[Albion] Alireza Jahanbakhsh joins Feyenoord

[blue-shifted]

That's not how it works in Potterball. Team selected to best beat the opposition, from the squad. Players rested as soon as possible to keep them fresh. We have two games a week most weeks from now on, so being rested, tactically withdrawn, or coming on as a second half sub will still give 18 players an average 90 minutes playing time each week.

I couldn't name my 'first eleven'. Only recently did I realise that in Potterball and the reality of the PL, there is no such thing.

As for your final point.....I have no sense of that at all. Why would he want away? He doesn't seem to be that sort of lad

There is such a thing. We've had a heavy schedule so there were significant changes for the Spurs and Bournemouth games (5 and 7 changes from memory). That's all done now and I believe we will see a much more settled line up in the weeks to come. Players like Maupay, Mooy, Trossard, Montoya, Propper, Dunk will are almost certain to play every game if fit .. ie have a run in the team. Whether Alireza can do enough to get himself into that undroppable category remains to be seen, but he has more chance of game time now than he will probably in a month so now would be the time to prove it.

Ali wanting a move away doesn't make him a bad bloke, just as it didn't when he left his last club to come to us. I don't know that he does want a move of course. To me though, it's plausible that the club will see the media attention in the goal as a chance to recoup as big a percentage of the outlay as they ever will and Ali to reason that his stock is currently high enough that he can get a decent contract with a decent club where he can get more than a handful of appearances in a few years. As I was saying earlier, the competition for his place is only going to get stronger in the coming weeks and months.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I think it was mentioned in the BT Sport commentary that only Liverpool have had more different scorers than us this season, which is an interesting stat given we often discuss the need for more players to chip in with goals.

Really ? That's brilliant.

 

[Stat Brother]

That’s not actually what you said though is it

Funny have you can play 'Pick a Page' and read some really OTT criticism.

Either:-
Straight up abuse.
'Comedy' abuse.
Or
Abuse followed by 'but I hope he does well'.

Yet the first mention of retaliation is attempted to be shut down, denied or hidden behind 'come on not today, let's just all enjoy the moment'.

 

[Icy Gull]

I don't know - you tell me. It's certainly what I thought.

I'm sure trying to score points against strangers on the internet is satisfying, but once you've finished with that, I'd be interested to hear your views on why Potter kept him outside the squad for so long - he wasn't in the 18 as recently as the 5th December against Arsenal, why the club leaked that he was being sent out on loan this month and why Naylor described him as "a rare stain on Brighton's overall recruitment record".

What changed?

If you can keep a straight face whilst suggesting you only ever said “he’s not very good is he” and nothing more scathing I guess I’ll leave it at that. I am not trawling to find what you have actually said in order to score points.

Andy Naylor has always been scathing about Ali J from memory and I have axe to grind with Naylor, he is entitled to his opinions as well, doesn’t make them fact. You would know better than me whether the Albion leak info to him. Potter has been saying for quite a while that he is impressed with Ali J’s attitude as a man and a player in training, so I guess he was working on getting him to embrace Potterball. I have only ever suggested that he deserves a chance in a team that show ambition rather than one that sets up not to concede, he has grabbed that chance and yes I am enjoying seeing how people who wrote him off completely are reacting.

 

[Mellotron]

Funny have you can play 'Pick a Page' and read some really OTT criticism.

Either:-
Straight up abuse.
'Comedy' abuse.
Or
Abuse followed by 'but I hope he does well'.

Yet the first mention of retaliation is attempted to be shut down, denied or hidden behind 'come on not today, let's just all enjoy the moment'.

"Can we please all quietly ignore how stupid I look and wrong I was and just enjoy the moment, thanks."

Some of the digging is so amusing (and gently depressing) to watch.

 

[Mellotron]

If you can keep a straight face whilst suggesting you only ever said “he’s not very good is he” and nothing more scathing I guess I’ll leave it at that. I am not trawling to find what you have actually said in order to score points.

Yes I am enjoying seeing how people who wrote him off completely are reacting.

As I said - most seem to be taking it in good grace with comments of humble pie, etc.

Some are digging in and making themselves look very, very silly.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Funny have you can play 'Pick a Page' and read some really OTT criticism.

Either:-
Straight up abuse.
'Comedy' abuse.
Or
Abuse followed by 'but I hope he does well'.

