Tag: Graham Potter

Mixed fortunes of Kaveh Rezaei and Alireza Jahanbakhsh

Kaveh Rezaei has returned back to scoring in the Belgian First Division League

The Iranian striker’s return to the scoring process was long due. on Saturday night in Sporting Charleroi’s 14th league match of the season at Mechelen’a AFAS Stadion, Rezaei scored the opener in the 11th minute for Charleroi. The match ended in a 2-2 draw. It was the second match in a row that Kaveh Rezai finds the net.
Last week, the former Team Melli player scored the winner for his team away at KV Oostende with a late goal.


The Belgian media reports mentioned Kaveh Rezaei’s scoring and brilliance had a clear message that the Iranian player was able to return to the scoring process again with confidence. Rezaei did not have a good time at Club Brugge due to loss of form after a prolonged injury. Although he was picked up for several matches and showed good touches, he was unable to meet expectations at the champions. However, when he returned to Sporting Charleroi’s, he was able to regain some of the confidence he lost and improve his form to show the coach that he is a goal scorer with a lot of confidence.
Karim Belhocine, the French coach of Charleroi is now counting on Rezaei to reach his peak days, marking the end of the torrid days for Kaveh.
Charleroi is currently ranked sixth in the standings with 22 points from 13 matches.

 

One Iranian player who has not experienced the same joy and success is Alireza Jahanbakhsh. Brighton’s most expensive player who topped the scoring chart only two years ago in the Dutch league has failed to score any goal last season and is still out of sight in Brighton’s matches. Once again, Jahanbakhsh did not even make the bench in last Saturday’s Brighton 2-0 win at home against Norwich.

With the new coach Graham Potter, Jahanbakhsh role has been relegated to the bench or under 23 team. This season 2019/2020 The Team Melli winger has managed to be on the bench for 3 matches out of 11 Brighton has played in the Premier Leauge.
Jahanbakhsh who desperately needs a confidence booster has been left out of Team Melli’s last squad and will probably be out again against Iraq.  Marc Wilmots, desperate himself for a good result against Iraq on the 14th of November, will be looking at players who are at their best as he has no room for trials and sentiments.

 

Alireza Jahanbakhsh status in Brighton in jeopardy.

For the second match in a row, Alireza Jahanbakhsh did not make the 18 man squad for Brighton & Hove Albion match against  West Ham. Jahanbakhsh was left out of the team for the first match of the new Premier League season away to Watford which Brighton won 3-0, and then he was again omitted from the squad for the home game against West Ham which ended in a draw 1-1.

It seems that the Seagulls’ coach Graham Potter has little belief in the ability of the Team Melli winger to produce the goods in the Premier League. After a difficult season last year marred by injury and absence from Brighton team for the AFC Asian Cup, Jahanbakhash failed to sparkle despite his record signing from Alkmaar. The top scorer of the Dutch League failed to score a single goal for Brighton.

Despite his failure to score, the former Brighton coach had a lot of confidence in Jahanbakhsh as’s abilities and skill as he was on the top of Houghton’s pecking order upfront.  However, Houghton was using Jahanbakhash in the role of a wingback rather than a forward. The Iranian had to be available to defend when the team was under attack. That was one of the reasons, but certainly not THE reason, for his lack of scoring. Statistics of last season shows that Jahanbakhsh was not getting much goal scoring opportunity but was used more as a provider on the flanks.

Whatever the case was for last season disappointing performance, Jahanbakhsh’s chances to be part of the Brighton lineup seems to be quite slim and him lasting in the club, to be in doubt. The Transfer window in Europe is still open until 2nd September. One way out of this situation is for Brighton to seek a buyer for Jahanbakhsh. Rumours of the Iranian returning back to the Eredivisie with his former club started a couple of weeks back but it seems to have died down quite quickly.

Jahanbakhsh himself remains hopeful to return back to form to gain the confidence of Graham Potter. With the fine performance of the current squad, the competition for places in the team is quite tough. Jahanbakhsh really needs to work extra hard to convince the boss of his value else his future in Brighton and the premier league is in jeopardy

Graham Potter’s appointment as Brighton Coach, an Inspired Move

Brighton and Hove Albion’s decision to replace Chris Hughton with Swansea City manager Graham Potter might seem harsh, and a massive gamble, but dig a bit deeper and it could be one of the shrewdest appointments of the summer.

When Chris Hughton joined Brighton, they were in 21st place in the Championship. He got them to the Premier League, and kept them there for two seasons despite having one of the league’s smallest budgets.

In the final game of this season, Brighton may have got comprehensively beaten by one of the best soccer sides there has ever been, but on the last day of the season 22 years ago, only Robbie Reinelt’s goal in front of the jam-packed, dilapidated away end at Hereford United kept Brighton in the Football League. Brighton have come a long way since then, and while Hughton has only played a small part in that journey, he was the manager who took them to the top flight for the first time in 34 years.

Sacking Chris Hughton seems to many outsiders like a club getting ideas above their station, and no doubt Hughton will have little difficulty finding another job this summer (he’s already linked with the West Bromwich Albion job). But Brighton are on a downward spiral, and only a very brave gambler would have bet on Hughton’s negative brand of soccer keeping them out of the relegation places next season.

Even though Brighton stayed up this year, there was little to cheer about at the Amex Stadium – Brighton only scored 16 goals from open play all season and no side tested the other team’s goalkeeper fewer times than the Seagulls. Hughton also failed to get the most out of big-money signings like Alireza Jahanbakhsh, so there’s little to suggest that backing him in the transfer market will lead to any upturn in performances.