F+ Post Match Discussion [Iran vs Uzbekistan]

[Ali Chicago]

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 !

Bahram khan,

About the Enayati and Kazemian work, remember the scen when Kazemain came in from right and passed back to Enayati very close to 6 yards, but the ball was a little behind and uzback guy kciked it to the corner. Or when Enayati received a pass and dribbled the goalie but couldnt' control the ball on the line and ball went out. These two scens were examples of how Enayati moved without the ball and put himself in position to get the ball.

Karimi has no support both Nekoo and Ando are miles away from him. If you yourslef play football, you have been in situation you have the ball and look for yourteam mates and either they are standing around or too far away from you. Then in that case, only choice is to dribble.

Biggest mistake in the team yesterday was Ando adn Nekoo together. Add Rajabzadeh Mobali someon close to Karimi and you will see what a gem he is.

[Ali Chicago]

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?

I liked your evaluation. I also like your point about Enayati playing left wing. GN should have tried to play more games in Iran even against B team or even club teams and let both Khatibi and Enayati play as a winger in those games so they get more practice in that role. Overall I agree with your point that Enayati isn't a left winger.

I still would like to suggest that you consider the fact that poor execution of forwards in large part was due to poor performance of our midfields.

Also maybe it is natural for the team to play a few games with this formation until they get the hang of it. Won't u think?

[Hadi]

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.

actually I do not know the journalists you mentioned pretty well. But I want to mention a point:

some of the people who write in Iranian newspapers (sport or otherwise) are not "journalists" or "reporters". They are normal people (experts, translators, students etc) who merely write and send articles based on their own opinion and "ideology". And yeah most of them are subjective and have a certain way of thinking. They are not exactly objective journalists or eyewitness reporters. And I see nothing wrong with that. Sure there are people who are advocates of foreign coaches, and for sure whatever they write will be in support and biased towards that pre-held opinion, but is it right to dismiss all their points and articles, just because they have a strong prejudice towards a certain way of thinking? The best thing to do is to read what they have to say and choose between what you think might be a valid point and what might be out of pure subjectivity. A reporter reporting the news MUST be objective, but an analyst, a thinker or what we call a "saheb-nazar" is not necessarily objective and follows a certain way of thought.

Now in that certain article, the writer has pointed out a very valid point in Iranian management (which exists in all areas and not just in sports) and that is, when a person or a group of individuals, takes over the management of an organization from someone else . He tries to act as if every single thing that the previous management has done is wrong and has to be changed. GN and the new federation did exactly that. They were not fair enough to acknowledge that "maybe" there is a possibility that Branko and Dadkan did at least SOME right things in their time.

One more thing to add, is that I am 100% supportive of harsh criticism (out of objectivity or personal prejudice, doesn't make a difference)

[khabalood]

=============
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.
=============

Hashemian does not suit the classic role of a cf. In fact in almost all tm games he ends up moving out towards the sides instead of attacking the goal. Moreover, his tendency to pass instead of shoot leads me to believe he is more of a secondary striker than an all out cf.

Enayati on the other hand is an out and out goal poacher, at home in the center and always opportunistic in front of goal.

That said in a 4-3-3 I would put both beside each other and push Karimi up:

Hashemian--------------Enayati
-------------Karimi

We have all seen Hashemian on the left wing and he is a complete and utter waste in that position. Perhaps all that is needed is some tinkering with their roles or some chemistry which they do not appear to have at the moment.

[Ali Chicago]

actually I do not know the journalists you mentioned pretty well. But I want to mention a point:

some of the people who write in Iranian newspapers (sport or otherwise) are not "journalists" or "reporters". They are normal people (experts, translators, students etc) who merely write and send articles based on their own opinion and "ideology". And yeah most of them are subjective and have a certain way of thinking. They are not exactly objective journalists or eyewitness reporters. And I see nothing wrong with that. Sure there are people who are advocates of foreign coaches, and for sure whatever they write will be in support and biased towards that pre-held opinion, but is it right to dismiss all their points and articles, just because they have a strong prejudice towards a certain way of thinking? The best thing to do is to read what they have to say and choose between what you think might be a valid point and what might be out of pure subjectivity. A reporter reporting the news MUST be objective, but an analyst, a thinker or what we call a "saheb-nazar" is not necessarily objective and follows a certain way of thought.

