Brisbane Roar young gun Rahmat Akbari says he feels right at home in an attacking midfield role that continues to reap rewards in pre-season.
The 21-year-old has played further forward over the course of the past 10 weeks and has relished the increased goalscoring responsibility, notably netting twice in the recent 2-0 win against Adelaide United.
He also found the net in victories over the Wide Bay Select XI and Capalaba FC, and delivered an assist for Nikola Mileusnić against the BRFC Invitational side on Saturday.
“I’ve been working on it in training, trying to make late runs into the box,” Akbari said.
“Scoring and assisting is important for the team and that’s what I grew up doing. No.10 is my natural position I think. I played the last couple of seasons as a No.6 but Warren trusts me in attacking midfield now.
“I want to do the job and score.”
Reflecting on the win over Adelaide in Ipswich, Akbari described it as a valuable 90 minutes against a team they will face as soon as Round 3.
“I’m happy we got to play an A-League team before the season started,” he said.
“We came out firing. It was a great crowd out there. Hopefully we see more of that when the season starts.”
