Iran-Taiwan + Comments/Analysis

[Hadi]

Lets discuss what we saw in the match today here in the F+ forum.

Taiwan was much weaker than I expected and TM should have won with a better scoreline and played a better match. Although I understand that this is TM's first match after a long time and we saw some new faces, but we saw the usual flaws again.

Players:

The Bad:
1-Ali Daie: againts defenders who are less than 1/10 of what we will face in WC he was unable to control the ball well. No need to say this again, he is slow, his finishing has drastically declined and he is desperate. The only positive move was his assist to Madanchi's first goal.

2-Mohammad Nosrati: He claimed he is back on form but again we saw the nerves. It was funny how he constantly tried to be like "Lucio" and take part in attacks. Today he played as a central defender and in 1-2 occasions showed he is not TM material. How is he going to handle the huge pressure the Portugal and Mexican strikers put on him when he has the ball. How can he play simple and effective passes in that sort of pressure and atmosphere. How can he not give away freekicks againts quicker more skillful player. He is a disaster waiting to happen in the WC. He may not have been a disaster today but I am looking at this guy playing againts Christiano Ronaldo.

3-Rasool Khatibi: The selfish boy does it again. Frustrates all. We didnt even see his usually good finishing. Akbarpor also showed he isnt experienced in TM level and needs more time.


The Good:
1-Mojtaba Jabbari: Man of the match. Just compare him with Nekonam. Nekonam has turned into a mediocore player and Jabbari was Iran's sole playmaker

2-Teymorian: Did pretty well although I dont like to use him on the right at all.

3-Kabi: Surprisingly he showed he is stil our number one man in Right defense. Good passing, quick and motivated.

Now to the tactical flaws I saw:
-The lack of putting constant and organized pressure on the opponant when they had the ball. Taiwan didnt have much of the ball but we never saw organized pressuring from our strikers and Attacking Midfielders. The Taiwan players were actually so weak that they gave the ball away themselves without any pressure most of the times.

-Lets hope this was the last time we played with Nekonam-Alavi combination. With this formation, we have 0 creativity, speed and ideas in midfield. We just need to use one of them and preferably with Nekonam. Alavi will just slow our game.

-Our tactic was obviously crossing in todays match. But it was sad to see our players unable to get a good percentage of healthy crosses againts D-class defenders. And when they did, our strikers showed they act like amatures when heading the ball (ie Daie)

-I am sure the Mexican coach was smiling when he saw how slow our team is and how easily Mexico will be able to dictate the game.

-The biggest problem of TM in the WC in my opinion, will be the pressure of the oponant on our defenders. Everytime we can get a healthy ball to our playmakers in the WC, we will be dangerous. But I am afraid our defense (and defensive midfielders) will crack under the pressure, make mistakes, give the ball away and will look confused in no time. We need to work on this. Just watch our 1998 WC tapes and see how well the ball is transferred from our defense to Estili, Mahdavikia and Azizi.

Here are my scores (kicker style)

Nosrati: 4
Golmohammadi: 3
Zare: 3.5
Alavi: 4
Kaebi: 2.5
Nekounam: 3
Khatibi: 4.5
Daei: 4.5
Madanchi: 2.5
Akbarpour: 4
Teymurian: 2.5
Kazemian: 3
Jabbari: 2

[Doctor DOOM]

sorry hadi jan, but as we say , moorcheh chieh ke kalleh paache-ash chi basheh ?

taiwan ?

agha, palestine beat this team 8-0 !!!!
palestine !!



now, I know there will be some naive fanboys who will say this was a great game ( just becoz they see a number 4 on the score-board ! ) , but come on....

if we play like this, we'll be torn to pieces from the first minute , at the WC !

