Alireza Jahanbakhsh continues to struggle with his form, analysts of This was the Weekend on Sunday evening. The Feyenoord attacker was on the field against Vitesse (0-1 defeat) for ninety minutes on Saturday, but could not break any pots in the vanguard. In the second half he was of value with a defensive intervention; the way Jahanbakhsh reacted to that astonished Kenneth Perez.
Twenty minutes after the break, at 0-0, Jahanbakhsh jumped up in the penalty area and blocked a shot from Thomas Buitink. The right winger celebrated the success with a clenched fist. “He just cheers for a block. I find that striking,” Perez reacts the day after the game. Fellow analyst Marciano Vink points out that players who are not in shape can be satisfied with ‘the little things’. “But this is what defenders do,” counters Perez. “Let’s say: this says something about the position he is in. He scored about seventeen goals per season at AZ and now it remains a block.”
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Jahanbakhsh has only scored one goal in seventeen league games this season: on December 5 against Fortuna Sittard (5-0 win). Yet he does not despair. “I’m pretty sure of myself to be honest,” the 28-year-old Iranian said on Saturday ESPN. “I don’t doubt my qualities. That’s why I came here. I came here to help the team. I know that the supporters and the club are counting on me. I work hard every day for it.” Jahanbakhsh therefore spoke against being ‘concerned’. “I’m actually more looking for that redeeming goal. If the first comes, the second comes and the rest will follow. That’s not something I’m concerned about.”
Perez also does not doubt the qualities of Jahanbakhsh, the analyst indicates. “But what he’s doing now doesn’t seem like anything. If you look for the goal like that, it won’t come. You have to let it go a little bit and focus on other things. Then the goal might come.” Vink thinks Jahanbakhsh isn’t showing the back of his tongue. “He says he has confidence in his own qualities and is not worried. You have to say that, but he can also recognize that things are not going as he might have in mind. He is just not in good shape at the moment.”