Graham Potter says Alireza Jahanbakhsh is knocking on the door of Brighton’s Premier League starting XI following a standout display in the 4-0 Carabao Cup thrashing of Portsmouth.
Iran forward Jahanbakhsh teed up the first-half opener for Alexis Mac Allister before thumping home a superb second to double the Seagulls’ advantage early in the second period.
Bernardo and Viktor Gyokeres joined Mac Allister in claiming their first Albion goals to seal a resounding success over outclassed League One opposition.
Jahanbakhsh, who was a late substitute in Monday’s top-flight opener against Chelsea, has largely been a peripheral figure since a £17million move from AZ Alkmaar in 2018.
But Brighton boss Potter has been impressed with the 27-year-old’s attitude and insists he still has a part to play at the Amex Stadium.
“(I am) really pleased with him, he’s pushing. It was another really good performance, I thought tonight,” said Potter.
“He played with enthusiasm and quality. He was in the squad at the weekend, came on, so he’s pushing hard.
“The hardest part of my job is to pick a team and not play players.
“He’s got some quality and he’ll play a part for us this season.”
Following Monday’s defeat to Frank Lampard’s Blues, Potter changed his entire starting XI for the second-round tie and filled his bench with inexperienced youngsters.
The raft of changes, which included a debut for Holland defender Joel Veltman, never looked likely to backfire as the hosts dominated possession all evening.
Albion will travel to Championship club Preston in the next round and Potter was pleased with the professionalism displayed by his squad players.
“I thought it was a really good performance, a performance with a real good attitude from the team,” he said.
“Portsmouth competed and we had to be professional and we had to treat the game in a good way, which I think we did.
“We managed to score the goals and keep the clean sheet. The attitude was really pleasing. They approached it impeccably.”
Portsmouth rarely threatened stand-in Brighton goalkeeper Jason Steele and contributed to their own downfall with some sloppy defending.
Pompey boss Kenny Jackett admitted it was a difficult evening for his players and was frustrated they were unable to snatch something from a series of set-pieces.
“Against a Premier League side like that, you can’t make those type of mistakes,” said Jackett.
“I felt it was a tough night and Brighton deserved to win.
“One or two goals were avoidable but I think we got ourselves into good positions. If you look at our corner count, it was into double figures against a Premier League side. We couldn’t, unfortunately, make that pay.
“While they had more possession, if you get into those situations as the lower-league side you have to capitalise and unfortunately we couldn’t. That would have maybe given us more of a chance to lay a glove on them.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here