The most diplomatic list of TM candidates

[maij]

Afshin Ghotbi has listed the initial 40 odd players.

My take on that is that it is the most diplomatic list . or politically correct list , I have ever seen for as long as long as when Blue and Red players made up 90% of the squad.

How on earth he selects the likes of Samereh is beyond my comprehension. His selection of Mobali and Kazemian smells fishy ( the guy is a regular PFDC reader it seems).

Exclusion of Mohammad Nouri rises a few eyebrows.

Selecting that no good bully Mohsen Bengar is a joke , while leaving out a much polished Shys Rezaei out . Despite my dislike of Shys , he is way better than Bengar in every department.

Anyway ......My fear of Ghotbi is that he is trying to cover his tactical weakness by becoming Mr. Nice man hence selecting players based on popularity rather than merit. In fact he is 180 degrees different that Mayeli Kohan.

It will be intresting to see him in froiendly matches forst.

[ardi11]

interesting post majeed jan. i really wonder how his final list will look like... i mean daei also invited numerous players to different camps and we knew from the begining that they wouldn't play

[IranJavidan]

Agha Majid Ghotbi said on the Navad interview today that he selected such a a big list in order to work with a bunch of players while other teams are busy with the Hazfi and ACL tournaments.
While it's nice to see some new faces that deserved to be on the list, it has become clear that all the coaches after Branko pretty much use the same base as him for their rosters, with a few changes here and there.
Only Ali Daei was actually bold enough to start with a relatively new TM, and then eventually go back to the Branko era after some pressure. Other than Ashjari and Rezaei, all the players that Daei used were previously used by other coaches.
I think that based on what Ghotbi has said (the importance of players with sufficient international experience, and the TIPS formula,) we will see more or less the exact same players that end up on the roster every single time with just a few changes.

Here's how his 18 man list will probably look like:

Rahmati
Taleblou

Rahman
Aghili
Hosseini

Kaabi
Ashjari
Heydari
P.Nouri

Karimi
Shojaei
Mahdavikia
Zare or Ashoubi
Madanchi
Zandi

Borhani
Khalili
Hashemian

Unless Miracles happen in the practices, and players such as Kazemian or Mobali really show that they actaully do belong in the team. We'll just have to wait and see.
I personally think that Ghotbi chose a smart tactic, since now that the players are too much, there will be increased competition in the practices. That can only be to our benefit.
As for the details of his list, I respect his choices, as he will be held responsible if his selected players don't deliver.

[Martin-Reza]

It is a huge propaganda move. I am amazed so many fell for that. Everyone said good squad and everyone forgets that they are comparing this squad to 20-27 men squads. Lol, of course the bigger list is better.

Just as comparison, a 23-men-squad usually has 3 keepers, for 41 he must have at least 5. But he already has his 3 keepers selected (because noone carese about that much), but brings on far too many players in other positions.

I am now a bit curious what Ghotbi will do next. He's just buying time with this.

In the end he can't go with Shojaei, Karimi, Khalatbari, Zandi, Mobali and Bagheri, but only bring half of them and will have the same pissed off fans as all the others.

Anyway ......My fear of Ghotbi is that he is trying to cover his tactical weakness by becoming Mr. Nice man hence selecting players based on popularity rather than merit. In fact he is 180 degrees different that Mayeli Kohan.

And that is an excellent point. If he really goes by popularity, he is a complete moron. I mean it can't be that a coach is 100% d'accord with the majority of fans. There usually are controversial differences. Now either he goes his way and will get the same problems as all his predecessors or he wants to avoid any negative atmosphere and keeps all crowd favourites.

The latter case of course would be horrible. It would not be the best selection and the players in the squad would get there is something fishy.

So I am 100% sure he will make some unpopular cuts sooner or later and hope the popularity he gained before by such moves will be strong enough to make up for that.

[zzgloo]

I believe, it is a very intelegent selection :

.................................................. ....

..for more reasons than one :
.................................................. ..

