The power of POSITIVITY

[Doctor DOOM]

Ok. Put yourselves as the coach of a team playing another team, at least equal to yours, in every which way. You just scored a goal and for the past 15-20 minutes your opponent is running at you from all sides of the pitch, balls raining on your 18 from wings, center, aerial, … etc. you also know your strength is attacking football and defense is not exactly your best features.

The question is WHAT DO YOU DO ?

What do you think many coaches do?
Many coaches pull the team back and bring in another defender to crowd and make a wall in front of your 18.
Right ?

Not everyone.
Mr. Van Basten thinks otherwise.
Instead of trying to force a different psyche into his team, who are excellent attackers and positive players, and instead of attempting to make them something they are not, he does the more logical thing:
HE reinforces his team’s STRENGTH, instead of forcing a transformation.

He brings in not one, but TWO offensive minded players.
The first sub was even more shocking to everyone. He takes out a tall, burly physical def-mid and brings in a quick, wide player who would be ideal for counters. The next sub, also, while everyone was waiting for a defender or def-mid, he brings in yet another quick, wide player.
This means he UNDERLINES HIS TEAM’S STRENGTH and he gets the reward. Both his subs score goals off each other and they suddenly transform a game that they were under tremendous pressure from france, into a game of utter delight in offensive football with more goals that literally saps the energy & drive out of the opponent.

I wish we had such gutsy coaches in Iran in the past 5-6 years, who would BOLSTER OUR STRENGTHS, which is offensive football, than try to force a half-arsed defensive football that even after 5-6 years, we don’t feel comfortable and don’t perform it properly!

[Martin-Reza]

if i wanna race with schumacher in formula 1 and i can choose between peykan and corolla while he has his ferrari, do i have a chance to beat this guy in the first place?? NO i dont!
neither a corolla nor a peykan is good enough to beat a ferrari..

Very well said, but DD would argue we should take our NATURAL vehicle which supports our strength

It is also naive to believe Netherlands lone sthrength is offense. The defense is amazingly stable and was under pressure a lot against Italy and France (it wasn't like the great offense helped Holland keeping the ball away from the own half). With such defenders you can afford to bring more offensively minded players during a game, although you must not forget with Sneijder (MVP of the game) there was a player on the field who could play as second CM/DM - sth barely any of our OM can.

[Doctor DOOM]

and what IS our strength?
defensive football or offensive one?

which one are we traditionally good at?
which style do we find more players attracted to, even from the young age?

[BehzadB]

Becoz even before the start of the game, I was thinking there's so much of a similarity between Iran in asia and the dutch in europe. relatively speaking.

DD, How Relatively are we speaking here?

[Martin-Reza]

and what IS our strength?
defensive football or offensive one?

which one are we traditionally good at?
which style do we find more players attracted to, even from the young age?

It's not so simple, I wish it was. If defense really is our natural weakness compared to our Asian opposition, is exposing the already weak defense the key to better results?

But offensive strength doesn't mean liking offensive players. We traditionally play a football with a defense close to our goal. That is not offensive football, which requires not to defend so deep in the own half. I was amazed about Turkey who's fourback defended near the middle line against Portugal to make the space tight. That is offensive minded football - it didn't help them getting any points though. Our deep defending doesn't really support your claim of our natural heritage of offensive football.

It's always hard to tell from TV broadcasts, but I didn't have the impression Netherlands, especially after taking the lead, took any major risks by defending more upfront. Adding another offensive player helped the counter attack approach, but they didn't really play to maintain pressure and much possession after taking the lead, which France did and was punished for.

[yashar_fasihnia]

It's not so simple, I wish it was. If defense really is our natural weakness compared to our Asian opposition, is exposing the already weak defense the key to better results?

But offensive strength doesn't mean liking offensive players. We traditionally play a football with a defense close to our goal. That is not offensive football, which requires not to defend so deep in the own half. I was amazed about Turkey who's fourback defended near the middle line against Portugal to make the space tight. That is offensive minded football - it didn't help them getting any points though. Our deep defending doesn't really support your claim of our natural heritage of offensive football.

It's always hard to tell from TV broadcasts, but I didn't have the impression Netherlands, especially after taking the lead, took any major risks by defending more upfront. Adding another offensive player helped the counter attack approach, but they didn't really play to maintain pressure and much possession after taking the lead, which France did and was punished for.

true martin. how many times has van der sar saved hollands and van basten's ass in just these 2 games??!!!

further more,

teams whose defense plays further from the GK and hence, the whole team plays upfront require certain qualities:

1)first, they should really master the offside trap cos 1 ball behind the defense and the opponent becomes 1-on-1 with the GK! and this is not easy, requires a high coordination of the 4 defenders, high ability to read the game again by the 4 defenders, 4 defenders should be very alert and very quick in reacting to the offside trap and intense communication between the 4 defenders and the GK.

