Where do we go now?

[Doctor DOOM]

As I said earlier, I'm not holding much of a chance ... but "hope springs eternal" I guess. and I will be there to support the team no matter who leads it or who plays in it.

but let us dwell on what is humanly possible for us .

I believe with better player selection ( not according to the "name" of the player. case in point: shojaei, rezaei, ... ) but their FORM (eg: rezaei, shojaei, kazemi, madanchi, ... ) and NATURAL POSITION (eg: khalatbari, rezaei, ... ) , we can extract better performances from TM.

and who knows ... maybe with that much boost in performance we may be able to pull off the improbable ( not not impossible ) and win NKorea and then, UAE.
that would set us up for the THIRD spot ( I'm afraid I just cant see how we could get the top two !! ).

why do I say this?
becoz we've shown in recent years that TM's efficiency is MORE reliant on its INDIVIDUALISTIC BRILLIANCE than a team-oriented strategy and performance.

I'd add one more point, which is directly related to the "individuals" issue, and that is using (1) a playmaker & (2) TWO forwards in the team.
unfortunately we have very little to lose here and our backs are to the wall. So perhaps this shd give enough courage & daring to whoever leads the team to get more adventurous and use more attacking line up/formations. better late than never.



so if we use the superior individuals AND place those individuals correctly in the line up, we may get just enough boost in level of performance to push us through. coz the current selection strategy and formation has been proven not to work for us ( God knows it was apparent MONTHS ago and this game is just the death knell to this attitude ).

[Adesor Vafaseya]

in the last two WCs where we qualified (98, 06) and we were in deep shit, we had a guy saving our a$$, Kh. Azizi.
in WCQ06 versus Qatar for example.....

what I am saying is, at this stage its up to individuals, players quality and players experiences no matter whether fully fit or how many games played or not. We need at this stage nothing else than individual quality.

Bring Ali Karimi in. We need anything that can turn a stone, since by normal tactics and startegies we didnt come far under Ali Daei & Co and dont even have time for it now.

[Paradigm]

Get a decent foreign coach immediately... There is nobody in Iran right now who could be relied on to take the helm. We have a few weeks in between the next three WCQ matches in June (Khordad) so the IFF has time to search and seek a good foreign coach. Someone from Argentina would be fantastic.

[BehzadB]

If you have a good foreign coach to replace him (someone with fame who is willing to put his reputation on it, no someone who be happy to have a Job!!!) fine, other wise, Changing the coach will solve nothing at this point.

stay with Daie and the German dude, and let's hope KSA and North Korea lose games.. I guess it's back to "do-oa"

[The-Red]

^as usual lol
IFF will stay with Daie,,,,Daie has their full support and whether rightfully or not, he won't be replaced, or resign...we all know his character....so point is, the next game becomes what the Jordan game meant to us 4.5 years ago...we had to go to Jordan and beat them and hope the rest of the games go our way......this is exactly the same situation, except a weaker Iran and possibly a better team awaiting us in NKorea.....altho, I personally think we can beat NKorea and we will....Nkorea has a psychological block that is tough to overcome, even at home and front of their fans.....'til June, IFF will do absolutely nothing tho, just wait and see...hope I am totally wrong on that.

I need to go and sleep it off,,,we all do at some point.

Tomorrow is another day, hopefully a better one...

[Doctor DOOM]

Get a decent foreign coach immediately... There is nobody in Iran right now who could be relied on to take the helm. We have a few weeks in between the next three WCQ matches in June (Khordad) so the IFF has time to search and seek a good foreign coach. Someone from Argentina would be fantastic.

Maybe my brain is still in neutral after today's game and I cant think straight ... but is it possible to:
1- first search for a suitable coach among some candidates
2- then get one of them to agree ( with all their usual "naaz o kereshmeh" )
3- then get the guy here
4- he gets used to Iran, then to our football, then to our players available, then to picking the right ones
5- then to work with the selected ones over his strategies
... all that in TWO MONTHS ???


altho" after Vierra's experience, I guess 4th and 5th points can be eliminated by using the current crop plus a few other MORE DESERVING ones outside the squad.
and he works on them more on the emotional, psychological and mental aspects than technical stuff.

and lets not forget we have the ACL games ( and some league ones ) where the players just wont be available for practice or even psych sessions!



And before all this, first we gotta see WHICH coach WORTH his salt would take a team that has 10-15% chance of qualification?
in a region so volatile in hiring/firing its coaches.
which coach is ready to jeopardize his reputation on such an abysmal circumstances?
we saw how so many ppl blamed poor Vingo over Omid's elimination ... all the time FORGETTING it was simoez who f**ked up @ asian games , then IFF, who took their sweet time in selecting a replacement and all vingo had was ONE WEEK with 10-12 players !!!!
in the end, HE got the flack !!!!






still, all that in 2 months?
I dont know.
maybe if IFF already had held talks with potential guys and had got their initial agreements done, we could ... but I just dont know.

lets just blame my indecision on the shock of today's game.
perhaps a few days from now we all could have a clearer view and attitude.


