Iran - Zambia game

[Doctor DOOM]

I just watched the TM-Zambia game and I must say I'm not in a very "good place" !
... on many fronts.


before anything else, let me ask a general question.
you want to reach from point A to B as early as possible. you have a few options available. you can walk, run or drive to point B.
first you try walking. but you're late & you fail.
next time you try walking again, thinking you dont have substantial evidence that walking is slow. you fail again.
third time, instead of trying the run or drive, you walk again. and lo & behold, you fail ! what a surprise !!
now, if you , for the fourth time, try to walk the distance, what would ppl call you?


1- in TM we have tried the 2 def-mid formation and we havent seen any great results borne out of this masterful idea.

2- in TM we've tried playing zareh as LB and time and again we've seen it's a failed idea.

3- in TM we've tried playing the game without a playmaker and we've always come up empty handed.

4- in TM we've tried the 4-2-3-1 formation with a single forward, and we've seen again and again that neither our players know how to work this system, nor do we have the right tactics and player selection to get anything out of this crappy formation!


now, tell me why shd we try the same failures again and again?
what does that say about us?


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

on zareh as LB, apart from the point I was making in the other thread on daei wanting to "prove something right to ppl" .... and once again, as usual, the idea falls flat on its face .... I must add, today, we saw how a very young inexperienced coach ( not much older than daei, btw ) easily spotted the GAPING HOLE in our defense ; zareh at LB, and exploited it again and again and scored 2 goals and created many more opportunities for themselves.

this young coach took only 30 minutes to recognize this weakness.
why shd it take our coach(es) countless games and even then, come up with the same FAILED EXPERIMENT once again ?
why?

these are the dangers of amassing the same old (branko) gang in ur staff that refused to see the weaknesses of TM at that time, and true to form, refuses to see the VERY SAME weaknesses even today !!!!!!!!!!!

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


We cant blame much on our single forwards , be it enayati or khalili for not scoring. simply becoz our arrangement and set up is wrong!
when we dont provide a PROVIDER behind them, it is very unfair to expect goals from them.

today, the 3 players behind enayati were our weakest players !
zandi was way below par and was rightfully subbed.
nekunam was not the usual neku and played below his usual. his passing wasnt all that great either and he was slow as well.
ando was the absolute worst player on the pitch!

so when we line such players behind our SINGLE forward, we shdnt expect anything better.

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


now, the matter of EXPERIENCE VS. FORM:
zareh was played exactly becoz ............................ ?????????????????????????
what? becoz he's had the experience of playing at TM since 04 ?
and prey tell, did this experience plug the hole at LB?
NO.
it was ridiculous how he was left behind, dribbled, passed easily, stranded, .... again and again ! pathetic !

wouldnt FORM have a better chance at that?

just becoz one moron from some crappy village in croatia played him there ( and FAILED AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN & ...... etc ), shd we do the same ?

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

and finally one of the two issues that have been plaguing our TM for a long time now:
SHOOTING
( the other is proper & thougthful use of set pieces )

simple Q: why cant our players shoot?
why dont they ?

zaboonemoon moo dar avord !!
ah!



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p.s.: going over the above points, arent you taken back to ... say, Feb/March of 2006, pre-WC ?
the EXACT SAME points?
I mean this post could have been taken , word for word, from one of those posts !

now, I ask, have we progressed ?

[Martin-Reza]

I couldn't disagree more - surprise, surprise.

Zare was ok, he was good in first half, then weaker in second. I just don't get how you can bash Zare who plays in a position with barely any alternative while Kaebi plays like shit on the right. I really say I support Zare as leftback, neither Beikzadeh nor Asadi could ever convince me. Nosrati or Jalal Akbari would be other options I'd like.

4-2-3-1 is a great compact formation, our already unstable defense would have huge problems with a DM less!

You demand only one DM but an OM-playmaker and two strikers, so the only formation fulfilling your wish would be a 4-4-2 diamond - which would mean no offensive wingers.

[Doctor DOOM]

^ .
I think below explains why some ppl may think ( or try to portray a different picture from reality ) differently about zareh's performance:

this young coach took only 30 minutes to recognize this weakness.

once this hole was discovered, it became a freaking german autobahn !!!!


and LOOLLL. I hope branko reads all this for such posts to have some fruition & purpose.

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

as for the formation, well, given our REPEATED attempts and REPEATED FAILURE, it doesnt take an einstein to find out "SIMPLICITY IS THE KEY".

play a far simpler formation of 4-4-2 and settle the players and tactics and ... first.
once you get that, then try the complicated ones.
or in more simple words:
YOU GOTTA WALK BEFORE YOU TRY TO RUN.

