TM's final 27 for the asia cup is:
Goalkeepers : Rahmati, Mirzapour, Haghighi, Gordan
Defense: Khosro Heirdari, Pejman Montazeri, Hadi Aghili, Mohammad Nosrati, Jalal Hosseini, Farshid Talebi, Ehsan Haj Safi, Aboozar Rahimi
Midfield: Nekounam, Teymourian, Ghasem Hadadifar, Pejman Noori, Iman Mobali, Mehdi Kiani, Mohammad Noori
Strikers: Hadi Noroozi, Gholamreza Rezaei, Shojaei, Karim Ansarifard, Arash Afshin, Mohammad Gholami, Reza Noroozi, Khalatbari
****
Straight off I must say calling mirzapour, hadi noroozi, hajsafi was wrong. Especially when we consider the left back problems and Mahini’s recent performances at ACL.
I also think he has called a few names like kiani and rahimi to say he’s “open to IPL” … but they’re there just to get cut eventually! We may see arash afshin among the cut list too. Maybe.
*********************
Having said the extreme short version, here’s the long version:
I know there are a lot of names that were expected (justified is a different matter though). but is this a balance selection?
Issue 1- LEFT BACK (hey, what else are we going to start with?
)
I'm afraid ghotbi has been blind and hasnt seen hajsafi's performances as left back in TM and Omid this WHOLE YEAR. otherwise he wouldnt have been called.
so any fool knows he isnt the right player for the post and if used as LB, we're gonna get hurt ... seriously.
yeah, yeah, … martin will say nosrati can do this, but we all know nosrati’s best performances are when used as central D, followed by the right side. On the left his performance drops and is incomparable with the other posts. He also wont be able to assist with attacks all that much (plz don’t come up with exceptions. I’m talking about consistency)
so we’re basically left with a suspect alternative and an out of form player for this post. Hardly something to look forward to.
It is quite silly since we have seen Mahini’s good performances at this post in recent Asian club champs. He may not be a Maxwel, but by Iranian LB standards, he is a shoe in and certainly head and shoulders above the two players ghotbi seems to have set on.
I assume heidari is the pick for the RB. But who is his alternative? Nosrati seems a good pick. Is he in ghotbi’s opinion?
2- Midfield:
Knowing ghotbi I think Kiani’s chances of getting the slash is higher than the others … no matter how brilliantly he performs during the camp’s sessions. Why do I say this? Because ghotbi insists on calling Mirzapour. Which shows he really relies and depends on the experience of a player and not so much his “present form or performance” (also why he still picks hajsafi over mahini).
So I guess the new-comer Kiani is the one to be dropped from the list. That leaves neku, pejman, ando and hadadifar + mobaali and Md. Nouri. The first 4 are more of a defensive minded mids + mobali and Nouri, who shd shoulder the more offensive moves and plots. But given Md. Nouri’s recent weeks’ performances, I doubt he’d be much of a force to make an impact. That leaves only mobaali, who admittedly isn’t at his potential best (I’ve seen far better performances from him. Far far better. He seems to have become scared or overly cautious!
).
I’m just hopping these two will get back in form and become the brains of the team in its forward moves. But with ghotbi we may not even see either of them in a line up. Which means we may end up with a midfield that is packed with defensive minded players with hardly any creativity going forward.
With that may come haphazard forays up front with very little supply to the forward(s) with forward(s) getting stranded between many opponent defenders. And maybe even a larger than necessary gap between the midfield belt and the forward line, which adds to the abandonment of the forward(s) up front, thus dealing with them easier for the defenders!
Something we’ve seen consistently and regularly at TM!
3- FORWARD:
I’m assuming arash afshin will be dropped from the list becoz ghotbi likes to go with the ‘tried & tested’ and sadly may favor hadi nowroozi to afshin! But miracles are known to happen and maybe he’ll have some sense to keep afshin (even if he doesn’t use him) but drop hadi.
After daei left (actually a couple of years before he left) we haven’t had a proper center forward capable enough to hold the ball up, have the physical presence of warding off his markers, be a fighter and someone who could buy that extra 2-3 seconds for our mids to come up and add to our numbers. Until I saw Gholami a few months back and now, Reza Nowroozi.
(which brings me to the absolute shitty decision of dropping Oladi , who has 10 times the potential and capability of the player ghotbi loves to pick ; Hadi nowroozi. Even a blind man can vouch for Oladi’s complete superiority over hadi nowroozi.)