[Haf3z]

"takravi" and we have today's game in a nutshell.
I wonder what the staff will bring from this game. From my point of view it gave nothing. Perhaps some new players should be given the chance again because of their efforts to at least TRY to play for the team.
But I guess I know too little about professional football to say for sure if this should be done or not.
All I know is that we overestimate TM currently. Each WC should mean something positive for the football nation as a whole though. After this summer, even if we'll be eaten by all 3 teams in the group stage, there will be a paradigm shift in Iranian football. Some players will leave TM for good, and young, modern and hungry players will (hopefully) introduce themselves. I believe it's fair to think that in another 4 years, we'll be the best team in Asia with a chance of advancing to the 1/8 finals in the WC in South Africa.

[ShirFarhad]

It isn't easy to play against a team that plays with a 9-0-1 formation. Overall I think we had a decent game today and we deserved to score more, but like always we still lack in finishing our chances.

We are not the only team in the world that has problems playing against teams that are playing with a 9-0-1 formation. Take a look at the results of Holland against Andorra. Although all the players of Holland are worldclass players they still couldn't score more than 4 goals against a team which their best player could be playing the third division of Slovakia.

You can't expect to get a 10-0 result when you are playing against a defensive team like Chinese Taipei did today. I am not using this as an excuse, so don't think I am saying that we played superb today or something, but its almost impossible to play against these anti-football teams.

And just like we "have" a billion threads as a proof how poor Team Melli played in the last 1.5 years if Team Melli even did so we have a billion of results as a proof showing how other countries that are in a much higher position than Iran how they struggle againist weak teams like Chinese Taipei.

Anyways I think the players that impressed me a lot today were Mehrzad Madanchi and Javad Kazemian. This doesn't mean they were better than Hossein Kaebi and Mojtaba Jabbari but these two players impressed me very much because my expectations from them wasn't that high. However the best players on the field today were without any doubt Jabbari and Kaebi.

The players with a poor performance today were Khatibi, Zare and Akbarpour. Daei didn't had a very good game, but he managed to assist a goal, score a goal, hit the post and even game some good passes. Overall I don't think its a good thing to start Daei in the World Cup but he did a lot more than most of the players. Still like I said he wasn't good enough and I think he was also very angry and dissapointed of his own performance because it was for the first time that I didn't saw Daei jumping after scoring a goal. Although Akbarpour was only given around 25-30 minutes to play he had two excellent chances which he should have scored but instead he ruined the chances. After that he gave one pass which was also a wrong pass. Rasoul Khatibi had around one hour to prove if he is Team Melli material at all and he isn't. The biggest miss was after the great pass of Daei just after the second goal which he sent wide.

Based on the German ranking syle this would be my ranking for the Team Melli players today:

Vahid Taleblou - 3
He didn't had anything to do so thats why I gave him a 3. This means he was average and that he didn't do anything good or bad.

Sattar Zare - 4.5
He was probably one of the best players in the last matches he played for Team Melli but today he was horrible. He gave one decent cross and a few good passes in the second half otherwise I would have given him a 5.5

Yahya Golmohammadi - 3
Played an average game.

Mohammad Nosrati - 4
He played an average match in the first half but made some unneccessary mistakes in the second half.

Hossein Kaebi - 2
Excellent speed, good dribbling skills and almost all of his passes and crosses were good.

Javad Nekounam - 3
He was very active and gave some good passes but his shots were horrible today. He had some good actions and some bad scenes (shots) today.

Mohammad Alavi - 4
Except of his shot that went wide I didn't saw much from Alavi.

Andranik Teymourian - 2.5
His goal was very nice and he had some good passes, but his crosses weren't superb. Still he was one of the better players today.

Mojtaba Jabbari - 1.5
Without any doubt he was the best player today. I didn't saw anything wrong from him. Everything was good what he did.

Ali Daei - 3
Although he was very weak and slow he still managed to score a goal and give an assist and hit the post. He had some very good moments and some good moments so thats why he was average in my opinion.

