Failure Points

[faraz]

I saw three real key points of failure, leaving aside the many small details, for the tie:

1. Daei's insistence on Bagheri --> FAILURE

Guys, am I alone on this? How the heck did the commentator believe that Karim played a great for us today?...he was an attacking midfielder and i barely saw him with the ball in the attacking third of the field! how about moving shojaei to his natural position behind the striker and bringing gholamnejad or kazemian as a natural right winger? i have never supported Karim's return to TM and still believe it was a mistake, especially with the amount of talent we have in that position.

2. Daei's insistence on long balls --> FAILURE

All I can say is poor Neko, who early on in the game tried to show himself to the defence, inching ever closing to receiving a simple side-footed pass from our central defenceman, but never got it. Ball was launched to our lone striker (more on him later) who had no impact on the game whatsoever, and resulted in cheap and frequent losses of possession.

3. Daei's insistence on V.H --> FAILURE

I would have taken him out at halftime and put in Borhani. In fact, I would not have even started with V.H. Borhani showed good form in the IPL, but more importantly, in our friendly matches and in my opinion, should have been awarded. V.H was bodied off the ball with ease, out-run like a schoolboy, and had absolutely no impact. Correct me if i'm wrong, but he did play 90 minutes right?! Outrageous.

These three things stood out the most for me personally...and no, i'm no expert but i'd love to see Daei's post-match conference and perhaps some reasoning as to why he did what he did (i know he's a little sensitive, hopefully the reporters don't insult him - rather ask constructively about his game plans).

More importantly, I would like to see him admit that:

a) the result was NOT good
b) our players did NOT play well as a team

...wonder if either will be said.

[mehdy]

If Daei out Bagheri early times,KOREA didn't get free kick...

I disappointed at Daei and our TM players...

This is HOME game,why they cannot score except of FK?

[Doctor DOOM]

all valid points brought up by Faraz.

[police in helicopter]

And Mr Daei is happy with the result and with his players while Huh is unhappy despite an away draw at Azadi.

Hmmm...shouldn't it be the contrary?

[BehzadB]

Koreans had come to Azadi to end their winless streak against us and I am pretty sure they thought they will. They surly talked enough about it..

well, the streak continues and they were lucky not to leave with 0 points..

When 2 teams are that close, it's always the little things that make the difference.. and Sure enough, we made a few little mistake that we could have avoided.. Bagheri , IMHO, played a very good game for a while, but should have been pulled before Shojaie.. we didn't send enough balls into the box for VH and bagheri.. Shojaie himself was having a bad day with crossing and serving the ball on set plays, and made a couple bad decisions on counters..

But still, I think over all, Iran played a very tough team pretty fair and square.. we need more speed up front, and for god's sake teach someone to serve the ball into the box on set plays, a little better.

[KasraKhan]

I was a supporter of Bagheri's return to TM, but not as a 90 minute player.

If Daei would've subbed Bagheri off in the 60th minute or so, right after we scored, we would've had fresh legs in there at a very important position in the middle of the pitch.

I although agree that VH is completely done. He has nothing left in the tank, and he has shown nothing in TM since AC 2007 under GN. We should have a farewell match is his honor and show our gratitude for all that he has done for TM, and then good-bye.

[Ali Chicago]

I just finished watching the game. It wasn't a pretty game overall. Both temas didn't have enough muscle in the offensive thirds of the other team.

I beleive some of the comments toward V.H. is unfair. He didn't have a good day, I agree with that comment. But, I think that was the effect, not the cause. our midfield didn't support him and fed him decent balls. Plus if you look our presence in the offensive third wasn't good overall. Out team did well, in getting back and defend (which is a new thing in our football I think). In other words, our team did well, in "defensive transition" as they teach it in coaching classes, but we didn't do well, in offensive transitions. Our offensive transition was at max with 2-3 players (merely relying on the personal speed of Kaabi and Khalatbari).

I think, V.H. should have been subbed but not due to his own ineffectiveness, it was due to the ineffectiveness of our midfield in offensive third. Having speedy Akbarpoor and Borhani (and considering the not so fast pace transition of our team) at least would have left more spaces for our two fast pace forwards chase long balls.

Faraz jaan, V.H. didn't play 90 minutes, he was subbed with Akbarpoor right after Korea's goal. I think Akbarpoor Borhani came late. These two considering how long they have been playing together in SS needed more time to settle,specially after Korean's goal.

To be honest Daie's hands in a way is tied. If he adds Kazemi or a second defensive mid to help Javad and fix our defense then our offense will suck (we need to play with one forward). If he plays with two forward and only Javad then the space in front of our defense isn't covered well. So it is no win situation.

Now, since this game was in Tehran and we were the home team, I think Mr. Daie should have been more prone to take risks and be more offensive. But hind sight is 20-20 after all.

All in all a boring game by both teams. More worrisome for me is the fact that most (almost all )of our goals in this round (3 by Nekoo and one by Bagherie) and one by G Rezai, are from our midfields and set plays. Even if you consider G Rezai a forward only one goal from forward and 5 from midfield. True in todays football a large percentage of goals come from the set plays but still worriesome.

Thanks really to Javad Nekoonam. He really saved our butt one more time with a brillinat free kick. Thank you Javad one more time.

[Doctor DOOM]

Out team did well, in getting back and defend (which is a new thing in our football I think). In other words, our team did well, in "defensive transition" as they teach it in coaching classes, but we didn't do well, in offensive transitions. Our offensive transition was at max with 2-3 players (merely relying on the personal speed of Kaabi and Khalatbari).




To be honest Daie's hands in a way is tied. If he adds Kazemi or a second defensive mid to help Javad and fix our defense then our offense will suck (we need to play with one forward). If he plays with two forward and only Javad then the space in front of our defense isn't covered well. So it is no win situation.




More worrisome for me is the fact that most (almost all )of our goals in this round (3 by Nekoo and one by Bagherie) and one by G Rezai, are from our midfields and set plays. Even if you consider G Rezai a forward only one goal from forward and 5 from midfield.

The answer to all the above questions, worries and comments is one thing:
4-2-3-1

I dont know how long we're going to fool ourselves and imagine we have the players to use 4-2-3-1.
I dont know how many more tests we have to fail for us to notice perhaps what we are doing is wrong.

As you said, the team was bottom-heavy and highly defensive and that took away from our bite and rendered poor VH and other strikers useless !
Becoz we filled the back with as many players as we could.
Nothing wrong with that ... IF YOU'RE PLAYING BRAZIL IN BRAZIL!
Korea, in IRAN?
gutless.

With the team devoid of a playmaker, it was only natural and expected that we'd see NO BITE in our offense too. And I agree, VH cannot be blamed for it at all.


But Daei's hands are NOT tied. Here's what he could have done:
1- I think he COULD have used a playmaker instead of bagheri, which would have brought in creativity up front for our attacks.

2- He could have used players who are USED to playing flanks and CAN CROSS to our forward whose trade-mark is HEADING F.F.S.

3- This way even if he didnt have the guts to bring in an offensive team to his own HOME GAME, at least he'd have provided enough material for our offense to perhaps get the goals !!
But he didnt!

as they say "like father like son", ... We shd say "like branko, like branko's disciple" !!

[ardi11]

a lot of those long balls came from aghili. i don't know why he keeps doing that...his long passes are horrible but he goes on and on and on