Conclusions for TM of Esteghlal's game today

[Martin-Reza]

For me, the following issues became clear or were confirmed after Esteghlal's loss today:

- The only players being TM candidates from Esteghlal are Majidi, Heydari, Kazemi and Jabbari. The rest shouldn't be called up and if they are, it is only a sign how poor we are in a certain position.

- Heydari is undoubtedly NOT superior to Kaebi. He should still be in the squad.

- Majidi is a very dangerous striker, but no killer. Still I see no striker stronger than him in Iran currently.

- Can we please naturlize Januario?

[dvader6]

jabbari?

[Payam_S]

I agree with all you said Martin jan except Jabbari....I didnt say anything from him today.
Majidi really deserve a call up. I dont see any better striker then him currently.

[maij]

Sorry , Martin , but what did Jabbari exactly do to get your approval ?

[yashar_fasihnia]

-kazemi has been and still is the best non-legionnaire DM in iran!
-mohammadi exits his goal way too much and is not TM material.
-our players take everything for granted until its too late. i cant believe noone cared how the saudis built up their attack on the 3rd goal and everyone was so passive and walking.

[Martin-Reza]

Please don't confuse being a candidate with deserving a TM call currently. Jabbari is back from a long injury. He is showing some good signs that he is on his way back to good form. While he surely is no TM candidate at the moment, he still can not be ruled out like most other SS players and therefore is in the pool for future selection imo.

Apart from that, I think he was one of the better players after coming on. No doubt, he didn't do big things, but in the small things he impressed me. Very calm but still quick and good decision making and nice execution (apart from a short phase of 60 seconds in which he made 2 bad passes). It is impressive seeing such a player beside headless chicken like Akbarpour, Rahmati or Yousefi.

[Paradigm]

Buttomline: Iran once again goes down to Saudi Arabia.

[Hajagha]

You forgot marfavi.

Is this guy an idiot or what? He pulled out his best player.

Who brought Pejman Montazeri from zamin-khaki to a professional league?

If Mohmadi is called for Team Melli, The coach is officially an idiot.

Heidari is not Team Melli material. The only thing this guy does, is get the ball, touch it a minimum 3 times and then try to pass it in the hardest way possible. It doesn't matter if he is in his own 6 yard box or his team mate is in an easy position.

I like Akabarpour performance in this position much better. He can be another candidate for TM call up.

Majidi, Majidi, Majidi..... now remember Daei as the big truck. Imagine it's 2002, we missed the world cup, we are preparing for the AC, Daei is already 32-33 years old and it's in his down hill, we haven't got this idiot Branko insisting on Daei, Majidi is only 23-24.... ahhhhhhhhhha when the time machine is gonna invented?

BTW, some body just kill this Majdak Mirzaei please, he is beyond idiot.

[maij]

-kazemi has been and still is the best non-legionnaire DM in iran!
-mohammadi exits his goal way too much and is not TM material.
-our players take everything for granted until its too late. i cant believe noone cared how the saudis built up their attack on the 3rd goal and everyone was so passive and walking.

Because , Yashar Jan, Iranian defenses from kids teams all the way to the senior Team Melli , DO NOT understand , comprehend or execute TEAM DEFENSES very well. I have said that so many times because I have seen it umpteen times.

Today , I only consider Zob Ahan as anything close to a team playing a proper systematic defense , the rest are awful including Sepahan.

It is no use having 3 or 4 great individual defenders ( and a couple of defensive midfielders) playing their own games. They need to defend like a team , cover each other well, fill gaps , do not fumble , watch the forwards and midfielders of the opposing team. Just notice how Esteghlal defended against Al Shabab......so much lethargic play and so much confusion amongst each other.

[persian-eagle-13]

- Can we please naturlize Januario?

all issues aside, i think it is not a bad idea for us to start giving out citizenship to foreign players, everyone else is doing it and for god's sake we are in 21 century and the world has never been closer and more diverse. if any foreign player takes a risk to come to iran and play football, not for 1 or 2 years, but several years, it is clear too my that they do not mind representing iran at international level, otherwise they would have been gone long time ago

[Paradigm]

Just a random thought: Could it be that Marfavi was under some outside pressure to sub in Jabbari?

[Martin-Reza]

^ Even if he was, why on earth would he take out Januario and not Akbarpour for instance?

[zzgloo]

While I am Taj fan...but I will try my best to be objective here.

1- With so much shortage at TM forwards....and Esteghlal ,compare to all league teams, has the surplus of forwards....

Borhani
Akbar poor
Sayed Salehi
Majidi

Atleast, deserve to be candidates.....( although I personaly believe we do not have any better in IRAN )

2-Haydari...is the closest thing we have to what Mahdavikia once was !, and he defenetly has a upside !..and Kabei, defenetly is on his downside !

[Martin-Reza]

^ Kaebi at least once had an upside. Khosro Heydari will never have one. Still, unfortunately, he is the second best option we have for the right side (both fullback and midfield), so I would definitely invite him, but not play him over Kaebi.

Akbarpour is garbage. SS should get rid of him, TM is completely out of sight for him. Salehi had some good games, but he lacks consistency. Borhani is even worse. He has great days and he has complete off days, recently only the latter. I think you are right that both of this players might have TM potential somewhere hidden deep inside, but I have my doubts they can bring it up to make the AC list.

[Babak agha]

Majidi is currently our best striker I think. He's pretty active for his age, I never expected him to be in this shape when he joined SS.
I really don't like Salehi, the guy is good at nothing.
Kazemi could be a benchwarmer for TM, behind Nekounam and Ando and I think Jabbari is no way near TM yet.