Rasoul Khatibi - 5
Branko gave him 60 minutes to proof what he is worth and instead of taking the minutes to shine he ruined every chance he got and the only thing he was thinking of was dribbling. He couldn't dribble two players of Chinese Taipei yet he expected to dribble 3 players in one time. The result of this was, another chance got wasted.

Mehrzad Madanchi - 2
After Javad Kazemian came into the game he didn't do much because almost everything went through the right side of the field, but before he came in he was excellent on the left side and he also managed to score two goals.

Siavash Akbarpour - 4.5
Missed two great chances and gave a wrong pass. He got around 25-30 minutes to play but he played very weak in those 25-30 minutes.

Javad Kazemian - 2.5
He only got 15 minutes to play but he did more than Khatibi did in 60 minutes. He gave two excellent passes to Akbarpour but Akbarpour managed not to score those goals otherwise Kazemian would have got two beautiful assists.

[Iranyar Rezatank]

two things: The combination Jabbari- Teymurian works very well. Madanchi seems to be a solution to our left problem.

Taleblu ?
Nosrati: 3
Golmohammadi: 6
Zare: 3
Alavi: 6
Kaebi: 6 (Qatar influence!)
Nekounam: 4 (UAE influence!)
Khatibi: 5
Daei: 6
Madanchi: 9
Akbarpour: 5
Teymurian: 9
Kazemian: 6
Jabbari: 9

[Martin-Reza]

I must actually say Kaabi is getting on my nerves. The guy's providings are so unprecise, I wonder if one single cross reached target. Maybe it's really a better idea to pull Kia back as wingback and play Teymourian as right mf in the diamond.

[Iranyar Rezatank]

I must actually say Kaabi is getting on my nerves. The guy's providings are so unprecise, I wonder if one single cross reached target. Maybe it's really a better idea to pull Kia back as wingback and play Teymourian as right mf in the diamond.

Yes Kabi's crosses were not as they were before (Qatari influence).

I think it is better Jabbari at right and Teymourian in the centre next to Karimi and zandi (if we play with 24 midfields). Otherwise next to Nekunam (or even instead of him!, in the deffensive Midfield)

[Haf3z]

I must actually say Kaabi is getting on my nerves. The guy's providings are so unprecise, I wonder if one single cross reached target. Maybe it's really a better idea to pull Kia back as wingback and play Teymourian as right mf in the diamond.

I think so too. But Kaebi is small and quick, and TM gains many freekicks due to his rushes on the right flank, so I don't think he will be benched.

[faraz]

Well, after watching the match, a couple of things come to mind:

I still do not know what formation we were playing. If someone can show me, I'd be more than happy. The very first thing I noticed was that Alavi, Teymourian and Nekounam (all of whom play the same position) were on the field at the same time. Again, I'd love to see the formation!

Secondly, the fact that Khatibi started instead of Kazemian worries me. Khatibi today showed that he is nowhere near TM standards. It was a good test, but a failed one (which is okay - as long as we KNOW where he stands). Meanwhile, Kazemian played great and fed some very nice balls to our forwards who as usual messed up. He really should have started.

Akbarpour deserved more time. The fact that Daei got a start over Akbarpour worries me. Let's talk about some "facts" here. Daei has scored less goals in the IPL than Akbarpour, and just simply has not shown any capability to start and play the full 90 minutes against such a lowly team as Taiwan. I would have loved to see more from Sia.

Thirdly, Zareh pains me. His control of the ball is embarrassing. He lost the ball on so many occasions on balls that I could even bring down with less than a millimeter of separation. Someone should throw balls in the air and have Zareh control them over and over again - it was disgusting. Why Amirabadi didn't play instead of Zareh (even though Amirabadi showed good potential in the Tehran Cup) boggles the mind.

Jabbari is amazing. He simply deserves to be in the squad, and perhaps even start. I was so impressed with his control, vision and one-touch game. It is completely opposite the many styles seen in the IPL. He doesn't hold on to the ball too often, and when he does, he is in promising positions. I thought he did exceptionally well, and especially when he sent in some very dangerous aerial balls with a lot of speed and dip. He could be a menace to any defence.

