F+ Post Match Discussion [Iran vs Uzbekistan]

[Ali Chicago]

Overall a poor performance by the TM. But I think time is needed to judge the team yet. Was the poor performance a mixed bag of emotional pressure, strong Uzbek pressing and poor performance of our midfields? Or this is the sign of thing to come (poor Iran's performance during the AFC cup).



Positives
=======
Team's conditioning. Uzbaks are a tough team as far as conidtioning is concerened. They played Korea two weeks ago in a friendly and they did very well (one of the poorest game by Koreans). Uzbaks did it by a lots and lots of running.
Team didn't panic when we went down and nothing worked. That is a good sign.
For people who thought our team peaked too early, today showed this isn't the case.
Subs were good, but Madanchi sub (left sub for that matter) was a bit late.

Hosseini by far was the man of the match although Kazemian did well.
Negatives
=======
The main problem today was a lackluster performance specially offensively by our midfields. Ando and Nekoonam together aren't offensive enough. Karimi was alone. If we dont' have both Ando and Nekoo in the mid the communication between offense and defense will be much better.
Totally agree with legioners aren't supposed to be guarenteed starter. One of the things I was critical of Branko was the same issue and it seems GN isn't gutsy enough to bench legioners. GN time and times have said Names don't play, Past three four games, Nekoo and Ando and even Karimi were totally subpar. Time to maybe bench them a game.
Rezai was horrible, but maybe it is time to suppoprt him and tell him despite a bad performance he is still our man. Maybe that will help, to rebuild his confidence.
For those who keep saying our legioners this and that and their tactic bah bah chah chah, see Rezai and Hosseini today. It is the not the size of the dog that fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog. Player needs to really want it. Hosseinin today really wanted it, he won every freaking ball in the defense and added a fantastic goal.
People who say Zandi was horrible and he is a not a LB, can you give me a few examples of how he screwed up today? At least in this game there wasn't any indication of that. He was the only guy on our so called defense line who followed teh UZbak player on that one on one that Roudbarian made the save. So much for him not being the defender material.
Our left doesn't exist and I dont' think Madanchi is the guy to get it down. There were a few signs of Zandi and Enayati trying to work together, but There is a huge gap between our offense and defense (our mid sucked today). As soon as Kazemian came in and somehow made the connection between the Defense and offense things started to change.

Solution:


I think as soon as we fix the midfield issue (even addition of Kia, Kaabi or Ebrahim Sadeghi at this stage to midfield compared to an ineffective Ando), things will tremendously change.

Karimi Factor, he is stuck with two mids Nekoo and Ando who don't support him. Karimi had to participate in defense today and didnt' have the support around him that he needed.

Add threat from left. Try a 4-5-1 or even a 44-2 with both Enayati and Hashemian play in the center. Add Shojai or Madanchi in the left either as a outside or inside mid in the left.

Use Rajabzadeh as an offensive mid to combine with Karimi. Karimi needs support. Karimi needs 2-3 players in a 15 yard radius to have options for pass and won't get forced to dribble all the time.

[Ali Chicago]

What made our midfield trio to show week performance is the terrible work by our two forward wingers. Every time Khatibi and enayati got the ball, they lost it.
....

I disagree. How many balls came to our forward in the first place? Midfield was just horrible. Khatibi didn't have a good day, but even Hashemian didnt' get many balls. Enayati wasn't great but he was good. He got into two scoring opportunities. One on Kazemian pass and other one where he himself stole the ball from Uzbak defenders but I think ref called a handball on him.

[Adesor Vafaseya]

tactically the subsitituitions were superb. But 4-3-3 was not suitable for this game. simply there was too much space between our players. against China we need to take speed away from the opponent and need a much more compact midfield.

all in all Kia, Hashemian and Teymoorian were for me the only players, who understood the tactic well and positioned/rotate themselves accordingly.

take it this way, Chinese were watching a game that is misleading, cause Iran never gonna play 4-3-3 in this manner against them.

[khabalood]

- Kaebi needs to be injected into this team. The team lacks speed and pure intensity/energy without him speeding on the right.

- Mahdavikia needs to be played as a rw where he can do the most damage to the opposition. Even if he has lost some pace his proximity with Karimi and Kaebi will make him more dangerous than he can every be as a rb. He showed great courage and leadership by continuing to play despite losing a tooth.

- Hashemian needs to give us a performance. Much is said about Hashemian being our best striker. He needs to back this up or he should be replaced.