Yet the first mention of retaliation is attempted to be shut down, denied or hidden behind 'come on not today, let's just all enjoy the moment'.

Oh goody. A challenge.

I'm on 10 posts a page. How about you set your view to the same, go to page 444 (I've just chosen that at random) and tell us which of the 10 posts you come up with is straight up abusing the player. Cheers

 

[blue-shifted]

Whilst I'm obviously not saying he's as good, you could say exactly the same about David Beckham. He didn't have pace or strength, but he tonnes of technique. He did alright, as I recall.

There is more than one type of wide player.

The thing about that Beckham comparison, is that it's true, that you don't have to have pace to play out wide, but it massively helps.

Yes Beckham didn't have pace, but he has a decent claim to be the best crosser in football history. So he had a great career without it.

If you have an obvious weak point like this, you need an exceptional skill to counter-act that or you become easy to defend against.

 

[Wozza]

The club should be offering free "Jahanbakhsh 16" shirt printing this weekend imo. (Not the shortest name, I know)

 

[SollysLeftFoot]

Pleased for the lad, I was in the "He's gash, cut our losses" camp before his goal against Bournemouth, shifted more to the fence and yesterday put me on the fence.

We need more goals from midfield and he's provided 2 so far.

Like a new signing, they say.

 

[Stat Brother]

I started at #5401 yesterday, read a couple of 40 post pages then moved on a further 10 or so.

I'm assuming [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] keeps his powder dry till the very end as I've not stumbled into any of his but yourself and HKFC are certainly enjoying Ali "not being very good at football".


Oh and how the hell can you live of 10 post pages.
If anything that's the most troubling aspect of this whole farce.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Whilst I'm obviously not saying he's as good, you could say exactly the same about David Beckham. He didn't have pace or strength, but he tonnes of technique. He did alright, as I recall.

There is more than one type of wide player.

I watched Beckham live for England a number of times and the thing that always struck me was his work rate and positioning. He was always in the right place to execute the skills he had and he would never stop running up and down. He wasn't really a winger or even wide player as such. He was a genuine "right midfielder" because he was playing in the days when that was a given position in a team.

Ali J's work rate was ok last season but it certainly wasn't in the same league as Beckham, despite being instructed to sit in shape by Hughton. His technique was largely unseen because he was beaten to or knocked off the ball so easily. To pretend anything else is nonsense. As for positioning Potter was coaching him on that from the sidelines yesterday.

We'll soon know the full measure of what Potter thinks anyway. If March or Izqueirdo displace him when they're fit then clearly pace will have been prioritised. If he goes on loan as the Argus suggested then we've seen a nice cameo that's earned us some points and, well, that's about it for a year and a half and a large monetary outlay. If we have an attacking player who's suddenly going to contribute goals, assists and the occasional banger then that'll be great - but it'll be because he's had a coach who's worked on him for six months solid, not because he's suddenly the messiah.

 

[Bozza]

Here you go Icy - I've been through over 50 pages to find where I slated your boy repeatedly, and this is it.

In doing so, I noted there's bigger fish for you to land if you scroll back a few pages however.

When he is on the pitch and I'm in the stand he will get my unwavering support, as all Albion players do.

On the confines of NSC though, I'll say that I don't think he's good enough, because I don't think he is. That's not his fault - I don't hate him for it.

I will be spectacularly delighted to be proved wrong. It's not in my interests in any way for the club to spunk £17m on someone who brings little to the squad.

EDIT: ...and given how the story has played out, it seems Tony Bloom believes there is far more in our recent signings than Hughton was getting.

That's my biggest concern - he seems to be neither fast nor strong, and you need to have at least one of those in the Premier League.

I'm struggling to see that a player would lose the ability to display these attributes, at least occasionally, even if being played out of position.

I'm not sure it matters where you start from. If you have speed over the ground, it will be evident.

We know Murray's not quick and that's the case regardless of his starting position relative to defenders in any passage of play.

He's only been back for a couple of weeks and he's already tearing it up.

Imagine what he'll be like when he's got a FULL PRE-SEASON behind him.

#WorldBeater

That's utter horseshit though, isn't it?

I've not been shy in stating that I don't think he's very good, but I absolutely want him to prove me wrong and gloaters to quote back all my comments on this thread. There's absolutely no benefit to me in my club wasting tens of millions of pounds on ineffective players.

Is our star man injured today?

Asking for a friend.

