Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Roberto De Zerbi says his players have lost motivation since leaving the Europa League and saw another chance to qualify for Europe disappear a ranking at the top of the league.
A 4-1 defeat on aggregate against Roma in the Europa League round of 16 in March was followed by a run of four league defeats and two draws, including today’s 3-0 defeat at Bournemouth.
De Zerbi, asked whether a difficult situation was also due to injuries or other factors, replied: “Injuries, of course. Motivation too.
“Motivation in football, I think (it’s) 80 percent of my job and in my time, we kept a big challenge, a big goal. Right now, finishing the Europa League, there’s too much points from the European position in the ranking, we are working towards an unclear objective.
“It can happen. It’s normal, but I can’t accept a match without soul, because we are Brighton and we have to maintain respect for ourselves, for our club, for our fans, and I’m sorry for that .
“I’m in a lot of pain, but I’ve been working in football for 30 years and I know this can happen. We need to stop this moment quickly.”