Roberto De Zerbi has admitted that he did not know who Joao Pedro was earlier than Brighton signed him final summer time.
The Brazilian ahead was signed from Watford for a price of £30million final summer time, with few anticipating him to make the form of affect that he has up to now.
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Scoring twice within the Seagulls’ 4-2 victory over Stoke Metropolis within the FA Cup third spherical, the 22-year-old took his tally for the season up to now to fifteen, equaling Glenn Murray’s tally within the 2018/19 marketing campaign and seeing him transfer nearer to Michael Robinson’s club-record finest marketing campaign tally of twenty-two.
Not solely that, however Pedro’s tally has solely been bettered by two Premier League gamers this time period – Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah who’ve scored 19 and 18 respectively in all competitions.
Discussing his star ahead’s performances, De Zerbi mentioned: “I like Joao Pedro and I do know his potential. I understand how he can enhance and turn out to be essential for us.
“I would really like at all times one thing extra as a result of for us this stage of efficiency is sufficient however I believe he can attain the next stage and to succeed in that stage he can play higher, he can push increasingly more.
“I would really like him to begin the sport at first not within the second half or after 20 minutes and I’ll inform him my opinion.”
De Zerbi added: “The credit score for Joao Pedro is to the membership.
“The recruitment division instructed me the identify of Joao, I didn’t know Joao earlier than he got here with us.”
Pedro began his profession with Fluminense earlier than shifting to Watford in January 2020 on the age of simply 18.
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Since then, the striker scored 24 targets in 109 appearances, together with 11 in 35 for the Hornets final season within the Championship.
Already the Europa League’s prime goalscorer this time period, time will inform how far Pedro can go together with the Seagulls and if he can fulfill his potential of being one in all world soccer’s prime strikers.