Now in that certain article, the writer has pointed out a very valid point in Iranian management (which exists in all areas and not just in sports) and that is, when a person or a group of individuals, takes over the management of an organization from someone else . He tries to act as if every single thing that the previous management has done is wrong and has to be changed. GN and the new federation did exactly that. They were not fair enough to acknowledge that "maybe" there is a possibility that Branko and Dadkan did at least SOME right things in their time.

One more thing to add, is that I am 100% supportive of harsh criticism (out of objectivity or personal prejudice, doesn't make a difference)

Agha Hadi,

Thanks for your information about reporters in Iran. I haven't been in Iran for more than 20 years and don't know how things work now.

Hadi jaan, please read the Majid Panahi's interview with GN in Malayisa and see how he talks about Branko. He called him a friend and talked abotu him very respectfully. I think GN is a coach and knows football more than you and I. So he knows the value of Branko's work. I think fans like you and I are making too much of this Branko vs. GN or for that matter Iranian coaches. One can criticize a coache's work (like I think the 4-3-3 with Enayati and Khatibi as tow classic wingers doesn't work), but that doesn't mean I hate GN or I am aqainst him. So, if GN disagreed with certain aspects of Branko's work, it doesn' mean GN or for that matter any Iranian coach who criticized his work had a persoanl enemity with him.

As for the current federation trying to do destroy everythign that past federation did, I don't have data and can't agree or disagree with it. But I think the current TM camp was organzied well. They did poor in organizing freindly games though.

One more thing to add, is that I am 100% supportive of harsh criticism (out of objectivity or personal prejudice, doesn't make a difference

I don't undrestand your last line. Can you explain? you can write in fingilis (Farsi with English Alpahbets) if that is easier for you.
If I undrestand you righ for the above line, It shows your anger toward the whole system. I know lack of democracy in Iran and dictatorship by the government makes Iranian very angry and I can totally undrestand that. However, short of We (Iranian) start to use the values of modern era (objectivisem, cooperation, listening, team work, etc. etc.) nothing will change in Iran. I know most government organaiztions don't practice this, but rest of us still must remain faithful to these proven values. This is who Europe and West have become what they are today.

[Doctor DOOM]

aaawwww daamn !
ali , I just finished watching the game ( and deleted it. no, brother. I aint gonna keep this game in my archives ).
I wish I had read this post ( on zandi ) before !

but I DID watch zandi a bit more closely.
ali jan, in MY opinion, he didnt fare well.
he DID get muscled out of the ball on a couple of occasions.
he did get dribbled near the 18 yard left angle.
he did get passed a couple of times.
he did turn so slowly to fall behind his mark once.

I think all this, plus the fact that he, himself said he's not comfortable with this post, makes it easy for me to exclude him from LB options.



secondly, why shd I compare ?
I didnt say Kia did an exemplary job on the right either.
so why shd I compare?

but I DO know Kia has doen quite decently as RB on many occasions.
now, if I am to compare, I'll compare with those performances. and I find that zandi just wont do.


-------------------------

I also did watch Enayati closely during my re-take.
and I have to say, the guy is not all flash. but by God, he's a work horse.
no, most of his running and work is OFF THE BALL, so not many ppl notice his contributions, but I gotta say, he did well in this game, except on 2 occasions.
one was that crappy cross. which actually is not entirely his fault coz he isnt that kind of player. and GN made a mistake to place him on the wing.

two, that lousy control of the ball near the end, when he passed the keeper but failed to stop the ball.
but, then again, I can excuse it for severe fatigue and tired legs more than anything else.


The guy ran his arse off in the game.
and most importantly, he started the team-defense where he was.
which is a great boon for our team.
he tackled, got tangled with defenders and mids with the ball, came back to aid our mids, ... .

I think it is a bit unfair to blame him or go at him this much ( seen all over the web ) just becoz he didnt score a goal !
yes. he didnt score, but he helped the team very well, I think.

I'd like to see him start as the center forward and play 90 minutes there, for me to judge him.

------------------

[Doctor DOOM]

kahbalood jan, if you slightly turn things in that triangle, you'd get better results:

karimi -------------------- VH

-----------enayati ----------

both karimi and VH are more adept with the ball and can cross and feed the lone striker.
and enayati cant do the above as well. but is a good center forward.

what do yu think?

