How would you utilize our defense ?

[zzgloo]

It will be only wise, to have a defensive posture against mexico and Portugal, which that make it 2 out of three games for us.....
assuming above statement, we may be going to have to add an additional halfback,who will have a defensive duties....particularly to nolify the attacking elements of the opposing team.....players such as borgetti, or fransico conseco,or portugal's offensive forward ( I forgot his name, the guy,with short hair and one ear ring on his left ear !! ).......
these strickers of extremly dangerouse,and not to be left alone.....therefore, we may need to use a defensive player espesificaly to handle them....
SO, the extra defensive player in our half back who can do that ,could very well be Badavi ..
1- The crosses across our gole will be extremly dangrouse.
2- The defense of the first post,on corners against us will be very vital.
3-The air defense, that is defending against headings against us is in question.
4-The left back issue is still not solved.
5-offensive duties of our middle backs most be nurtured.

[Doctor DOOM]

first of all, zz jan, I must confess, I really like your threads , as they show class and quality, as you try to talk FOOTBALL , the sport, than anything else.

I am no coach, but I have seen coaches who :

1- put one dog of a marker to shadow the playmaker ( or sometimes, the star ) , and take him out of the game.

2- for teams like ours, who are not all that good in defending due to bad selection of players or confusion in defense ( sometimes, due to TOO MANY defending players ) , I'd say keep the team balanced, but the WHOLE team shd partake in the defense, starting from the opponent's 18.

3- and again, for teams with weak defense, I would never recommend pulling many players back into our half, as it not only leaves our 2-3 players up front stranded and renderes them UN-USABLE, it also allows the opponents' defenders to be added in their attacks, which spells more trouble for us and more routes for them to score.

4- showing them ( as many times that we can get ) that we CAN be dangerous on counter-attacks would reduce the number of their attacking players.
and this is only possible if we have skillful and very fast players on the wings and in forward.
guys like kia, kaabi, amirabadi, borhani,... would be ideal for such occasions.

[faraz]

It will be only wise, to have a defensive posture against mexico and Portugal

I don't know if I necessarily agree with this first statement. We can have a defensive posture, lose to Mexico 1-0, lose to Portugal 3-1, tie Angola 0-0, and come back home, and wait another 4 years for a WC, in which we won't even be gauranteed participation.

Personally, I believe opting for an offensive strategy will be to our advantage. We can take our opponents by surprise, and MAKE them respect us, play a bit more cautiously, and perhaps even scare them a little mentally.

When it comes down to it, I want Iran to push.

We have the quality to play with these teams, and when our team is motivated and ready enough (GERMANY game), we can do great things.

[Martin-Reza]

Good question. I think it's very likely that Ivankovic will bring on that second halfback (not Badavi though) and use his 4-2-3-1 in the first two matches, before switching to a 4-4-2 for the last match.

[faraz]

Good question. I think it's very likely that Ivankovic will bring on that second halfback (not Badavi though) and use his 4-2-3-1 in the first two matches, before switching to a 4-4-2 for the last match.

MR jan - you don't think that perhaps playing a 4-2-3-1 may be more defensive than needed?

If these teams pin us back, they are bound to score. It is always like this in soccer. Very few teams can absorb huge amounts of pressure and score. Only Greece comes to mind.

However, we should not attack carelessly either (obviously...).

If we build a decent balance between defence and attack, we should be okay. I'd say play a 4-4-2 in all matches, but ultimately, I put my trust in Branko.

He has never disapointed in any major tournament.

[Martin-Reza]

First of all it doesn't matter what I think about this tactic, because apart from football manager computer games I have no coaching experience

I just think that's what Branko will do.

Without getting too much into detail, I believe the system alone doesn't really decide on how offensive a team is. I've see 4-5-1s which were far more offensive than 3-4-3s. You can interprete any system offensively or defensively.

Portugal also mostly play 4-2-3-1. If we have a 4-4-2 diamond, we'll only have Nekounam as defensive mid - mostly directly playing against Deco. The 4-2-3-1 would pair up a second defensive mid beside Nekounam, they could share covering Deco and it would also allow Nekounam to participate in offense much more often than in the 4-4-2.

[faraz]

haha...but you must admit, winning in FM makes you feel good about your managerial skills!...

Now back to the topic - the question is, have we seen an offensive 4-2-3-1 from TM?