[mkbf2]

My quick take; I hope this isnt what the TM of the next 4 yrs will look like and please god maim Enyati, he is killing me and Iran

[Martin-Reza]

^ .
I think below explains why some ppl may think ( or try to portray a different picture from reality ) differently about zareh's performance:



once this hole was discovered, it became a freaking german autobahn !!!!


and LOOLLL. I hope branko reads all this for such posts to have some fruition & purpose.

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

as for the formation, well, given our REPEATED attempts and REPEATED FAILURE, it doesnt take an einstein to find out "SIMPLICITY IS THE KEY".

play a far simpler formation of 4-4-2 and settle the players and tactics and ... first.
once you get that, then try the complicated ones.
or in more simple words:
YOU GOTTA WALK BEFORE YOU TRY TO RUN.

And Zambia got what out of the "Autobahn"? One cross from Zare's side which Hajsafi failed to close down, not Zare, and one goal from half-right by a central striker after Zare started a chain of mistakes by a turnover in the opponent's half. Yet there was enough time for the team to clear the ball or mark the strikers, but Aghili, Hosseini and even Nekounam failed to do so. Sadeghi was nowhere near even.

As if Asadi would be the solution. Branko tried him and didn't want him, GN tried him and didn't want him and now Daei tried him and didn't want him. If Zare is replaced it will be by Beikzadeh, who didn't and will not do better than Zare.

There are like 100 factors in a football game, you pick out one and without any good explanation simply declare it as the reason why we "fail". As if today's friendly game was a failure.

It's always easy to claim everything would have been better with one single change. I really doubt simply changing the formation to a not closely defined "4-4-2" (diamond, flat or square??) would have resulted in a better game, I'd rather say the opposite might well have happened.

[Martin-Reza]

Just to explain, I don't mean Zare was good, but

a) the alternatives are really weak as well

b) it's unfair to only bash Zare when Kaebi on the right at least was equally poor - Kaebi was directly responsible for the first goal and had some bad blunders as well, watch the 34th minute again, a horrible blunder by Kaebi would have cost us against any slightly stronger opponent

[Doctor DOOM]

^^ 1- LOL.'
and exactly how many goals are correct to say a defender didnt do what was needed of him?
6?
9?
13?

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"branko tried him & didnt like him" !!!!!
???????????????
so?

LOL since when branko's likes and dislikes made sense, .... for me or anyone to lay that as the seal of approval or disapproval ???
in fact time and experience has shown he was usually more WRONG than right




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

^
2- I'm thinking kaabi has had more than good amount of good games in this post for us to allow him a down period.
.... EXTREMELY UNLIKE of zareh's case at LB.

for god's sake, zareh was picked becoz of his game against sepahan. but nobody wants to acknowledge he played on the RIGHT SIDE MIDFIELDER and NOT AS LEFT BACK !!!
LOL

[Martin-Reza]

If you rule out any defender who was partially on fault on a conceded goal in a TM match, we will very soon play without any defenders, not to talk about leftbacks in particular.

[zzgloo]

I realy do not think the formation, whether 4-4-2, or 4-2-3-1, etc,is the issue here...these formations are used all over the world with great success,and it all boiles down to how the coach is implementing them...
Formation by itself does nothing...it is how the resposibilities is described to the players and how well, they would fit the formation.....
Daei, is a weak coach, and he is even weaker on the defense !

[Paradigm]

Here are my thoughts on a few players:

Leave out Enayati who has proven time and again he is not useful for TM. If we need an experienced forward, bring back Hashemian who has been tested in teams such as Bochum, Bayern Munich, and Hannover 96.

Leave out S. Zare' who has never been a natural LB and not reliable in that position anyway. I would use Amir Sadeghi, Madanchi, or even Nikbakht as LB for an offense minded team.

Defeniteky invite and use Shojaie for the midfield, Mobali makes a perfect sub, also please bring back Karimi. Shahpoorzadeh does not seem to be TM-A material, he should have been sent to the West Asian Games instead.

All in all, we have many more players to choose from, compared to just a few years ago. This is good news. The challenge however is to identify the best make-up of the team and find out which players have the best chemistry together. Certainly IFF need to plan a few more test matches before the round 2 of the qualifications.

[Doctor DOOM]

well, I think we can safely say it is MORE than my personal opinion and a large majority of ppl believe the same.
so it stops being ONE person's personal opinion


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

I also dont see the THIRD coach there.
I only see branko and daei names mentioned there.
unless you are reading another post from another thread.

we all saw asadi did comparatively better than zareh ( definitely ) and even nosrati on the LB, the couple of times he was tried. majority of ppl also agreed.
so I dont see what's the problem here.

