movements around the edge of the box.

To read the full feature on how to set up your team like Albion on FM23, head over to their website.