Young team?

[Martin-Reza]

Inexperienced, maybe, but young?

The average age of the team that started against South Korea was 27.64, not quite a team of youngsters.

So although we see quite a couple of new faces, we don't really have a young team.

[kaz]

It'll actually be even a bit older than that as a few players have birthdays this month.

[Doctor DOOM]

true.
VH - 32/33
bagheri - 37
nekounam - 28
...

the "young" ones are G-nejad, hajsafi, kaabi. that's about it!
only 3 !

This doesnt mean age shd be a criteria. not at all.
there are some older players who's help the team far more than the younger options.
But when an old player doesnt perform well for a series of games, THEN we must be serious about our alternatives.
We shd look for serious alternatives to both bagheri and VH ( to some extent, as his lack of scoring is half the fault of our system and bad line ups).

for bagheri's post, we dont even have to spend an ounce of energy to look for options. We have far SUPERIOR options right here: shojaei, jabbari, navidkia, mobaali, nouri, khalatbari, ... are all options for where we wrongfully place bagheri at TM

for VH, we'd have to struggle. But there's no other way ... we HAVE TO find a couple of reliable strikers.
Borhani is in form in the league, but at TM?
Same with khalili.
Rezaei is in the same boat too.
Seyed Salehi, meydavoodi,



but while we have nothing more to squeeze out of bagheri, Kia on the other hand, has some life left in him that may be useful at TM.
But shd we decide to be radical and not call him, we MUST put away all personal grievances and do the right thing for TM & IRAN.
Guys like Kazemian are tremendously useful for TM. He's the next best man for Kia's post, way above anyone else.
G-nejad, with a little coaching in some aspects that are missing in his game, is ok for an option too.
Baoo, also if crossing is added to his tasks, is useful too.
I still maintain we can use Kaabi as RM also, with G-nejad back as RB. Kaabi brings what is missing from G-nejad's game, which is a wide game and crossing ability.


So options ARE there. It is up to us to put aside personal stuff and do the right thing by Iran and get the maximum out of TM.

[purple_haze]

for bagheri's post, we dont even have to spend an ounce of energy to look for options. We have far SUPERIOR options right here: shojaei, jabbari, navidkia, mobaali, nouri, khalatbari, ... are all options for where we wrongfully place bagheri at TM

I agree on Jabbari and Navidkia first and then Shojaei and Nouri. Mobali unfortunately keeps hiding in UAE, but for god's sake Khalatbari for the playmaker role? If the forwards are not getting enough passes as it is, putting Khalatbari would only further diminish their chances. The guy is in love with the ball and while known ballhogs like Khatibi and even to some degree Rezaei, would only pass as a last resort, I don't think Khalatbari would let go of the ball even if there was no other option left!

I still maintain we can use Kaabi as RM also, with G-nejad back as RB. Kaabi brings what is missing from G-nejad's game, which is a wide game and crossing ability.

I recommend that you watch the Korea match, or any other TM matches in the past year and revise your opinion about Kaebi's crossing.

[shayan20]

There is absolutely no need to have the 2 older guys Bagheri and Hashemian in the team now.
Hash was probably played only for the fact that Rezaei was suspended for the match.

I cant see Vahid as the same guy he was years ago, his experience counts for nothing when his body doesn't function like before.

Many alternatives: Rezaei-Borhani-Salehi-Khalili(when he's injury free) and even Meydavoodi.

as for Bagheri's alternatives DD already mentioned and its not too hard to find someone better suited for Bagheri's position!
you just sometimes need a pair of balls to use them!

[zzgloo]

The only older player we should keep.is VH
I am amazed why so many say the opposite....

1-Lets remember we have no offensive player in the whole country.
2-VH still runs more in a game than any other player.
3-If the coaching staff can not feed him,it is not his fault.
4-His experince,and killer instinck,heading abilities,are not existant among any other forwards in Iran.
5-...Just,when thinking about replacing him !!,remind yourself what, akbar pour did in front of perspolice empty goal,three days ago !!!, and then think of replacing Vahid.