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

and as for nosrati.
I think you all can save urselves some face by pausing a bit and seeing WHO usually plays the LB in the team nosrati plays in.
maybe then you wouldnt make such statements that serve nothing, but do some damage in fact.


now, you may have a point in asking why do I keep saying asadi and not nouri, then.
then, I'd have to answer you : nouri wasnt even called up by daei, so that leaves only asadi who may do a less damaging job than nosrati or zareh ( definitely ).

[Hajagha]

Rezaei and Hajsafi were the positive aspects of this friendly. Both were great additions to TM.

All our three starter center midfielders were not even close to their 20% standard. I rather PP right back (I forgot his name) over ka'ebi. Hossnini, Aghili and Zare were OK, not great though. Bring in Khalili as well. I think Jabari will be better than Zandi too, not much a difference though. Keep both Ando and Nekonam, they will bounce back.

The game was more alive when you have no over-weighted players in the squad.

Cheers,

[gol_kuchik]

The bottom line is, we have blown 2 games in a row while ahead by 2 goals. I don't think that second penalty awarded to us was just. I do think the biggest
problem is that these players have not gotten much of chance to play together and that's the real problem. Unfortunately we don't have any time left and our nagging fans, after each game complain about their favorite player not getting a chance.

I sincerely hope Daei turns off all the media and try to come up with a formation and stick with it. With so many games in the month of June, I hope he does not try to come up with different formation (like GN did) every game.

Rather he should try and stick with something conservative.

DD jan, if anything I would like to ask you when did a Branko team get socred two goals against (2 games in a row) by Asian teams?

If you are too offense minded, and your team is not well balanced you will open up a lot in the back (even if you are Brazil).

At this point I hope Daie tries to get something like Sepahans approach under Bonacic (Viera is crap and should be fired):

Get solid Defence and be opportunistic in counter attacks (with the likes of Maydavoudi and Bigdeli this will work great).

I really think we have the pieces someone just have to put them together I hope Daie figures the formation fast enough.

[Doctor DOOM]

GK jan, you give daei or GN, or even MK, close to 5 years with the kind of players available to him, and I'm pretty sure you'd see better results.
( btw, there were some scores like that. didnt korea score 2, or japan, or kuwait , or oman, or bahrain, or ... for an example or two ?)

but you didnt get my drift. I'm not saying : "why daei's team doesnt have great teamwork, or kill the opposition, or concede goals or play perfect football or ... ". if you read my posts, I try to stay away from such matters coz I know such things need TIME and daei hasnt had the time to get things right. I keep saying this over & over, in fact.
those issues are beyond the couple of days of training or even weeks of camps.

but what I AM talking about is the choices and decisions made.
remember, making choices in selection of personnel doesnt need that much of time, especially when we're talking about the tried-n-tested players.
players like rezaei, hajsafi, beikzadeh, .... I can understand. not players like zareh or ... .
daei cannot say I need time to see if zareh would perform at LB. coz we've already seen how he does, time and time again.
for god's sake, the guy doesnt even play in this post in his club !

I understand a lot of ppl suddenly take things personally when the name of branko comes up ( not you, btw ) and they feel COMPELLED to rise to defend him ( and indirectly, their own choices ). but fair is fair. zareh was tried way too many times and we have seen it was the wrong choice.
why fight it?



yes, we DO have the individual pieces, who individually would rank extremely HIGH in asian standards.
and it does take time to make a cohesive unit out of them. agreed.
but at the same time, HOW we use them , also, is of utmost importance.
just becoz X is a great player, it doesnt mean he can perform greatly in a different post. therefore not only SELECTION is important, but also ARRANGEMENT is as crucial.

and along with those, HOW we use these great players, in terms of tactics, is also important.
you can have a fantastic striker, playing as a striker. but if you dont have the right tactics and formation to extract the best out of him, his efficiency is reduced.
logical?
yes, some may say "if he's so fantastic, he shd be able to do it all by himself". that happens ... sometimes. not all the time.
football is a group game unfortunately and the pieces are all inter-connected. norm is more often than not, he will not be able to live upto his potential. and that is in an organized football. ours? forget about it !

you bring in messi for TM striker. but play this zandi, ando and nekunam behind him. what can messi do that would be greatly different? even messi needs someone who feeds him the right balls. but if those players keep losing the ball or give the wrong pass or are slow or ..., what can he achieve?
( yes, he can do another maradonna-clone run, single-handedly. but how often does that happen? that's an exception, not a rule ).

so after the correct SELECTION, your FORMATION & TACTICS also needs to be correct given the kind of players you have.
when your players cant deliver the duties of the lone-striker line up, why do you keep insisting on it?
when your two def-mids cant create a decent play ( like a playmaker ), why do you insist on having 2 def-mids and leave out a playmaker ?

remember, I am not making unnecessary demands such as teamwork or cohesion or tactics like holland or performance like brazil or ... .
I'm talking about the very first steps in making a team; selection and arrangement.