According to ILNA, Mes Shahr-e Babak is preparing for the tenth-week Premier League match against Sepahan while it will not have one of its key midfield pieces at its disposal. Zobair Niknafs, the former Esteghlal midfielder who this season has played an important role in Ghasem Shahba's team composition, cannot accompany his team on the trip to Isfahan due to injury.
Niknafs, who two seasons ago, after separating from Esteghlal, had remained without a team for a time, joined Fajr Sepasi Shiraz in the opening weeks of last season and then, in the current season, went to Mes Shahr-e Babak to experience a fresh presence in the Premier League.
This experienced midfielder was very soon able to become one of the main players of the newly promoted Shahr-e Babak team. In the first 9 matches of the season, he took the field for a total of 740 minutes and, by registering two goals and one assist, left notable statistics for a midfielder.
Niknafs's role in the Mes lineup was not limited to presence in the middle of the field, and this player, in several important matches, has had a direct impact on his team's attacking performance.
He, in the second week against Kheybar Khorramabad, scored the first goal in the history of Mes Shahr-e Babak in the Premier League, and in the fifth week as well, by creating an opportunity in the course of an attack, paved the way for an own goal by the Fajr Sepasi player.
Niknafs also, in the match against Malavan Bandar Anzali, with the precise delivery of a corner kick in the 85th minute, provided the ground for Mes's only goal; although this goal was not sufficient to prevent the 2-1 defeat of his team.
Nevertheless, the good trend of the former Esteghlal midfielder stopped in the ninth week. Niknafs suffered an injury in the match against Persepolis and was forced to leave the field in the 37th minute; an injury that has now deprived him of presence in the sensitive match against Sepahan.
This player's absence has occurred in circumstances where Mes Shahr-e Babak, in recent weeks, has faced difficulty in achieving victory and improving its place in the table. Ghasem Shahba must now, without one of his most experienced players, prepare for the confrontation with a Sepahan that, at Naghsh-e Jahan Stadium, is seeking to gain three points and draw closer to the top of the table.
Niknafs, in addition to his high experience of presence in the Premier League, with the ability to participate in ball circulation, presence in attacks and use of set pieces, has been one of Shahba's effective options in designing attacking plans, and his empty place can affect the quality of Mes's play in the middle of the field.
Now Mes Shahr-e Babak, in one of its most difficult matches of the season, must go onto the field without a player who, in the first 9 weeks, with two goals, one assist and a role in several decisive situations, was among his team's effective pieces. An absence that will make Ghasem Shahba's mission to gain points from Sepahan more difficult.
Source: ILNA News Agency
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