'More present'' – Leandro Trossard explains Roberto De Zerbi 'passion' ahead of Antonio Conte and Tottenham clash

De Zerbi started his Brighton career with a thrilling 3-3 draw against Liverpool at Anfield – a match that saw Trossard score a sublime hat-trick.

The Italian head coach is now preparing for his Amex Stadium debut as they welcome fourth placed Tottenham. Trossard believes the players are in for an exciting time with De Zerbi at the helm and said he brings more passion to the role, following the more measured approach of Graham Potter.

“He’s much more present,” said the Belgian. “He’s more active in a certain way, he’s always there, always shouting, not in a bad way, but you just notice his presence. He’s so passionate about football. He’s trying to get to know us, as well as what we’re about on the pitch. It’s different to before."

De Zerbi said after the Liverpool draw that he was keen to build on Potter’s previous good work and is in no hurry to make drastic changes to a team that is performing well. He is however keen to get his own ideas across and Trossard admits there has already been some subtle tactical changes.

“Under the new manager you can see how he wants to play and in the last week he has trained us a lot on the tactical side,” Trossard said to the Brighton and Hove Albion website.

“He wants us to play out from the back and in a special way. We have some exciting times coming up with him.

“He said as well that he didn’t want to change too much because he didn’t have the time, that’s why he kept the system in place from before.

“We have had a great start to the season, but we had that last year and then had some difficult results – you can see how tough the Premier League is.

“You can have a bad run of five or six games where you don’t get a result and all of a sudden things are very different. Expectations will always be there if you’re doing well, but it’s up to us to improve and play well, like we are now.”