- Zandi is a workhorse. Despite playing in lb he capped of a good performance both offensively and defensively. A pity he did not have proper support on the left side.

-Rezaei played a horrible game. 4/10.

- Hosseini was a rock and as I had predicted prior to the tournament he proved to be our best defensemen. To top it off he proved he has offensive qualities as well with a good header goal. He deserved to be the man of the match.

- Kazemian took his chance well and produced a goal. Hopefully he can maintain his level of performance.

- Karimi was almost non-existant for much of the game, but still created the winning goal. He doesn't look like the same Karimi, although the weather may be taking its toll on him. Time will tell.

- Nekounam & Teymourian - both had a poor performance although Andranik did create a goal. I hope Ghalenoei benches one of them against China and inserts a player with some pace into our lineup.

- Roudbarian barely had any work to do but still failed to keep a clean sheet. He needs to organize his defense better and maintain better focus to ensure stupid mistakes do not cost tm again.

- Enayati and Khatibi were both played out of position. Both failed to make an impact on the game although Enayati did cause some problems in front of the Uzbek goal. One of them (Khatibi) should be bench and an additional midfielder should be injected into the lineup.

- Borat must be happy !!

[Mr.Good]

I disagree. How many balls came to our forward in the first place? Midfield was just horrible. Khatibi didn't have a good day, but even Hashemian didnt' get many balls. Enayati wasn't great but he was good. He got into two scoring opportunities. One on Kazemian pass and other one where he himself stole the ball from Uzbak defenders but I think ref called a handball on him.

When there are three forwards, they should do some of the play making for each other. True Hashemian did not get any clear chances, because the other two forwards did nothing. Hashemian tried to do his part of play making and gave a great pass to Khatibi.
What I'm saying, Don't blame the terrible playmaking on the midfield alone, we are not playing with only one striker and five midfielder, its the other way around. The midfield trio have more defensive duties here and cannot afford high turnover rate from the forwards, because once they push forward there is no one behind them and this resulted in their bad performance.

[Hadi]

basically pages 2 and 3 of today's Jahane Football analyze today's match pretty well. Make sure you give it a look.

http://www.jahanefootball.net/

[Ali Chicago]

basically pages 2 and 3 of today's Jahane Football analyze today's match pretty well. Make sure you give it a look.

http://www.jahanefootball.net/

I read them and articles mostly except the one By Ardesheer Laroodi dont' have much value and pure speculative and obnoxious. Yoonesipoor Kass nezhad and company interpret things with a bias and that is what lowers their work value.

This is the example of the stuff younesi poor wrote. Is this what you call an objective analysis?
پیام یونسی پور- جهان فوتبال

پافشاریش روی اشتباهات ملموس ومحسوس خنده دار بود
امیر قلعه نوعی از شیوه چیدمان نفراتش از بهم ریختن پست ها
وازدگرگونی که درپستهای سه گانه بوجود آورد
فقط یک هدف را جستجو میکرد
او میخواست ثابت کند
مجموعه ای را که با او درمالزی بسر میبرد
متفاوت ازگذشته وبخصوص زاده تفکرات شخص خود اوست

This guy younesi poor is still in the Daiee jaan napelooni system of everything is GN vs. Past TM. Really sad to see a guy with this level of vision can write in a national sport newspaper.

[Hadi]

well I find what he wrote to be fair. GN was exactly doing that. The new TM, from the very first day which they started, wanted to prove that whatever Branko and Dadkan did was wrong and they would make a new TM and a new federation.

[Doctor DOOM]

watching the highlightes, it dawned on me:

TM's biggest problem was its midfield.
yes.
midfield, which should have been our strongest area !!
why?
here's why:

we had 3 mids: karimi. ando, neku.

meaning:
one mid merely walked most of the time and had a couple of dibbles. but nothing much to write home about !
and he was the most "constructive" midfielder !!!!!!!!!! ( LOL. yeah )

the other 2 are def mids, who under NORMAL circumstances dont gel well and get in the way of each other.
today they were 2 zeros , or near zeroes !

yes, my friends: these 3 players comprised of our midfield !
no wonder we struggled so much in the first half !!

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

rahman.

I beleive his self confidence was shot when he scored for them.
and the rest of the game was just an attachment to this mistake.
I say we shdnt give up on him just yet.


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

to answer ali jan over zandi as LB :
he got hassled off the ball,
got dribbled ,
got passed on occasions,
he , the defender, was muscled off the ball by the attacker !!!