====================

on the other hand, if we stay with daei ... knowing how lajbaaz he is , especially when he is under pressure, he digs his heels in and becomes even more stubborn ... is it a good idea?

who's to say he's learned his lesson ( sorry guys, I just HAVE TO use this phrase at this stage. nothing to do with me ) and becomes more flexible ?
what's the guarantee?
coz based on past few years' experience, I doubt he'd get more flexible. in fact he'd get worse !!

so what's the way out?

[Doctor DOOM]

I'd like to add one thing here:

while there is a philosophy that says changing a coach at such dire times may be counter-productive, I think we must step back and make a list of ALL the factors/reasons that has brought us to this point.

if in that list, the role and the decisions of a coach are more than 50%, then I say we shd seriously look at a new guy.
just for argument's sake lets say there are some coaches who prove flexible and will change their ways or try NEW venues. they try alternative paths, be more open and are not afraid to admit to being wrong ( not in WORDS , but DEEDS and decisions ).

the question is: IS DAEI SUCH A PERSON?


a big question for everyone to ponder on before deciding to stay with him or risk going with another coach.

------------

on the other hand, a new person, as already stated in some of above posts, has shown success in SOME ( not all ) cases.

but what do we have to lose? we're already in a ... I wanted to say "desperate" , but "desperate" was yesterday. today? we're neck-deep in doggie turd !

[Doctor DOOM]

here's an idea:
(plz bear w me )

Put MK in charge of the last 3 .... AND 3 games ONLY.

apart from knowing our players, football, blah blah blah ... all those obstacles we'd face when opting for a foreigner ... which means no time wasted on basic stuff, there is another important matter here:


seeing as how he rejuvenated saipa , even if for a period of 2-3 months . his first 8 games had 7 wins and 1 draw in a team that had NO win at all till then! (I am serious)

we let him do his mojo , voodoo, do'aa, ... whatever he did to turn a hopeless, losing pathetic team into something that gave every team a hard time and won a string of games. given his IMMEDIATE effect which was a total about face for the better for saipa, ... and seeing as we have only 11 days for those 3 games, he wont have time to lose his effect ( as has happened in saipa these days ) .

11 days is enough for an immediate shake up, a new outlook ( which is attacking football ) and new motivation for players in and OUT of TM*.

that ought to be enough to re-energize us a bit and ... who knows ... khoda bozorge.
we have hardly anything to lose and A WORLD (cup) to gain.


================

* - Imagine the immense amount of drive and determination in part of those who were overlooked by daei, but are invited by MK.
the buggers would run their HEARTS OUT close to collapse.
if not for TM or Iran or ... , but to PROVE they deserved the call by daei.

players like karimi, kazemian, jabbari, .... even those who are benched, like heydari, madanchi , etc etc.

can you imagine HOW they'd perform given a chance to defend their claims?

afterall isnt exactly that kind of motivation and drive what we need IN SHORT TERM & IMMEDIATE ?

and just to prove my point, remember how PASHAZADEH played , putting his body, legs even face in front of the ball in australia, just to prove how wrongly he was overlooked ? He was one of the stars of TM in Melbourne, upstaged only by Abedzadeh & azizi .

isnt that exactly what we need at this point?



on the other hand, we must acknowledge in the next 2 months, given our league games and the ACL games, the TM players will not be spending too much time at TM camp.
and if the short duration of 2 months doesnt, the above point effectively rules out the issue of "technical input" for the team and the coach's "technical abilities".

all we are left with is highly reminiscent of Vierra's psychological prep & impact for 98 WC squad.
given the short period he was here, I doubt he had ANY technical impact on the team. All he did was to work on the team's morale, motivation, & psyche. and turn them from a defeated and morally low team into a team that had the fire back in them and was ready to give it a final HEAVY push.

I see a LOT of parallels between that situation and this one here.

apart from daei's lack of experience and other shortcomings, I also doubt Daei will be fully in control, and the players would receive any shock if he continues!



============
Edit:
After writing the above post, the more I added to it, the more it sounded logical and do-able.
and now, I'm quite committed to this idea.
so much that I adopted it as my signature till IFF decides our fate.

let it not be said I only criticize and dont come up with solutions.
here's a ( not "THE" , but definitely "A" ) solution with its supporting rationale and reasoning.

[BehzadB]

lol, DD, as crazy as your idea sounds... at this point, MK for TM don't sound too bad..
of course, it's needless to say that after the first tie we are gonna want him dead..

