Nekunam's role in goals CONCEDED !

[Doctor DOOM]

Yes, he has much to answer for.
despite his 3 goals FOR Iran, he has been at fault on many goals conceded by our opponents as well. just becoz he fails to mark his man and lets them free to do whatever they want!!

in our first game, in saudi, the player who shd have marked the goal scorer was nekounam. But as seen in the past 2-3 years ( dating back to WC06 ), he just doesnt care about running along his man and lets them free !!!!
watch the video and tell me if nekounam had closely marked the scorer, would he have got such an EASY shot on goal ? neku is just stuck in no-man's land, marking absolutely NO-ONE when the final pass comes in from the side.

he SHD have been marking the scorer in the center, almost on the 18 yard line!


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then we have our second game in uae, where he, again fails to run along his mark and ... !!


at the 1 minute mark


this shows Nekounam, just loses his man, goes in a different direction ( where there are a few defenders there anyway ) while his mark, goes to the center of our 18, waiting for a ball.


on both occasions, he runs along the mark, then "GIVES UP" or loses the whereabouts of his mark!

this has been happening from before WC06 games. and till today, nobody has told him to run along and NOT LOSE his man in defending!!! and many of those occasions have ended up as goals!
why?
especially since he is our DEFENSIVE midfielder !

[faraz]

It is true. He seems to have a passive attitude sometimes - the 'someone else will take care of it if I don't' type of thing.

It's something he can get away with at the club level, but he needs to step it up a little bit at the back when he's marking, there's little doubt about that.

There's so much talk about his offensive qualities and ball distribution that we seldom think about the other half of his job as defensive midfielder.

[Martin-Reza]

Very interesting point.

I have to disagree on KSA though. The goalscorer was centerforward Al Harthi, so generally the centerbacks are responsible and they should have marked him better in that particular scene indeed.

But for the UAE goal you definitely have a point.

I must say of course the 4-1-3-2 used there really made it a hard game for him as lone DM with barely any support from Bagheri. And the main mistake of the goal of course came by Hashemian's turnover. Losing the ball like this when the whole team is moving forward is really deadly.

[Doctor DOOM]

^ but he's been lax about marking players no matter what formation we've been playing, for a long time now. dating back to when we played 4-2-3-1 even.

It may be what faraz said. perhaps he sees no reason to push himself beyond a certain point. or just trusts nothing would happen and the defenders will do a PERFECT job and there wouldnt be a need for assistance!

whatever it may be, somebody ought to tell him about marking players till the danger is passed and WE have the ball.

[Martin-Reza]

I guess the main point is communication between Nekounam and the defenders. If he stops following his opponent he must check with the defenders if someone is overtaking him first. Otherwise, like against UAE, it's indeed a mistake by him to simply stop marking.

Still I think Teymourian beside him would improve the situation, Bagheri is nowhere near him in defense to help usually, I really don't like that 4-1-3-2.

[mehdy]

This is why i dislike him.

Lazy Nekounam needs aggressive partner like Kazemi,Alavi and Kavianpour.

He is special MF for us,but not special DMF.

He is obviously the most weakpoint of TM,though he scored important goals for us.

[mehdy]

Btw DMF is my favorite position.


My Favorite DMF, always play in front of 4 back for Brasil NT.
He can helped defense like a Sweeper.
TM has not DMF like him.

[Doctor DOOM]

I guess the main point is communication between Nekounam and the defenders. If he stops following his opponent he must check with the defenders if someone is overtaking him first. Otherwise, like against UAE, it's indeed a mistake by him to simply stop marking.

excellent point.
you absolutely hit it on the nail.
communication is the key here.

and I'd add not only in defense, but also in offense.
we see this lack of communication between him and the defenders, as those guys keep lobbing the ball up field when they OUGHT TO be playing him the ball so he can take it up field through a playmaker or wings.

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and mehdy, no need to "dislike" the guy.

he IS a very good player ... but as with every other great player of asian standards, he comes with a few weak points.
Nothing that cant be resolved or improved.

as martin says, with a little better communication we could see a difference in the outcome of many such situations.
therefore the problem is not who plays ALONG-SIDE him. the problem is his connection to the player BEHIND him.

[mehdy]

excellent point.
you absolutely hit it on the nail.
communication is the key here.

and I'd add not only in defense, but also in offense.
we see this lack of communication between him and the defenders, as those guys keep lobbing the ball up field when they OUGHT TO be playing him the ball so he can take it up field through a playmaker or wings.

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and mehdy, no need to "dislike" the guy.

he IS a very good player ... but as with every other great player of asian standards, he comes with a few weak points.
Nothing that cant be resolved or improved.

as martin says, with a little better communication we could see a difference in the outcome of many such situations.
therefore the problem is not who plays ALONG-SIDE him. the problem is his connection to the player BEHIND him.

So,When he improve his communication with DF?
How many times did they play together?
It's toooo late.

If we lose against KSA,We might not be able to go to World Cup.

Anyway,Daei decided Kazemi to the partner of Nekounam.

[Hajagha]

But for the UAE goal you definitely have a point.

Are you kidding? The goal scorer got the ball between 4 defenders, you wanted another one?

The goal against KSA was the obvious Zandi's fault to let the free man run with the ball. Anyone can pick a player when he got that much free time.

The goal against UAE was a beauty, no body's significant fault. It happens in football, I mean goal, you know.

[Doctor DOOM]

So,When he improve his communication with DF?
How many times did they play together?
It's toooo late.

you are talking about "getting used to each other".
martin is correct in stating the need for actual "communication". which means either aghili or hosseini or ... says "I got him" or "leave him to me" (since we are total amateurs and never cohesive as a team shd be !! ) and only THEN he can stop escorting his mark and mark another or cover another zone.

but unless someone says he is taking care of a mark, he cant just stop following the mark and stand around or ... .
it is HIS duty to intercept or escort ( preferably to the side ) the runners coming in from the middle of the pitch and not allow them to do their passing or shots or ... etc.

[Paradigm]

As for the communication issue... I think with the fact that TM has not been getting any decent or even half-decent friendlies for a while, the players are still not a cohesive unit. This is considering the changes in the lineup that we have had since Branko left. At least back then he normally used the same 11 starters and three fixed subs so the players knew each other's role very well.

[Keshwardoost]

Interesting point, though the first one was mainly Zandi slipping and not following his guy, making a 2-1 situation on the flank in the overlap.

But yeah, interesting for sure. Iran has allwayz had positioning problems, specially on defence on corners and freekiks. And its because lack of tactical training both in TM and since they started as kids in clubteams. That gives a hint that players also are missing good instructions on how to defend in the box and so on.

In defence situations theres very little time to make decisions in running paths and who to mark and where to stand, every wrongstep can be leathal and the players should have the movingpattern/marketing positions in their spines. The team needs to have a breefing on where to stand in such situations. This includes midfielders and attackers together with defenders, since they all have parts to play in defencesituatuins.

IF everybody does their part correct, this goals we most times concead, which looks cheap, or that is a result of a misstake will reduce alot.

[mehdy]

http://www.irangoals.com/2009/03/28/...-saudi-arabia/

Look KSA's 1st goal.

Nekounam didn't know what DMF should do.

He just watched ball,and not mark striker.

Plz don't call him our DMF.