You'd think that if he was showing enough in training then Potter would have him in a match day 18 though, wouldn't you?

Ali J as wing-back? The same Ali J who some on here claimed was being played out of position, being asked to do too much defensively by Chris Hughton.

Bring it on...

That's why I'm making the long midweek trip to Bristol. I want to be able to say "I was there" when Ali J puts in a career-defining performance.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

The club should be offering free "Jahanbakhsh 16" shirt printing this weekend imo. (Not the shortest name, I know)

No. I paid about the cost of Jahanbakhsh himself getting it printed on my shirt so it's hardly fair that it be handed out free!

I'm not into aftertiming. I always believed that he is a quality footballer who would prove that, given the chance to do so in a team which didn't see him as a left wing back sitting on top of a left back. Especially if the left back had the "quality" of Bong, who needed his hand held for 90 minutes to prevent him being exposed. In the two games that we've seen Ali J play in the last week he's been in his more favoured position - scoring twice and being unlucky not to pick up a quality assist (Maupay's shot saved by Arrizabalaga) which would have been a winning goal against Chelsea.

To me, his quality has been obvious from the start but he's not produced. It's not unreasonable for people who didn't rate him to point out that he did play plenty of games last season, wherever that meant on the pitch, without scoring or getting an assist. It's not unreasonable to think that wasn't good enough. What was unreasonable was comments like, "he's not even a footballer". That was unnecessary and wrong, whether you like the guy or dislike the guy, for whatever reason, it's totally uncalled for to descend into personal abuse. That's the world of internet message boards though, and you're only ever the sum total of the things people remember.

Remember the goals in the last two games, and for future reference when a player is struggling to settle, remember that they can come good. At least nobody tried selling Jahanbakhsh on eBay!

 

[Guinness Boy]

I started at #5401 yesterday, read a couple of 40 post pages then moved on a further 10 or so.

I'm assuming [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] keeps his powder dry till the very end as I've not stumbled into any of his but yourself and HKFC are certainly enjoying Ali "not being very good at football".


Oh and how the hell can you live of 10 post pages.
If anything that's the most troubling aspect of this whole farce.

So no then.......

 

[Stat Brother]

I don't know - you tell me. It's certainly what I thought.

I'm sure trying to score points against strangers on the internet is satisfying, but once you've finished with that, I'd be interested to hear your views on why Potter kept him outside the squad for so long - he wasn't in the 18 as recently as the 5th December against Arsenal, why the club leaked that he was being sent out on loan this month and why Naylor described him as "a rare stain on Brighton's overall recruitment record".

What changed?

If I remember rightly the only counterpoint I offered to that was 'we're allowed to have more than 11 good players'.

I was as amazed as everybody to see Ali start.
It made absolutely no sense as he was sure to get injured and we'd be 'stuck with him', instead of his imminent loan deal.

Seemingly GP had Ali and Murray fighting out for the last spot on the bench.
Had Bournemouth gone how many expected, I'm sure Murray would have been back and yesterday wouldn't have happened.

Such are the fine margins at this level.


Hindsight would suggest there's been a fair few games, this season, that could have been improved by Ali keeping the pitch wide, instead of the team narrowing it.

I, and I doubt anyone else, was calling for him in the aftermath of those games.
But he's now another string to the bow.

 

[Weststander]

It’s interesting that two of Jahanbakhsh’s best performances were against ManC (at Wembley, Kyle the cnt Walker) and Chelsea yesterday. Or THE two best. Against CL opponents.

Bodes well?

 

[Mellotron]

His technique was largely unseen because he was beaten to or knocked off the ball so easily. To pretend anything else is nonsense. .

I can't agree with this. Felt his technical quality was completely evident and said so on here plenty of times last season. In amongst his low confidence and general bafflement and frustration at being completely misused, there were still plenty of glimpses of a genuine quality player in there.

I was honestly really surprised more people couldn't see it.

 

[spence]

I can't agree with this. Felt his technical quality was completely evident and said so on here plenty of times last season. In amongst his low confidence and general bafflement and frustration at being completely misused, there were still plenty of glimpses of a genuine quality player in there.

I was honestly really surprised more people couldn't see it.

Rewriting history.

Have to agree with GB. He was often knocked off the ball, couldn't beat his man. looked slow and out of his depth.

 

[Mellotron]

Rewriting history.

"said so on here plenty of times last season"