[yashar_fasihnia]

The only older player we should keep.is VH
I am amazed why so many say the opposite....
1-Lets remember we have no offensive player in the whole country.
2-VH still runs more in a game than any other player.
3-If the coaching staff can not feed him,it is not his fault.
4-His experince,and killer instinck,heading abilities,are not existant among any other forwards in Iran.
5-...Just,when thinking about replacing him !!,remind yourself what, akbar pour did in front of perspolice empty goal,three days ago !!!, and then think of replacing Vahid.

i totally agree.
repped!

[Doctor DOOM]

I agree on Jabbari and Navidkia first and then Shojaei and Nouri. Mobali unfortunately keeps hiding in UAE, but for god's sake Khalatbari for the playmaker role? If the forwards are not getting enough passes as it is, putting Khalatbari would only further diminish their chances. The guy is in love with the ball and while known ballhogs like Khatibi and even to some degree Rezaei, would only pass as a last resort, I don't think Khalatbari would let go of the ball even if there was no other option left!




I recommend that you watch the Korea match, or any other TM matches in the past year and revise your opinion about Kaebi's crossing.

I agree, khalatbari may not be as astute in passing as the rest of those guys, but he could be an option for an offensive mid. If we play bagheri in that role, khalatbari could well play there too.
But I agree, he's less of a playmaker than an offensive mid.


2- we cant judge a player by 1 or 2 games.
we KNOW kaabi CAN cross. now if he's not in top form, it's a different thing, but does he have the ability to cross nicely? yes.

and as I said, at the moment, the best option & alternative to Kia is Kazemian, who has more skills than any of the other options we've tried for the post.

[Kasra.]

I would rather keep Kaebi in the back as RB and have Khosro Heydari as Mehdi's replacement, cuz he DEFINATELY CAN CROSS!

[Martin-Reza]

Have you guys noticed that regardless of the topic after a few posts it's hard distinguishing one thread from the other? If you only read the final replies of a thread, you barely could tell if we initially discussed age, Saudi Arabia or the defense

Not really meant as critisicm, only when I open a few threads and only look at the last replies, I always mix them up.

[Hadi]

we are under the illusion that our team is young.

We didnt have any U-23 player in our starting lineup vs Korea.

[Doctor DOOM]

Have you guys noticed that regardless of the topic after a few posts it's hard distinguishing one thread from the other? If you only read the final replies of a thread, you barely could tell if we initially discussed age, Saudi Arabia or the defense

Not really meant as critisicm, only when I open a few threads and only look at the last replies, I always mix them up.

LOL. very true .

[Paradigm]

Inexperienced, maybe, but young?
The average age of the team that started against South Korea was 27.45, not quite a team of youngsters.
So although we see quite a couple of new faces, we don't really have a young team.

Just a general comment: In statistical terms, the mean is sensitive to outliers (Bagheri, now 35 -- born 1974 according to teammelli.com, and Hashemian 32, etc.) So I think the appropriate measure of center here (as far as the starting 11 is concerned) is the median.

I agree to keep VH but he needs to be fed the ball. Twice that he scored versus Japan in March 2005 in Azadi (by far his best appearance for TM), it was by Karimi's involvements. The next best player to assist VH is Mobali.

[Martin-Reza]

Just a general comment: In statistical terms, the mean is sensitive to outliers (Bagheri, now 35 -- born 1974 according to teammelli.com, and Hashemian 32, etc.) So I think the appropriate measure of center here (as far as the starting 11 is concerned) is the median.

I don't think the median makes too much sense here, since this simply would be the "middle element", meaning exactly the age of the player, who has 5 older and 5 younger teammates.

I think we could maybe add the variance, but I wouldn't know what to do with that number. I know that usually an average age of 23-24 is considered very young for a competitive team, I don't have corresponding variance numbers for comparison.

[Hajagha]

I don't think the median makes too much sense here, since this simply would be the "middle element", meaning exactly the age of the player, who has 5 older and 5 younger teammates.

Actually it does. Believe me jigar, it's my profession.

What's happening? I found myself in disagreement with Martin most of the time. You should refresh your visit to Montreal and we need a meeting in one of those places that we met to sort it out.