1- He has not had as much time with the league, as Daei and others did..so here he can first hand see all by himself.
2-Shot up all Nagginings,and " Nay sayers ".
3-Creat competetion.
4-Finding out who is ready.
5-Finding out who wants it more.
6-Finding out,once and for all,if any player has been ignored.
7-brining his respected Bagheri,at least for the camp,(showing Loyality pays off ).
8-Brining Karimi,mobali,kazemian,and others ,and show he has nothing against any body.
9-Massive invitations, to show and to insinuate, the magnitude of the task at hand, and adding to the importance of task for players.
10-Converging, all players,from all over....Arab legioners, European legioners,etc,etc.....
11-Finding out, who the real best is, anyway.
12- Getting all the help he can get, and not protending otherwise.or haveing " Eddeaa ".
13-Following up with his plan of, 70 million players ,and creat unity !!!! ( Valid,and correct propaganda )
14-Doing the most,in the least amount of time.
15- " BASSIJ " !!

.........................................
I would have done the same myself......as I want to decide on my own ,and get every help I can get .becuase,it will not be a easy task.
He still could have brought,Niki as well, since niki is saying the right things these days..... which is the only thing wrong with ghotbi's selection.
........................................

[Hajagha]

Postponding the problems a bit later.

Good title.

[Doctor DOOM]

I doubt he's postponing anything, neither is this that much of a PR move than a foresight decision. yes, there is an element of "pleasing ppl" in the list, but there are other MORE practical aspects to it that over-ride this notion.

as hamid ( GK ) brought up the subject, quite wisely I must add, we tend to forget the tremendous impact of our schedule and travel involved when we suddenly rise to object the 41 names.

aside from what ghotbi said, which is gradual narrowing down of the list ( and I agree with some here that it creates a sense of competition among the players and subsequently, raise their quality and fighting spirit - which are needed ), it also provides a cushion for him in case during this tough schedule a few players lose form, get injured, drop in fitness, or get suspended.

if the 3 games were 2-3 weeks apart, then all your objections and amazements and shock would be justified.
But when we include the schedule and all the problems it brings, then having a final 30 names ( out of this 41 ) seems the practical way to go.

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

now, add to this, the other problematic issues such as the ACL players joining the team late , much like the legionnaires, and you'd now understand the reason for this large call up.

half of these names will not be available to TM until very late ... or unless ss ( especially ) and saba ( to some extent ) get an early elimination which would raise the number of available players at the camp.

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

interesting issues in the list:

- samereh isnt in form. but he's called.
I can only imagine it is a desperate move in a desperate situation.

- gholamnejad isnt called even in a 41 man list!
but then again, it is only NATURAL coz we have the in-form Haydari and the experienced kaabi for that post. and to be fair, it doesnt make sense to drop either for g-nejad.

- nouri --dropping nouri actually wasnt such an eyebrow-raising matter when you consider the names called for that post: karimi, zandi, mobaali, shojaei
it is rather obvious nouri wouldnt figure in such a group of quality


- sheyss-- if you'd noticed, lately he's been making series of silly and unnecessary mistakes in games which points towards his lack of intelligence. he may have the physique and height and maybe even the drive ... but his recent series of errors, I believe, have done him in!


- nothing "fishy" about mobaali & kazemian in getting their due recognition.
unless ........ ??????


- as martin correctly pointed, it seem ghotbi has already decided on his final 3 keepers' choices. and I doubt we'd see anything other than these 3 reaching the final 23.


- my point of interest is who he's going to pick for central def .
that's gonna be very interesting.


- my personal issues with the list:
missing -
Shakouri, who's been in magnificent form lately
Niki - despite his brainless performances, his physical hustling game may be needed in NKorea ( only )
Chavoshi - He's shown to be a very good marksman, especially scoring so many goals with such an inferior back up team, scoring against teams far better than his.
if samereh gets the nod, why not him?

[zzgloo]

I believe, NIKI was the leader of the pack,among Perspolise players,who campained against Ghotbi......NIKI, may be the single most distracting player for Ghotbi......even though, he might not be any more.