Of all the strikers (rezaei, ansarifard, gholami, khalatbari, hadi nowroozi, reza nowroozi) only these two are capable and have the characteristics to fulfill the center forward role. (I wont even count shojaei in the strikers list. He belongs to the midfield). Therefore seeing that ghotbi is adamant about using the silly 4-2-3-1 , I really think it makes no sense using any other players for the lone forward than these two. None of rezaei, khalatbari, ansarifard, … can deliver the duties (as we’ve seen this in the past).
4- … which brings us to the “formation” matter:
Will we see this, or will we play the formation but with the wrong players?
Or maybe afshin guardiola will opt for a 4-3-3 with 3 def-mids (he tried the neku-ando-pejman trio once or twice) behind the more 3 offensive players.
By itself not a disastrous idea … as long as the distances between the 3 lines ( def – mid – forwards) are kept within acceptable range. If the mid 3 due to their defensive character keep closer to the defense and opens up the space between the forwards & the rest of the team, they effectively leave the trio up front stranded with very little support, allow the opponents to claim all the rebound and deflected loose balls and enough time & space to the opponents to plan their attacks carefully. So there is this danger of using this formation with the wrong players.
I doubt the defense line can be brought up the field so much ( to allow the mids to close the gaps between them and the front 3), simply becoz our defenders are slow and at times not very intelligent on the “off-side” trap. (one thing that underlines barca’s superiority in offense AND defense is that their back line plays so high up. Becoz while they are not too fast, they are very good at offside trapping. Therefore this high back-line adds to the numbers in the middle which gets them the superiority in numbers, which means more pressure on the opponents and higher rate of winning the ball back. This added number also plays into their usual passing game where each player with the ball has at least 2-3 good options to pass to and not just the usual 1 or 2 of other regular teams)
We cant expect our lads to play so high, so I would say we need to spread the formation in ALL directions, along the length AND breadth of the pitch (to get some wide plays too). So will 3 defensive mids do in this? I doubt it. We need one of them to be the link to the front 3 and fill the gap in between. Hadadifard maybe?
Will we finally see a proper but simple-n-effective 4-4-2 which we can deliver and perform easier and more comprehensively than other formations? I doubt it given ghotbi's track record!! but man lives on hope.
It’s all a matter of selecting the right player for each post and each set of tasks/duty. But will we?
Goalkeepers : Rahmati, Mirzapour, Haghighi, Gordan
Defense: Khosro Heirdari, Pejman Montazeri, Hadi Aghili, Mohammad Nosrati, Jalal Hosseini, Farshid Talebi, Ehsan Haj Safi, Aboozar Rahimi
Midfield: Nekounam, Teymourian, Ghasem Hadadifar, Pejman Noori, Iman Mobali, Mehdi Kiani, Mohammad Noori
Strikers: Hadi Noroozi, Gholamreza Rezaei, Shojaei, Karim Ansarifard, Arash Afshin, Mohammad Gholami, Reza Noroozi, Khalatbari
****
Straight off I must say calling mirzapour, hadi noroozi, hajsafi was wrong. Especially when we consider the left back problems and Mahini’s recent performances at ACL.
I also think he has called a few names like kiani and rahimi to say he’s “open to IPL” … but they’re there just to get cut eventually! We may see arash afshin among the cut list too. Maybe.
*********************
Having said the extreme short version, here’s the long version:
I know there are a lot of names that were expected (justified is a different matter though). but is this a balance selection?
Issue 1- LEFT BACK (hey, what else are we going to start with?
)I'm afraid ghotbi has been blind and hasnt seen hajsafi's performances as left back in TM and Omid this WHOLE YEAR. otherwise he wouldnt have been called.
so any fool knows he isnt the right player for the post and if used as LB, we're gonna get hurt ... seriously.
yeah, yeah, … martin will say nosrati can do this, but we all know nosrati’s best performances are when used as central D, followed by the right side. On the left his performance drops and is incomparable with the other posts. He also wont be able to assist with attacks all that much (plz don’t come up with exceptions. I’m talking about consistency)
so we’re basically left with a suspect alternative and an out of form player for this post. Hardly something to look forward to.
It is quite silly since we have seen Mahini’s good performances at this post in recent Asian club champs. He may not be a Maxwel, but by Iranian LB standards, he is a shoe in and certainly head and shoulders above the two players ghotbi seems to have set on.
I assume heidari is the pick for the RB. But who is his alternative? Nosrati seems a good pick. Is he in ghotbi’s opinion?