I think these shd suffice.


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

adesor jan,
4-3-3 , per se, isnt that horrible, if we place thr right players.

with one def mid, and two side arms, even a 4-3-3 would get results.
our problem was we had 2 def mid and one attacking mid ( sort of like a triangle with the base towards our goal ).
that leaves our right and left wings ... well, NON-EXISTENT !

[zzgloo]

We only had one bad player......and that was ..Roudbarian !!

All other misplays and bad plays are only due to Coaching !!

as I watched the game twice, and I noticed,In the secound half, before,kazemian's goal, everybody was passing to kazemian,..neko, kia, karimi,ando,even hashemian and enayati.......And what we can figure from this ?.
.........It was the only assignment given ,( although GN forgot to tell enayati and hashemian to go along kazemian, so his crosses would not be mised )!!!!when players are told what to do, it is much easier for them,and things work much more smoothly.
. ....other than Kazemian assignment, there was no other plan.
....GN ONLY CHOSE THE STARTERS ON THE PAPER AND NOT ON PRACTISE FIELD !!
Everybody was unfamiliar to the player next to him !!

GN, by not telling who plays and who does not ( Thinking,this would add to competition ), actualy caused our team not to have chamistry !!
Had, our players, not been so individualy superior to the uzbaks, we would not have won.
Immagine, if rezaie and hossaini had better work relation!
immagine, if karimi knew when to dribble and who to pass mostly !
immagine if Neko and Ando had worked out some designed routs with strikers!
Immagine,if madanchi was fed as much as kazemian did !

[BehzadB]

In sports , they say a sign of a good team is that they win even when they don't play well.. that's what we did today..

I think GN made one very bad decision and a very good one at half time.. Khatibi as a "goosh" is not going to work.. the fact that the replacement came in at half time, shows me that QN realized that too..

he fixed that mistake by bringing in Kazemian..

those two decisions were mostly responsible for the poor performance in the first half and the good performance in the second half, respectively..

I have long waited for this combination of Kia playing right defense with Kazemian playing in front of him.. I saw it for the first time today.. and I really liked it..

the more general problem was the selection of players for that formation.. I think when you have a few players playing out of position and lost in a "new" and "poor" formation, it makes it that much harder for other players as well....

for example, how many crosses did we have in the first half? zero or something close to it. that's because neither Enayatee nor Khatibi are "goosh" players.. they are striker type forwards.. they can not play that "wing" spot, they can't dribble and they can't cross.. this was bad news for Hashemian.... and because of the formation, Nekounam and Teymourian were also out of position.. Teymourian seemed lost until later in the second half.. it was somewhat of a new role for them..

Also, something that we tend to do is ignore the opponent.. the Uzbek put a lot of pressure on our players in the first half and that own goal really knocked the wind out of our players in the first half..

However, I think our players paced themselves really well. they knew they just couldn't keep running hard from the get go and last the whole game.. they had to spread the energy.. and I think they did.. both nekounam and teymourian were running well all the way to the end... as soon as the right side got fixed the team got going.. kazemian set the whole thing in motion.. he was the right player for that formation.

Also, I think the fact that it was the first game had something to do with this sub par performance.. and just as they had to pace themselves over the course of the game, they have to do the same over the course of the tournament... I have no doubt that with a couple of adjustments, this team will get better and better..

I just don't know why GN keeps insisting on Using Enyatee as a "goosh" or winger as they call them these days, .. he is neither.. but I am glad QN took Hashemian out in this game, this usually means that later on in the Tournament, it will be Enyatee who will be pulled.. either that, or GN is really infatuated with Enayatee. I guess we'll see!


Has anyone wondered why Sadeghi is not on QN's list anymore?

[Nokhodi]

=Positives=
-The team was physically fit
-GN started some terrible players but was smart enough to correct them
-Hosseini should be a starter for TM in all games now. For years Mayeli Kohan had been saying this guy deserves an invitation. Once again he is right in terms of scouting good young talent.
-Besides Rezaei, the defense performed very well

=Negatives=
-KHATIBI, enough said
-Midfield was very bad. Karim was quiet, Teymourian and Nekounam give up the ball too much
-Our forwards are not used correctly. Someone like Hashemian should not be sent back so far that he has to function as a playmaker.