[maij]

I missed the opportunity to watch Ghotbi live on Navad..... I felt asleep

It was nothing to do with Ferdowsipour or the quality of the program , I watched Arash "Baby Face" Borhani and it was a nice interview but fatigue got the better of me after a hectic week...anyway, I dozed ff and did not hear or see Ghotbi.

But then again , I ask myself , do I want to hear him explain his selection ?
The man has been out of Iran since he left Perspolis , vowing never to return , and with the grace of God , he somehow turns up as the coach of Team Melli ( no thanks to that big mouth rowdy and bully Mayeli-Kohan) , and miraculously he comes up with a list of 41 players to quote:

" creates a sense of competition among the players and subsequently, raise their quality and fighting spirit - which are needed"

unquote

Hmmm....... something is just not right here....specially those UAE based players selection noting that Ghotbi has been spending a lot of time in Dubai!!!


Anyway....Maybe his diplomacy will work wonders for Team Melli while all the methods deployed by Daei did not. maybe his charisma and popularity will boost the player's morale even if though it does not do their tactical ability any good....

Frankly , I would not blame him much if he fails (I hope he does not) because under the circumstances , it is difficult to come so late in the game and try to qualify.....But , something that I have definitely figured out from Ghotbi is that he is displaying good PR along with his computer programming knowledge ....... don't know about his footballing tactical prowess, the jury is still out on that.

[Adesor Vafaseya]

I missed the opportunity to watch Ghotbi live on Navad..... I felt asleep

It was nothing to do with Ferdowsipour or the quality of the program , I watched Arash "Baby Face" Borhani and it was a nice interview but fatigue got the better of me after a hectic week...anyway, I dozed ff and did not hear or see Ghotbi.

But then again , I ask myself , do I want to hear him explain his selection ?
.

anyway, if of interest here are the links:
http://www.persianfootball.com/forum...73&postcount=1

[Doctor DOOM]

Hmmm....... something is just not right here....specially those UAE based players selection noting that Ghotbi has been spending a lot of time in Dubai!!!


Frankly , I would not blame him much if he fails (I hope he does not) because under the circumstances , it is difficult to come so late in the game and try to qualify.....But , something that I have definitely figured out from Ghotbi is that he is displaying good PR along with his computer programming knowledge ....... don't know about his footballing tactical prowess, the jury is still out on that.

1- maybe he got paid off by those players. coz they make a lumpsum of dough off their football, and I'm sure they can afford to cut a piece off it for matters like "inclusion in TM lists" ..... coz certainly they dont have the talent or skills to be included in a 41 man list !


2- and the circumstances are so dire becoz of ......... ????
have we forgotten HOW we are in such a difficult situation ??

[maij]

1- maybe he got paid off by those players. coz they make a lumpsum of dough off their football, and I'm sure they can afford to cut a piece off it for matters like "inclusion in TM lists" ..... coz certainly they dont have the talent or skills to be included in a 41 man list !


2- and the circumstances are so dire becoz of ......... ????
have we forgotten HOW we are in such a difficult situation ??

Perhaps if you can raise your argument to something more rational and realistic, we could have a meaningful debate, else I have more value for my time than engaging in such juvenile arguments.

[Doctor DOOM]

majid jan, I'm just following up with the "fishy" issue of calling up underserving players like kazemian and mobaali which apparently has raised many an eyebrow. coz even in a 41 man list, it is hard to imagine such lackluster performers. right ?

perhaps if that "fishy" remark was better explained, ppl wouldnt jump to the wrong conclusions


secondly, it is only fair to talk about "difficult situation" when we also look at HOW it was brought about.
dont you think so ?

[Martin-Reza]

Not everyone not agreeing completely with everything is crying "conspiracy". So no worries, you won't have to defend yourself in that direction.

[Doctor DOOM]

1- "I" did not use the term "fishy"

2- "I" dont have to defend myself anyway, coz "I" didnt say anything
and who's talking about defending anyway?