2- Midfield:
Knowing ghotbi I think Kiani’s chances of getting the slash is higher than the others … no matter how brilliantly he performs during the camp’s sessions. Why do I say this? Because ghotbi insists on calling Mirzapour. Which shows he really relies and depends on the experience of a player and not so much his “present form or performance” (also why he still picks hajsafi over mahini).
So I guess the new-comer Kiani is the one to be dropped from the list. That leaves neku, pejman, ando and hadadifar + mobaali and Md. Nouri. The first 4 are more of a defensive minded mids + mobali and Nouri, who shd shoulder the more offensive moves and plots. But given Md. Nouri’s recent weeks’ performances, I doubt he’d be much of a force to make an impact. That leaves only mobaali, who admittedly isn’t at his potential best (I’ve seen far better performances from him. Far far better. He seems to have become scared or overly cautious!
).I’m just hopping these two will get back in form and become the brains of the team in its forward moves. But with ghotbi we may not even see either of them in a line up. Which means we may end up with a midfield that is packed with defensive minded players with hardly any creativity going forward.
With that may come haphazard forays up front with very little supply to the forward(s) with forward(s) getting stranded between many opponent defenders. And maybe even a larger than necessary gap between the midfield belt and the forward line, which adds to the abandonment of the forward(s) up front, thus dealing with them easier for the defenders!
Something we’ve seen consistently and regularly at TM!
3- FORWARD:
I’m assuming arash afshin will be dropped from the list becoz ghotbi likes to go with the ‘tried & tested’ and sadly may favor hadi nowroozi to afshin! But miracles are known to happen and maybe he’ll have some sense to keep afshin (even if he doesn’t use him) but drop hadi.
After daei left (actually a couple of years before he left) we haven’t had a proper center forward capable enough to hold the ball up, have the physical presence of warding off his markers, be a fighter and someone who could buy that extra 2-3 seconds for our mids to come up and add to our numbers. Until I saw Gholami a few months back and now, Reza Nowroozi.
(which brings me to the absolute shitty decision of dropping Oladi , who has 10 times the potential and capability of the player ghotbi loves to pick ; Hadi nowroozi. Even a blind man can vouch for Oladi’s complete superiority over hadi nowroozi.)
Of all the strikers (rezaei, ansarifard, gholami, khalatbari, hadi nowroozi, reza nowroozi) only these two are capable and have the characteristics to fulfill the center forward role. (I wont even count shojaei in the strikers list. He belongs to the midfield). Therefore seeing that ghotbi is adamant about using the silly 4-2-3-1 , I really think it makes no sense using any other players for the lone forward than these two. None of rezaei, khalatbari, ansarifard, … can deliver the duties (as we’ve seen this in the past).
4- … which brings us to the “formation” matter:
Will we see this, or will we play the formation but with the wrong players?
Or maybe afshin guardiola will opt for a 4-3-3 with 3 def-mids (he tried the neku-ando-pejman trio once or twice) behind the more 3 offensive players.
By itself not a disastrous idea … as long as the distances between the 3 lines ( def – mid – forwards) are kept within acceptable range. If the mid 3 due to their defensive character keep closer to the defense and opens up the space between the forwards & the rest of the team, they effectively leave the trio up front stranded with very little support, allow the opponents to claim all the rebound and deflected loose balls and enough time & space to the opponents to plan their attacks carefully. So there is this danger of using this formation with the wrong players.
I doubt the defense line can be brought up the field so much ( to allow the mids to close the gaps between them and the front 3), simply becoz our defenders are slow and at times not very intelligent on the “off-side” trap. (one thing that underlines barca’s superiority in offense AND defense is that their back line plays so high up. Becoz while they are not too fast, they are very good at offside trapping. Therefore this high back-line adds to the numbers in the middle which gets them the superiority in numbers, which means more pressure on the opponents and higher rate of winning the ball back. This added number also plays into their usual passing game where each player with the ball has at least 2-3 good options to pass to and not just the usual 1 or 2 of other regular teams)
We cant expect our lads to play so high, so I would say we need to spread the formation in ALL directions, along the length AND breadth of the pitch (to get some wide plays too). So will 3 defensive mids do in this? I doubt it. We need one of them to be the link to the front 3 and fill the gap in between. Hadadifard maybe?
Will we finally see a proper but simple-n-effective 4-4-2 which we can deliver and perform easier and more comprehensively than other formations? I doubt it given ghotbi's track record!! but man lives on hope.
It’s all a matter of selecting the right player for each post and each set of tasks/duty. But will we?
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