Pierre van Hooijdonk advises Arne Slot to tinker with Feyenoord’s vanguard again. In the away match against Sparta Rotterdam (0-1 win), the trainer chose Alireza Jahanbakhsh as right winger, Bryan Linssen as striker and Luis Sinisterra as left winger. Jahanbakhsh returned to the starting line-up, leaving Fredrik Aursnes on the bench. However, the Iranian’s return made little impression on analysts Studio Football.
“Wouldn’t you even put the left winger in the front, who is the only one who can play off, on the right?”, Van Hooijdonk refers to Sinisterra in the talk show. “And then Jahanbakhsh on the left? Because he really walks with the soul under his arm. He actually has zero threat to the goal. Sinisterra can go in all directions.” Jahanbakhsh was threatening a few times in the first half. Eleven minutes before half time, he reached the penalty area by passing Bryan Smeets, after which his shot was saved from the top corner by Maduka Okoye. In the stoppage time of the first half, Jahanbakhsh pulled into the penalty area from the wing and Okoye made his effort from the far corner.
Theo Janssen has his reservations about the plan to have the right-footed Sinisterra switch sides. “If he starts playing on the right, he usually goes more for the cross. He can also come in from the left and finish,” explains the former midfielder. “I understand that they leave him there. Maybe Linssen should play from the right side and come in, with Cyriel Dessers just in the striker? If Jahanbakhsh continues to play football like this, it is of little use.” Dessers decided the game against Sparta with a hit in stoppage time, after coming in as a substitute.
Rafael van der Vaart did not see Feyenoord get away well for the first time this season in the final phase. “If you win every time at the end… It’s probably the luck of a good coach. But nobody has an idea at Feyenoord, when a team is like that and makes it difficult to get through.” Janssen doubts whether Feyenoord has the qualities to force a breakthrough against such teams. “Who should do that then? Sinisterra is a player who can do that, but the players around it can’t.”