[Doctor DOOM]

I guess even BEFORE going over strategies, I shd have mentioned the MORE important aspects :

Running, running and when we get tired,.... run some more .

unless the team is PEAK physical shape, and is able to run at top speed ( forward, backward or laterally ) we wont be able to make much headway.

we may have the best defensive formation/tactics. if we cant execute it for 90 LONG minutes, we might as well sit on our arses.


the second thing is:
PRESSING game.

but, then again, it goes back to RUNNING.
we're just SENTENCED to run as hard ( if not harder ) as our opponents, to be able to close them down and play the pressing game.

pressing game would have a better chance as both mexico and portugal play a more S. american style than european, and restriction of spaces for their influential players makes them easier to handle.

Angola, however, being an african with african characteristics, I'd say we may have to base our game on more technical and skillful players and plays than anything else. ...... while RUNNING as hard as them anyway.

[Iranyar Rezatank]

I wouldn't plaay too deffensively against Mexico. Against Portugal? I dont know yet

[zzgloo]

Going back to the question if we should be defensive or not.....
With Angola, which I have heard is a defensive team, we must attack, specialy, because, not only, we need the win badly, but also, we need as many goles as possible, should the gole differential count.

With mexico, I have thought alot about this, and I have seen mexican games more than TM games in last 5 years.......With mexico, playing defensive, will not work....as USA, proved it, and had the best results against them , by being fast and offensive,as well as nulifing thie strikers....nor, playing technical and controled football would work against them, as they scored 3 goles against Germany frindly, till 10 minutes to the end of the game, but germany was back to offense the last 10 minutes, and changed the 3-2 loseing to 4-3 winning.......

With Portugal, we need to be defensive, and let them beat themseleves, and let them be the first one to make the costly mistake..............

I realy, believe, our whole tornement hangs around what we do in our first game with Mexico......We must be extremly sharp, give our best effort, and be lucky, and beat them......If we pass mexico, atleast with one point, then things will defenetly look up for us.

[Martin-Reza]

haha...but you must admit, winning in FM makes you feel good about your managerial skills!...

It surely does, unfortunately I mostly try to buy as many Iranians as possible, but usually I do much better without Iranians in the squad

[ARYA]

I know Branko will never change his favorite 4-2-3-1 formation, but someone in the PFDC forum had suggested a 3-5-2 formation. I would think the following would work great against all opponents!!

Reasons being:

1. At no time will TM be without a three back defensive line, and these are by far the three strongest Iranian defenders in my opinion.

2. The two players Kia and AmirAbadi can run up and down either flank helping the defensive line when needed, can help in the middle as well as contribute to the offensive line by their dangerous crosses, this will help keep TM balanced against such opponents as Mexico, Portugal and other world renowned teams so we don't become a one dimensional team, which would be defend and completely rely on counter attacks if we deploy a 4-2-3-1 formation.

3. This formation with these players allows for a very potent attack from TM as well. Hash should remain in the front and not retreat to defend. Borhani can retreat to defend and can help in the middle if needed since he is one of the fastest players on the national team. Mobali can cross, can shoot, and will be vital in short distance direct free kicks. As for Bagheri, by now we all know about his defensive abilities, his long distance rocket of a shot, as well as his long distance ball distribution capabilities. He also gives us another option next to Nekunam for long distance free kicks. The defensive line should always be made up of the more experienced NT players, so who better than these three. Bagheri has 80 caps for the NT and is the scond highest goal scorer ever behind Ali Daie for TM. He is 5 years younger than Daie and 3 years younger than Golmo.

-----Games-Goals---DOB
Daei --144---106---21-Mar-69
kia-----88----12----24-Jul-77
Karimi--87----31----8-Nov-78
Estili---82----12----4-Jan-67
Bagheri-80----47----20-Feb-74

------Hashemian---Borhani----------
- ^------------------------------^-
--|---Karimi--Nekounam--Mobali---|-
AmirAbadi------------------------Kia
-------Rezaei---Yahya---Bagheri----
--------------Mirzapour-------------

NO BADAVI PLEASE!!!!!!

[Amirza]

I agree with Faraz -
Let's go out there and play like men. I say that not just because WC is a rare expo - but because it is the smart thing to do. We must go all out - and seek ONE victory over Mexico or Portugal in our first two games - if we beat Mexico - then we can realy go all out against Portugal. That must be the attitude.

[Doctor DOOM]

I love arya's line up, except I'd put either nosrati or zareh for bagheri.

now it's a toss up between yahya and bagheri for the central def.

[khabalood]

I would love to see aryas formation tested in a friendly.