[yashar_fasihnia]

actually replacing Daei with a foreign coach (since i really dont see any iranian coach who is a head and shoulder above the rest) and keeping his assisstants can still work.
many times, only the headcoach is fired when an immediate change is needed but the assisstants kept inorder to help the new coach settle down faster...

yesterday qatar lost 4-0 to uzbekistan and are now dead last in their group with a very lil chance for qualifications.

i dont know but there is a chance bruno metsu might be fired from qatar, or atleast if we approach him, he might resign from there and come to us.
metsu has been coaching in the middle east for a few years now, has played against iran NUMEROUS TIMES both with UAE and qatar and has experience in the worldcup.

we saw how his team, UAE, inspite of a lack of a talent pool played so fluently and quickly but never got results mostly cos of the inferior quality of their players.

i really think metsu, or maybe even machalla are good options at the moment.
luka is also there who is more familiar with iranian football, but he is very hard to deal with. maybe he can be a short term solution for us and the IFF will have to bear him only for a short period of time.
however, luka is the type of coach who needs a long period of time to have an affect on the team.

i dont think denizli or branko will come to iran now. and i dont know about ghotbi if he will come or not but i dont have much trust in him either.

so my choices for the current situation are:
1) bruno metsu
2) luka bonacic
3) milan machala (not really a good option but im desperate, sorry )

with the same assisstants to help him make quick decisions and guide him in things he is not familiar with.

[Martin-Reza]

You can't be serious demanding Mayeli Kohan. I rather have Hossein Kaebi as coach before having this loser who already failed in 1997, is a fundamentalist and has no success at all in recent years.

MK would be 3 steps backwards when we desperately need a step forward.

[yashar_fasihnia]

if we want to go for an iranian coach, i would say majid jalali... he has a good eye for details and atleast analyses the players and the teams well and actually plans his games!
mayelli kohan is a joke!

[Martin-Reza]

Jalali would be 20 times better than MK, but still, that won't make a difference. Either we get a real good foreign coach or we let Daei go on.

[Doctor DOOM]

@ yashar:

apart from not having a decent foreign coach available in Iran, which means we have to get a spanking new guy ( and problems w such a decision is already discussed. dont like to repeat them ), we have the matter of assistants.

I believe, and no disrespect to them, they have been as incompetent/biased/callitwhatyoumay as daei in player selection and leaving them to decide the squad for the new coach is as bad as merely keeping daei on the job!

=================

Metsu is a decent coach.
but do you really think a professional coach will RESIGN just becoz his team is last?
really?
how many pro coaches have you seen committing harak!ri like this? ... even if they want to be fired, they almost never do so.
it's usually the fed'n that FIRES them.
otherwise that coach will find it extremely hard to get a job anywhere else.

================

MACALA is an absolute GEM ( if you all remember he used to be my choice until we got branko back, and then after he started f*cking up stuff in 2005 ).
but unfortunately he will NOT come as his team has FAR BETTER CHANCES of qualifying for the WC than us !!! bebin een rozegar ro ke be che bad-bakhti oftadim!!

==============

Luka is also a decent choice.
but given our absolute IMMEDIATE NEEDS, is he the right man?
does he prefer the sort of football we need at this particular moment ( attacking and risky football ) ?
his teams have been rather stable and very efficient ... in a solid but defensive kind of way ( remember how sepahan went through the quarters and semis and even the final of ACL ? )

what we must ask is do we need a coach who is good at stalemates at this point?

coz if we dont go fully attacking in the next 2 games, we might as well not participate in the games anymore and send shagholam's Omid team for perfect preparations.

================

Jalali is a good option. and hopefully he will be considered.
it's good choice, but has its own baggage.
he is technically superior to MK ... no doubt about this point. But what TM needs an MORALE-KICK by someone who can deliver this KICK with strong psychological make up.
is jalali such a coach?
he seems very methodical, highly systematic and organized coach to me.
but our immediate situation has no time for such methodical/systematic mindset. it needs someone who'll take charge immediately, deliver that kick and be disciplined & forceful to push for these last few meters.


remember, after we qualify ( god willing ) we SHOULD get someone technical and .... blah blah blah.

But right now our requirements are VERY DIFFERENT.

[Doctor DOOM]

You can't be serious demanding Mayeli Kohan. I rather have Hossein Kaebi as coach before having this loser who already failed in 1997, is a fundamentalist and has no success at all in recent years.

MK would be 3 steps backwards when we desperately need a step forward.

here's a typical reply.

just throw in some sentences together with no rationale or reasoning, and hope for it to stick.

sorry mate, it just doesnt stick.

explain why his "fundamentalist tendencies" ( as true as they are ) are gonna have any impact in our IMMEDIATE future ?
it is you who always says something with no support or backing or rationale ( but "you're not a coach" as ur only supposed rationale!!!!!! we saw how that fared )