How would you review Ghalenoei's performance after the Korea game?

[Kaveh Ahangar]

First, let me make it clear that I'm not a fan of the guy and I don't proclaim to be an expert. I have a few observations after such a fascinating game.

-He made a very bad error in starting with a 3-5-2 and leaving Kaabi out.

-His player selection is highly questionable and I personally think that Borhani is far more deserving and worthy of a TM place than someone like Majidi. Every time the ball came near Majidi he either lost it or tripped over it. Worse still, he would be seen to be running away from the player in possesion and reducing their options (see the point where Hashemian could have played him in but Majidi instead chose to run towards the right corner flag.

-Playing Mahdavikia as a Right Wing Back is a criminal waste of the available resources, he was defending for most of the 90 mintues and rarely had the chance to go forwards

- Fekri has no pace, although he made a few vital tackles. Perhaps he has been selected due to the fact we simply don't have any experienced centrebacks of sufficient quality at this point?


Despite all these negative aspects of the manager's performance and decision making, I have a few words of praise for him. Ghalenoei, to his credit, is not stubborn like Branko and eventually realised he had to adapt the team to get anything out of the game. He realised in previous matches that Talebloo can make just as many errors as our other keepers and duly dropped him. He realised that the 3-5-2 is a horrible formation and eventually brought Kaabi on and switched to a standard 4-4-2.

With the introduction of Kaabi, the whole team seemed more balanced and the players actually knew what their roles where within in a familiar formation. Kaabi spent all of his time in their half, adding to our attacking options and pressuring the Korean left side.

Ultimately, we were very lucky for Hashemian to get that opportunity with the last kick of the match, but you can't say we didn't deserve it. Karimi wasted a couple of golden chances and Hashemian had been running for the whole 90 minutes.....picking up passes by the corner flag and cutting a lonely figure up front, starved of any service or support. We got the vital point thanks to the players, but I certainly applaud Ghalenoei for realising he had made mistakes (something Branko didn't do too often).

[Doctor DOOM]

just one point, dear sroasa, I think GN started a 3-6-1 formation ( or even 4-5-1 , with niki coming in as left def ).

but definitely it was NOT 3-5-2.

and his formation did make sense, as he was on the defensive and wanted to contain the koreans in the midfield zone.


I also appreciate his decision to go to 4-4-2 , and later on, to 4-3-3 ( with akbarpoor added ).
TM played far better when attacking than defending.

[Kaveh Ahangar]

I see, thank you for correcting me DD aziz.

I'm quite sure he started with 3 central defenders and Nikbakht was a LWB. It was probably a 3-6-1 as Karimi was in midfield for most of the time and rarely went forward to support Hashemian.

Do you agree though, that we didn't see such drastic change of formation and tactics from Branko (or at least from what I can remember in his reign). I say this not to discredit the guy, but a mere observation that at least Ghalenoei seems to know when he's screwed up and does something about it.

[Doctor DOOM]

sraosa jan, I think I may have answered ur querry here :

http://www.persianfootball.com/forum...t=33097&page=2
post #18 & #29

[Kaveh Ahangar]

Yes, I agree. There may be some instances for such a formation (today wasn't one of them) but generally it is much better for Iran to play a 4-4-2.

[Martin-Reza]

I'm really no big fan of him, but Iran was defenisvely stable (apart from a few bad minutes in second half).

Offensively it was very disappointing. If he is able to conserve the defensive performance and improve the offense, it will be fine, but I'm not sure if he's able to do so.

[Kaveh Ahangar]

Yes, I think defensively we coped surprisingly well with all the pressure that they piled on us for the whole game. There weren't too many mistakes (except maybe Fekri gifting the Koreans a clear shot on goal) and Mirzapour has showed very slight signs of improvement in decision making and collecting crosses though he still made one major error by flapping at the ball when he challenged for it above that guys head.

My main criticism of TM today is that we didn't close them down at all. We allowed them far too much time and space on the ball, although fair enough it was a tough away game. In contrast every time a TM player got the ball 3 Koreans surrounded him and forced the ball off him. This was the difference between the teams and why they had so much more possesion.

Offensively we had very few ideas and just seemed to pass the ball along the back four a few times and then smash a hopeful ball up field, so that the Koreans could then start another wave of their attacks. The problem of who to partner Vahid is a major one, I say Borhani or Oladi to play just behind him?

[yashar_fasihnia]

i think ghalenoi was running out of ideas. u could clearly see his frustration and helplessness although he somewat had the right to. we missed some golden oppurtunities to korea in their own turf.

i liked and was expecting his substitutions, except for the fact that i thought akbarpour will come instead of majidi because akbarpour has speed and stamian and thats wat we needed upfront with a relatively tired hashemian, a trailing 1-0 score and a relatively counter attack game iran was playing.

i was surprised he brought majidi in, i mean of all the people, he played the least in the friendlies, when i saw him near the sideline, i was like "ghalenoi, u cant be serious!!"

one thing i liked about ghalenoi is and i have noticed this before in esteghlal also that once his team (esteghlal or TM) falls behind, they come to their senses and forget that fear in them. they automatically get more energy in them and battle hard. forexample, i was surprised karimi was running upto the last minute of the game,never seen this from him before!
He must have some good psychological tactics to instill "ruhiye" into the players minds and heart.

however, i blame him for not bringing in akbarpour earlier in the game. a 90th minute substitution when u wanna score a goal?? WOW, gudmorning aghaye ghalenoi!

and i also hold him responsible for the korean goal we conceded. markings and defending set pieces have always been irans weak point though. korea had just 1 or 2 tall head zan players. for gods sake, couldnt ghalenoi assign these 2 players to players like hashemian, nekounam, rezai, nosrati during corner kicks or freekicks so that they can score on us from a freekick while clearly we dominated the aerial battles??? he should have noted this when he was analysing the korean team!

overall, i think he and his team improved since the game against syria, but still, he has a long way to go to make iran ready for asian cup!