Ma'adanchi seemed energized and ready to go. He may be a good starter on the LEFT WING of TM, or at the very least, may deserve a spot on the bench. He sent in a beautiful ball to Ali Daei (very European type of cross) that Daei could not have missed. Of course, I'm judging too early and it was afterall only one match (although he played well in the Bayern game as well).

Nosrati - well, he also had some very embarassing instances where had it been any other team (especially a speedy organized football team like Portugal or Mexico), we would have been punished. I do not feel comfortable at all with Nosrati in the squad. We have much better players who are not as awkward and more confident on the ball. At least, that is my opinion.

Teymourian was okay, although he didn't do anything too special. In all honesty, if he wouldn't have scored on that chance, then he simply should not play football. He had the whole net to shoot at and didn't make any mistakes. I was wondering also if one of the more knowledgable members can tell me where Teymourian was playing? I saw him down the right frequently and assumed he was playing as a right winger - except that would mean an awkward formation, as no1 was on the left?

Kaebi was a driving force of the team. Although his final crosses lacked accuracy, he always found himself in prominent positions, and simply schooled the Taiwanese defenders on more than one occasion. I love this kid.

Nekounam and Golmo - why they started, I have no clue. They will be starters in the WC and should have rested. I would have loved to see a player like Sadeghi in there to show what he has as a central defender.

Finally, where was Rajabzadeh???? He is scorching the IPL, yet did not get a second of playing time??? What is going on there?

My kicker grades:

Nosrati: 4,5
Golmohammadi: 3,5
Zare: 4,5
Alavi: N/A (didn't see too much of him)
Kaebi: 2.5
Nekounam: 3,5
Khatibi: 5
Daei: 4,5
Madanchi: 2.5
Akbarpour: 4,5
Teymurian: 3
Kazemian: 2,5
Jabbari: 2

Final thoughts:

a) We are missing Mobali. Some members here do not wish to admit it, but it is true. Mobali could have been the driving force of our team today.

b) Taiwan played with 9 men in and around the defence. We still found a way through and still played a decent game. We had some flow, but there is much room for improvement.

c) We saw some very motivated players out there (Ma'adanchi). These players may be more useful to us than the Zandi's, the Nosrati's and the Zareh's out there.

d) I don't necessarily think it was a successful match for Branko, but at the very least, he did get some idea of how these newer players play alongside other good players, and on the international stage.

...FINALLY, I am waiting for the Costa Rica match. I expect a lot out of our TM from that match and think it would be a huge confidence booster if we were to go in, play an attacking match, and come out with the victory.

P.S...

Again, if someone can put down what formation we played, i'd be more than happy. I couldn't easily pick out our formation, and was especially confused when I saw which players were on the field (WHO started on the left???)

[Amirza]

I have not seen the match yet - but just from the line-up - I must say:

What to we achieve by testing Nosrati, Zare, and Alavi - over and over.
Haven't they been tested enough ? Aren't we a bit interested to actualy test others to replace them ?

Are these boyz bonyad Shahid sahmieh in TM ? I can't help but to wonder !! what the hell is going on ?

[Hadi]

Faraz jan I 100% agree.

If Branko has learnt a lesson, he will field a very different lieup and test other players.

Maybe use Sadeghi, Rajabzadeh, Shojayi, Kazemian, Madanchi and Akbarpor from the start.

[Doctor DOOM]

unfortunately I dont have much time to talk and will address things in detail later, but for the time being lets just suffice with these :

1- remember trying to shove that square peg into the round hole, ... for months and wasting of game after game insisting on this braindead idea?

nosrati playing as central defender ( instead of the idiotic idea of left back ) answered all these, and underlined why a coach who is NOT fit to be a head coach ( a decision maker ) and is only good for assisting, is NOT a good idea to leave a national team to him !