=What should be done next match=
-Kaabi must start as the right back and Kia should go to his old position. I thought Kia was great today but the Kia-Karimi-Kaabi triangle is something that is top class and needs to be utilized
-Rezaei lost his confidence after the own goal. Give him a break. If he plays well in the round robin, then we should keep him. Also remember he is retiring after this tournament.
-Khatibi has to be kept off the squad. Even Daei in his worst days was not this bad.

[Doctor DOOM]

couple of points:

1- I wouldnt be so worried about GN being sent to the stands and supposedly not be able to lead the team.
simply becoz with the pathetic turn out of fans in the stadia ( when there are no home teams ), his orders and commands are easily heard by the staff and players even.

he even gets a better view and a vantage point by being higher and seeing more of the field.
so ...

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

2- this is to comfort ali jan ( viva-italia ) , who is so hung up over Daei's #10 and his replacement and ... :
by khatibi placed in the wrong post, GN effectively turned him into a zero.
and with his second half sub, kazemian , doing so well, we may yet see #10 back on the bench or , to please ali, NOT SEEN ON THE PITCH for the rest of the tournament.

huh?
good enough deal, eh?


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

3- I know many will shout at me, but listen anyway;

if we have to put a striker on the wings, which to me is an idiotic idea, why put enayati who is useless on the wings ?
put VH on the left wing and enayati as center forward.
VH has been playing somewhat similar trole at Hannover lately and his assists speak for this.
so he cant be that bad there. enayati also can be utilized where he can make a difference, at the tip of the attack.

so if we have to opt for the risky 4-3-3, and not the ideal 4-4-2, then we can reshuffle the players a bit and get more out of the formation.


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

ok, so I had more than a couple of points.
so what?
sue me.

[Ali Chicago]

well I find what he wrote to be fair. GN was exactly doing that. The new TM, from the very first day which they started, wanted to prove that whatever Branko and Dadkan did was wrong and they would make a new TM and a new federation.

Of course you are entitled to your opinion. But what those guys write is commentry (their commentry about the coach) and has very little to do with soccer itself. It seems the same trend that exist in PFDC in a bigger scale exist in the Sport Media as well. The trend being we need a forign coach period. If we have an Iranian coach, magnify his every mistake. Moosevitch get ejected from Qatar Japan coach too, but if GN get ejected world has come to an end and there will a million commenttry about it.

If you study journalisem in the west, the first thing they teach you is objectivisem. That is why you see most journalist, try as much as possible staying away from polictical, religous affiliations to keep them objective. In Iran Jouranlist aren't raised like that. They have an ideology, strong opinion and do their work based on that. That is one reason that, papers in Iran can't cultivate, tolerance, compromise, collective work and most of them, further grow the divisions and difference among Iranians.

Yoonesi poor, KaasNezhad, Poor Hooseni, Maral Raoof and company has a sizeable share in forming the mass beleif about football state in Iran and it is sad to see how they bring their bias and their own brand instead of objective analysis.

No one says they shouldn't have an opinion and prefer forign coach or whatever. What they need to realize is the fact at present there isn't a foregin coach blah blah. Let's try to remain fair and objective when judging the current coach.

[Ali Chicago]

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

to answer ali jan over zandi as LB :
he got hassled off the ball,
got dribbled ,
got passed on occasions,
he , the defender, was muscled off the ball by the attacker !!!

I think these shd suffice.


!

Payman Jaan, I really respect you as someone as someone open minded and independent with an amazing critical thinking abilities. So, I request you to watch the game and try to make a list of times Zandi was dibbled by an Uzbak. I plan to watch the game again tonight, I make a list. Do the same for Kia on right back as well. Let's compare and see if you stand by your about him being dribbled by uzbak forwards.

Please remember when Uzbak had their only opportunity on our goal one on one with Roudbarian, Zandi was the only Iranian back who followed up and tried to challange and pressure the uzbak forward.

Zandi learned the game in Germany and is coachable (Tactic pazeer), so just for that fact, I think he will get better and better in LB.

Zandi isn't the ideal left back I give you that (he isn't aggersive and will get pushed off the ball). However for a moment let's say Zandi not a LB, the only two chances we have in LB is Sadeghi (AH) and Nosrati. Sadeghi is slow in open field and easily get red carded. Nosrati is coming back from an injury and not sure if he is in game condition. If he is fit, I play him instead of Zandi. But between Zandi and AH Sadeghi, I choose Zandi.

Aghili is a center back and doesn't have any play making abilities. He can clear the ball and all but no ability to be added from the back or join the attack. So Aghili isn't an option.