[Kaveh Ahangar]

Thank you yashar,

Here maybe we see the value of a Farsi speaking coach who can properly motivate and brief his players at half time. I think we were all half expecting Iran to come out in the second half and crumble like in the world cup but thank god they kept up their resistance and still battled hard.

From what I have seen of Ghalenoei so far, hopefully he will realise that Majidi is a mistake and not play him in future matches. I believe its good to see a coach expressing his emotions and frustrations during a match. It shows he does genuinely care for the success of the team, and I for one was sick of seeing Branko sit on the bench motionless and expressionless for 90 mins. At least Ghalenoei made some attempt to relay instructions to the players.

You are right, our defending from set pieces was a shambles, we were very lucky not to concede more from corners and other free-kicks. This has been one of our weaknesses for a long time, something Mexico capitalised on in the WC and teams in the future can exploit too unless serious work is done on the training ground.

[yashar_fasihnia]

khahesh

[Doctor DOOM]

yashar jan, as I mentioned GN's selection in syria was more based on non-football matters, here also, majidi's choice over akbarpoor is yet another one of such useless decisions.

I think just becoz majidi didnt get to play the last game, and he is a legioner and has heeded GN's call, I feel GN feels obliged and indebted to these players to play them .... no matter if they can be of any use or not.

for example, majidi would be more useful against the syrians, than the fast and quick Koreans.
alas .... !!


============

the korean goal:
it shows many teams, like our lads, lose their concentration enar the end of the games or halves.

maybe they thought the half is done and taken care of.
maybe they relaxed a bit.
maybe...

whatever it may be, the staff shd concentrate on these moments and make the players understand they cannot let loose, even for the last few seconds.
both goals, including our goal at min 93 shd be testament to this fact.

[Khodayar]

I agree that defensively we did ok. But Nikbakht doesnt belong to LB and should be replaced, I wouldn't mind seeing Nosrati there again. Nikbakht is not a defender and he showed it.

Nosrati had a solid game in my opinion. I still think that Taleblou needs to be played every once in while in less important matches, he needs the experience and we need two equally confident keepers.

[Ali Chicago]

I think over all was positive, he is learning. He is no where as stubborn and at times illogical as Branko got toward the end of his career.

Most importantly, whatever happend in the locker room at the half time, was positive. It is no joke for a team to be scored on 45th minute. Those who coach now what I am talking about.
Our team came back in the second half and started the game in the Seoul stadium with even less fear and conservatisem.

This is one huge difference b/w this team and TM under Branko's era.

GN performance
===============
I think GN did well as far as coaching and subs concerned. I specially liked to see the TM came back from the devastating goal on 45th minute and fought back (not like WC). It wasn't pretty but they fought back and eventually tured the game around. It shows he has good relation and communication with the Players.

Also, our team showed good stamina, we run step by step next to Koreans and out ran them. This time it was our team that out paced koreans in the stamina department. This to some degree is the result of the work of Komasi and GN and company. Good job guys.

Bringing Majidi in to and moving Karimi to left mid were good moves. I totally applaude his move to go after the Koreans by addition of second forward Vs (bringing an extra def mid like Kazemi) to prevent koreans from scoring more. This is where I prefer GN and likes of him and (being less conservative) despite lower level of tactical soccer knowledge) Vs. defensive minded coaches like Branko.
I know, I know you say, GN was under pressure and he had to do this. But compare GN and Branko in this one aspect. A coach (like Branko) in WC the second game against Portugal still had a total defensive game plan despite knowing we will be eliminated from WC and even being 1-0 down against portugal didn't change anything and still Iran defended with 8-9 players.

I was hoping to see Akbarpoor earlier though and maybe he was a better sub compared to Majidi. But maybe it was Majidi's experience in this stage that gave him the edge. Logically makes sense. But Majidi put a lot of pressure on Korean defenders by chansing them as soon as they got the ball. That is one thing probably most people overlook when watchign the game, the amount of running a forward does to open up in space and be on the right spot. Majidi was present. Even for the ball that Hashemain didn't pass the ball to him and tried to dribble through and could not and did a pass back to Ando and his terrible shot (Majidi was about 10 yards from Hashemian). Excellent positioning.

[Hajagha]

After watching the two last games:

1, We have the right players.

2, Left side improved significantly, but still have potentional for become better when Nikki comes back to his best and get familiar with Madanchi.

3, We need to come back to 4 defensder instead of 3.

4, Nosrati is perfect, I don't know why some people nag about him.

5, Majidi/Hashemian are the best pair for up front.

6, Kia needs to come back to attacking mid.

7, Teymourian can not be used when we have Nekonam and Karimi.

Over all, our performance is much better than Branko's era. Qalenoei knows what he does, he improves after every game. He is young and has potential to become a good coach who we can rely on.

[faraz]

Over all, our performance is much better than Branko's era.

Maybe it's my amateur opinion, but I HAVE NO IDEA what game you watched...if it's the 4-3 Iran win, I assure you Branko was at the helm...

Our performance was AWFUL. JUST AWFUL. And to escape with a draw, well, we should consider ourselves the luckiest team...i can't believe you enjoyed that performance?

is it just me..?