2)second, in a 4 back, specially a flat one, the GK acts as a sweeper and has to collect the loose balls. GKs like these should not be line GKs like rahmati and roudbarian, they should be box GKs like talebloo who tend to come out of their goal more often and are more ready in clearing balls sent behind or through the defenders!

3)such teams also require fast paced CBs who if beaten by the opponents strikers during the offside trap have enough speed to come back and either tackle the striker or atleast pressurize him and force him to miss that chance.

at the moment, we lack all the above 3 features.
1)our whole defense line is uncoordinated because they are relatively new to each other. plus the fact that the back 4 as a whole is still relatively new to iranian football and has settled completely in our football and our footballers.
2)our GK is a line GK who hardly comes out of goal and if he does, its often too late.
3)our CBs are like tractors, specially hosseini! with our defense playing close to the goal, we see our defense still having trouble with speedy strikers like ismael mattar and faisal khalil!

this makes our team to play close to our goal, the defense line, the midfield and the offense line. thats why players like sadeghi and nekounam seem so close to our own goal.

[Doctor DOOM]

1- I think we all can very easily distinguish between playing a team on par and as powerful ( holland-france ) or a team stronger ( turkey-portugal ).
very easily.
therefore the situations are NOT the same.

It is also amusing how we say "traditionally play defense close to the goal" ... unless tradition means the last 5-6 years.

coz I well remember the days of peyrovani, zarincheh, even panjali ( who used to have a wicked wicked freekick )and bayani (who used to take part on offense), ... when we didnt play this close and were more positive.
so what tradition are we talking about?
the trend that tried to transform us into an ultra cautious, defensive team through wrong formations and tactics since 5-6 years back ?
the same thing that I say : trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
that tradition?



and yashar is going on about the details of the present attitude, when I'm talking about how this present attitude has done us wrong from 5-6 years back.


anyway, the point was for each team & country to first learn about their natural style of football first.recognizing that, makes laying plans easier.
then you try to base your team on these styles and strengths.

we dont see england trying to play with sh*tload of flair or ball skill players. do we? they play TO THEIR STRENGTHS, which is a physical , high paced and frantic football. kick and run and high balls and ... becoz their players are supreme athletes and can sustain that kind of energy and pressure of running at top speed and getting into physical confrontations for 120 min's.

and you dont see brazil trying the above tactics. do you? they, too , play TO THEIR STRENGTHS, which is lots of flair, creative work, mostly on the ground, ... you know the rest.

you dont see sweden or norway trying to play brazilian football, do you?


this is what I'm talking about.
they have recognized what their natural style is and play to that form.
we are not !
our strengths and natural style is NOT defensive football. it is and always has been an attacking, offensive football.
but in the past 5-6 years, we've seen ppl trying to push it away from that strength.

why do you think MK, who has a fraction of branko's knowledge and international experience, did so well and started the latest chapter of Iranian football ? becoz he recognized our strengths that were offensive football and played to maximize that one.
you think which KIA would be a better player ? the 96 kia or 2005 kia?
or basically which team would be more internationally exposed and experienced and professional? the 96 team or 2005 team?

it's a different matter that he got the boot becoz instead of 2 teams qualifying from his TOUGHER group of FIVE teams ( ksa, china, qatar, kuwait, iran ), he was given only ONE qualifying spot.

had he have , for example, a group of FOUR teams with 2 minnows ( bahrain & N korea ) and if he had TWO qualifying spots , we'd have seen MK coaching us at 1998 france finals.

[yashar_fasihnia]

doctor peyman,
the only reason im going about the current situation, which i have clearly mentioned before, is because at the moment, we are in a very crucial situation and i think we need to react to these current circumstances because these current circumstances are dictating our TM and are the most influential factors in TM at the moment.

ye bar ke hamechi revale addiye khodesho pish gereft and we are back on the normal track, i would like to see some changes in this same TM.

[Doctor DOOM]

yashar jan, I am saying the exact same thing as you.
we both are talking about our current situation. well that was before we beat uae.

our team had 3 qualifiers our of 6, we had 3 draws and we had already finished TWO HOME games.
uae was leading the group also.
tell me which fan would recommend a DEFENSIVE strategy in such a situation?

we needed WINS, not draws.
for wins, we needed to SCORE goals, not only prevent from conceding.

THAT was the situation, which required more attacking football rather than defensive one.

now, had we been ahead of the pack and we just wanted to make sure we dont lose, then one can make the case for the defensive strategy with emphasis on not conceding. but our situation was exactly the opposite. and that required the opposite strategy.