Leandro Trossard interview: 'The new manager told me to score more goals... I got a hat-trick'

Leandro Trossard recalls the first text message he received while on international duty from Brighton & Hove Albion’s new head coach Roberto De Zerbi.

“He said that he really liked me as a player and wanted a chat when I came back from (the) internationals,” the Belgian explains, before adding: “He also said he wanted me to score more goals.”

A hat-trick away to Liverpool in De Zerbi’s first game in charge last weekend was, therefore, some response. “I know, it worked really well!” Trossard adds, laughing. “The other day he asked me if I remembered the chat about scoring more goals!”

The 3-3 draw at Anfield was an eye-catching start for the Italian who had just three training sessions before the game having succeeded Graham Potter. It was also some statement from Trossard who – rather like Brighton as a team – wants to add more goals to his impressive play.

The hat-trick, of course, was also only the third scored by an opposition player at Anfield in the Premier League era and it is a statistic that Trossard is well-aware of (after Andrei Arshavin for Arsenal in 2009 and Coventry City’s Peter Ndlovu in 1995).

“I am only the third player to do it,” he proudly states. “So you know how difficult it is to score one goal there never mind three!” It was also the fourth hat-trick of the 27-year-old’s career but it is the first time he has cherished the match-ball, which he kindly brings along for the photo-shoot after this interview.

“I have had a lot of messages with videos of it (the hat-trick) and stuff so I haven’t had to write my name in to YouTube or anything to see it back,” Trossard says.

The draw consolidated Brighton in fourth place – ahead of Saturday’s meeting at the Amex Stadium against Tottenham Hotspur who are in third – and was an early sign that post-Potter they will be able to continue the outstanding form that has made them one of the most exciting and progressive teams in the top flight.

There is no doubting the effect Potter had on Brighton but the seamless way they went about appointing De Zerbi – it helped he was out-of-work after leaving Shakhtar Donetsk following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – points to building on what they have already achieved. And without a drastic change of style.

The players knew that Potter would go one day, given his growing reputation, although Trossard concedes it was a shock that it came so early in this campaign. It also left the squad wondering what would happen next.

“It was for the players to guess as well as everybody else. We didn’t know who would be coming in,” Trossard says. “We were waiting to see who would join us and I think we couldn’t get a better fit.”

Still he admits to having been “curious” as to what Brighton would decide. “That was what I kept saying. We have developed a lot under Graham for three years,” Trossard says

“The deal (to Chelsea) was done in one or two days. Only three or four days later our game (against Crystal Palace) got cancelled so it was a very strange time going into the international break. But maybe it was a gift for us as well or for the club for them to have time to get a new manager in and not have that pressure to get someone in quickly.”

Was 43-year-old De Zerbi a manager he was aware of? “I had heard of him because my best mates are Italian,” Trossard explains.

“When I was away with Belgium a lot of the guys were saying his style is really good. For example, Dries Mertens. He (De Zerbi, a former midfielder) played at Napoli and he told me we really would enjoy playing under him as he really loves to attack, create chances and that he had a similar way of playing to Graham and was possibly even more attacking. So, then I was even more curious to see what will happen.”

Trossard is certainly encouraged by De Zerbi’s intent to use him more consistently in a forward role having played a number of positions – from wing-back to centre-forward to No 10 – under Potter since he was signed by Brighton for £18 million from Genk (the same club that produced Kevin De Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois and a clutch of other internationals).

“That is what he (De Zerbi) has said to me, that he wants me closer to the goal,” Trossard says, agreeing that scoring more will bring him to even greater prominence.

“It’s true,” he adds. “When he told me I needed to score more, I said he needed to give me the chances to do it! Because most of the time before a game I didn’t know where I was playing. It wasn’t like that I didn’t like to play wing-back or anything because I don’t mind where I play.

“But there is a different task in each role you play. If I am playing wing-back, for example, you can’t expect me to score every game. If I am further up the pitch the chances of me scoring are greater.”

Like a generation of Belgian players, Trossard has been encouraged by national team coach Roberto Martinez to take his coaching badges – De Bruyne has done so also – and has completed his Uefa A licence. The Belgians reason it will improve the players and add to their football education as well as give them the chance to see whether they want to go into management.

Trossard agrees it has certainly provided him with a greater appreciation of the game while there are other small but significant advantages. “You try to help a little more because sometimes you can see it as a coach, like they picture it,” he explains. “Sometimes on a pitch the amount of time they are telling you (instructions), and with the noise, maybe you get it sooner. You will understand them quicker.”

It also helps in delivering the kind of technical, possession-based football Potter installed and De Zerbi is building on. “You can’t do that with people who are not intelligent on the pitch,” Trossard says.

He has become an increasingly important player for Belgium, also, and will be part of Martinez’s World Cup squad. Trossard has thought about the oddness of this season – with the tournament in Qatar in the middle – although he says it will be “more strange” for the players not involved with their countries. The best way to approach the weeks before the World Cup begins, he says, is as a “mini-season”.

Having discussed Potter’s departure, Trossard’s own future is yet to be decided. He is in the final season of the four-year deal he signed when he joined Brighton and while there have been contract talks there is no agreement. Not yet, anyway.

“At the moment I am still focused on Brighton and I don’t know what will happen in the transfer window. That feels like a long time (to go) and the World Cup is in between and if I could have a clear answer then I would tell you,” Trossard explains.

“But like I said there is still a lot of games in between and I think it’s not nice for Brighton (for me) to say already what I want when I don’t even know what I want. I think I have to take it game by game as well. I need to develop, I have to show myself every week on the biggest stage.”

It is not a distraction. “No, not at all,” Trossard insists. “I think it’s a good thing that I am doing well. I just want to play my game and help Brighton to achieve great things.”