[kaz]

I also did watch Enayati closely during my re-take.
and I have to say, the guy is not all flash. but by God, he's a work horse.
no, most of his running and work is OFF THE BALL, so not many ppl notice his contributions, but I gotta say, he did well in this game, except on 2 occasions.
one was that crappy cross. which actually is not entirely his fault coz he isnt that kind of player. and GN made a mistake to place him on the wing.
two, that lousy control of the ball near the end, when he passed the keeper but failed to stop the ball.
but, then again, I can excuse it for severe fatigue and tired legs more than anything else.
The guy ran his arse off in the game.
and most importantly, he started the team-defense where he was.
which is a great boon for our team.
he tackled, got tangled with defenders and mids with the ball, came back to aid our mids, ... .
I think it is a bit unfair to blame him or go at him this much ( seen all over the web ) just becoz he didnt score a goal !
yes. he didnt score, but he helped the team very well, I think.
I'd like to see him start as the center forward and play 90 minutes there, for me to judge him.
------------------

Dr. jan, I am sure that if everybody kept their eyes on Enayati when he is off the ball or we don't have it they'd fall in love with the guy. He gives it his all.

[khabalood]

kahbalood jan, if you slightly turn things in that triangle, you'd get better results:

karimi -------------------- VH

-----------enayati ----------

both karimi and VH are more adept with the ball and can cross and feed the lone striker.
and enayati cant do the above as well. but is a good center forward.

what do yu think?

Doctor jaan, my main concern with such a formation is that it would weaken our midfield, with Karimi so high up the field. Karimi is a much greater threat when played alongside Mahdavikia, and Kaebi as an attacking midfielder.

[Doctor DOOM]

Doctor jaan, my main concern with such a formation is that it would weaken our midfield, with Karimi so high up the field. Karimi is a much greater threat when played alongside Mahdavikia, and Kaebi as an attacking midfielder.

LOL.
I know where you went wrong.
hang on.
There's a manual for this. ( as there is always a manual for everything ! )

To get the CORRECT picture, please do the following steps:

1- extend your right and left hands and grip the sides of your lap-top or computer monitor , whichever applicable, firmly.

2- with a clockwise motion, twist and raise your right arm above while at the same time twist and lower your left arm.
( No. Wait. that's "anti-clockwise" .
Go the other way.
The manual is wrong. pahh ! those chinese ppl with their english ! )

3- continue twisting your arms so that the final position of the monitor or laptop screen , whichever applicable, is along the horizontal plane.

4- try to read the line up now.

note: In case your monitor is either fixed to the table or is too heavy, you may do one of the following techniques:

A- a quick trip to the kitchen and eat a couple of sandwiches.
( in other words: ye zarreh noon bokhor, joon begiri , amoo )
then come back and attempt the above procedure.

or

B- bend down and secure the palms of your hands firmly on the ground, and keeping your head between the palms, extend your legs skywards, so that your butt is where ur head was and ur head is where ur butt was, a moment ago.

then, attempt to read the line up.






























well, there's always a another way:
READ MY DAMNED POST AGAIN , DADASH !
I said karimi is a good ball handler, so naturally I'd keep him closer to the midfield !
and I think saying "enayati is a center forward" shd have given away my intentions. dont u think so?

[zzgloo]

Bahram khan,
About the Enayati and Kazemian work, remember the scen when Kazemain came in from right and passed back to Enayati very close to 6 yards, but the ball was a little behind and uzback guy kciked it to the corner. Or when Enayati received a pass and dribbled the goalie but couldnt' control the ball on the line and ball went out. These two scens were examples of how Enayati moved without the ball and put himself in position to get the ball.
Karimi has no support both Nekoo and Ando are miles away from him. If you yourslef play football, you have been in situation you have the ball and look for yourteam mates and either they are standing around or too far away from you. Then in that case, only choice is to dribble.
Biggest mistake in the team yesterday was Ando adn Nekoo together. Add Rajabzadeh Mobali someon close to Karimi and you will see what a gem he is.

Ali jan, please, call me Bahram, zz, or bahram kachal. , but do not call me Bahram Khan........
We are all so happy, we got the win and the 3 points....but,were you personaly satisfied with the coaching ?....were you satisfied with the team work ? did you like any two player combination work ? other than the assignment of passing to kazemian..what other design did you notice ?