2- apart from yet another wasting of opportunity in testing those who deserved to be tested, we saw Daei start and finish !!


3- and the most absurd and idiotic decisions of all :
playing 3 natural def-midfielders at the same time !!!!

alavi, teymoorian and nekounam !
and the most braindead of them all :
3 DEFENSIVE midfielders against a team so weak, so impotent that they say "it is an honor to be PLAYING Iran" !!!!
how much more WIMPY can this guy get ?

what a revolutionary idea to "WASTE MORE OPPORTUNITY" instead of actually planning an alternative midfield formation !!!!!!!!

branko ought to be given a medal in conjuring up more ways to waste chances , each and every time !!!!!

[BehzadB]

I must actually say Kaabi is getting on my nerves. The guy's providings are so unprecise, I wonder if one single cross reached target. Maybe it's really a better idea to pull Kia back as wingback and play Teymourian as right mf in the diamond.

have not watched the game yet, but

Kaabi , hmmm... , I have said it before, he too is overrated.

Pull Kia back and put Kazemian in his place (right midfield in the diamond). The style of both players will be complementing each other.

[BehzadB]

2- apart from yet another wasting of opportunity in testing those who deserved to be tested, we saw Daei start and finish !!

When the goals are officially counted, HE MUST BE IN for the whole 90 minutes. That is a general IFF policy. :bs:

[khabalood]

just a few thoughts

There were times throughout the match when Nosrati in the course of play was higher up in the field then Ali Daei. Now I'm not a football experrt and I don't play one on television, but how can a player be acting as a cb when he is inside the other teams box. This is a continuing problem and has not been resolved in years by Branko.

Defense, Defense, Defense and then hesitation. TM build up to play and then the actual play of getting the ball into an offense play is just too slow. There is also the issue of hesitating to move up the field and continuous back passing that tm does. If we are afraid to play an uptempo attack against chinese taipai how will we ever wish to do so against stronger teams. At the current rate that tm plays if we ever do get a chance to score against Portugal, so much time will be wasted that every single one of their players will get back into position, thus wasting our opportunity.

Who exactly are our defensive subs? Has any thought even gone into the issue? Why do players such as Golmohammadi and Nosrati continue to get played when the IPL has talent that could be utilized. Without any testing of subs we are leaving ourselves in a bad position especially considering the emotional state of our team in tournaments, which often leads to suspension i.e. asia cup.

Daei playing a full ninety is abuse. It is abusive to Daei whose body cannot handle a whole game. It is abusive to our other players since they warm the bench and its abusive to the Irani football fan who would like to keep at some good memories of Daei rather than have branko contaminate their mind with Daeis play at this stage in his career. I think Daei still deserves a place on the squad, just not 90 minutes worth of playing time.

Kaebi is just amazing and God willing will continue to improve in the coming years. The best replacement for Mahdavikia in the future.

Jabbari needs and deserves more playing time so we can see what he can do.

Amiraadi deserves more playing time as well, and I feel is not getting it so that Branko can help Nosrati keep his position as sub in lb. Whereas if he played he would challenge to start with Zare.

Nekounam is not the same as the ironman of last year. He has turned mediocre, no doubt due to the fact that he knows his place on the team is secure. If we had a decent coach this would not be the case.

Taleblou played a perfect game 10/10 from him. He made absolutely no mistakes and saved Nosrati after that awful back pass.

Khatibi and Akbarpour are not the equivalent of Oladi when it comes to talent. Oladi should have been given the chance along time ago, especially since tm lacks the striker who can carry the ball into the box as Azizi used to do. He would be the perfect compliment for Hashmian as Azizi was for Daei. He can learn to pass.

This said, I predict a loss to Costa Rica in the coming days. Sorry for being pessimistic but I don't see how tm could pull off the upset even with our legionares at the moment.