[khabalood]

lol, okay doctor jaan, I see what you meant. Its an interesting idea, but to be honest I do not agree with the 4-3-3 formation. Unfortunately it is being forced on tm. I would, replace Karimi with Mahdavikia since Mahdavikia is the better shooter and passer, whereas Karimis superior ball control is needed just below them, especially since the only other midfielders would be Nekounam and Teymourian.

------------Enayati
-Hashemian-----------Mahdavikia

-------------Karimi
-----Nekounam-----Teymourian

Zandi--------------------------Kaebi
-------Rezaei--------Hosseini

------------Rudbarian

[Doctor DOOM]

I forgot to add one more issue that I had w the team:
lack of shooting .

when we have guys like nekunam, kia, karimi, VH, .... we didnt take shots at the goal?
I'm afraid it's been quite a while since I saw more than 3-4 shots in one game by our lads !
why?
we used to be a team that prided itself on consistently producing great shooters.
marhoom ghayeghraan, fonunizadeh, mohamadkhani, ... of the pre-96 generation.
then, daei, bagheri, kia, ... of the next generation.

then we had guys like nekunam, mobaali, and a couple of others showed this talent.
but in the last 3-4 years I have seen the team take lesser and lesser shots at the goal from afar !

why is that?
why did branko, and now GN ignore this talent in our team?
yes. we do see 2-3 shots per game. but when we got so many options, and especially in such conditions where running and expending energy is so difficult, why dont they resort to frequent shots from behind 18 ?

I'm worried we are ignoring this very useful tool in our team !

[Ali Chicago]

Ali jan, please, call me Bahram, zz, or bahram kachal. , but do not call me Bahram Khan........
We are all so happy, we got the win and the 3 points....but,were you personaly satisfied with the coaching ?....were you satisfied with the team work ? did you like any two player combination work ? other than the assignment of passing to kazemian..what other design did you notice ?

Baharam Joon (choomy enough for you dadash!!)

Please watch the game again. Maybe I am biased, but watch the game. First 15 minutes of the game Iran played well. As soon as Uzbaks defense pushed up, our team sent long balls behind their defense.
After the stupid goal up to around 43rd minutes team played bad. But second half team played well. I list specifics:

Iran's second and thrid wave of attack added very well. Look how many times the robond ball by Uzbak defense is being won by our midfield or defense again.

In attack we had 5-6 players joining the attack. Look at the scene on seoncd goal. When Karimi passes the ball to Ando he is pushing forward, Ando made the through pass and followed, Kazmemian made the run. Watch the reply, both Enayati and Hashemian joined teh attck as well that is 5. In many other scenes, look at Kazemain cross the goes over the Enayati's head look how Madanchi is added on the far left and tries to recover the ball. On Nekoo's head ball right at the goalie, Iran has three players Nekoo Hashemain, Enayati right there converging. Couple of players didnt' have a good day (Kia, ando and Nekoo) and Karimi was average despite that we had a good game (not great but good).

On defensive end, please watch our defense. Whenever Uzbaks game. There was a pressure defender (whoever was closest to teh ball), there were two or three supporting defenders around. I wish we could sit together and I freeze the game and count the players for you whenever Uzbaks attacked us. Look when they attacked from our left, in one scene Zandi pressured and forced the guy to go in width, Rezai didn't let him to get into the box, Nekoo tackled the guy still had teh ball and now Karimi tackled the guy. This is high class defending. U can say Uzbakistan isn't a high class team, maybe you are right. But beleive me, most fans from football just undrestand the guy who driblles the ball (that is why Karimi is worshiped, as were his predecessors, guys like Hamid Deraskhshan, Namjoo Motlagh and in older days, Ali Parvin of course).

Addition of Madanchi was a great great move. As soon as Uzbaks attacked our left, Madanchi was added. This tells me our coaching staff reacts real time to the game situation. Most fans don't see these intracasies of the game, but a traind eye sees this.

Our midfield Ando, Nekoo and Karimi won so many balls in the second half. I wish I had stats of ball possesion for the second half of the game. I am sure, our team (just in second half) had much much more ball possesion, despite we defending to some degree after Kazmian goal.

You will see Uzbaks might beat even China. Uzbaks aren't a push over team. We will see. We played against a good team and still found a way to win. That tells me a lot. Teams that find a way to win on a day that their main stars didnt' show (Kia, Nekoo, Karimi Ando) are going far.