Iran - Qatar WCQ 6/12/12

[Doctor DOOM]

The line up has been announced:

rahmati
mahini - aghili - hosseini - pouladi
neku - ando
heidari - karimi - hajsafi
ansarifard


depending on the tasks asked from hajsafi and heidari this could be a very defensive formation or a good balance between defense and attack.
I wonder which one it is. but knowing CQ's record I think these two will not be really adventurous and will be conservative.

but why? we're playing AT HOME, in AZADI against qatar (not exactly on par with saudis or koreans or ... if you've seen them play) ffs. why?


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

FIRST HALF -

• Nekounam has been rather poor in his passing and defensive duties. Also being in the center and in absence of the invisible Karimi, he shd be taking care of passes from the middle to runners up front. But he has failed in this too.

• I really think something drastic needs to be done. Maybe a double subbing of Dejagah and Khalatbari for Karimi and Ansarifard. Coz this Qatar team is there for the taking. We just have to fine tune our attacks and get someone up front who can power in

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

SECOND HALF :

• Some very poor crossing mixed with some good ones. Means we were very inconsistent in them! But after seeing so many bad crosses, it is the coach who shd come to the line and scream and fix it

• Besides, crosses to whom? Ballerina has no strength to fight for balls with defenders and Khalatbari is too short for them. So this many crosses for whom? So why no other tactic was tried, Mr. international coach, CQ? Just ONE tactic for the entire game? Is that what we shd expect from genius international coaches?

• Therefore why not try shots from outside the box? Especially when we could score off ricochets with so many legs in the box?

• Min 73: Qatari keeper collects all the ball inside AND OUTSIDE his 6 yard box. Why not try near post, if you HAVE TO cross? Every damn cross is right in the middle of the box! Any views on this Mr. international coach?

[CHaMiLLionaire]

It seems absolutely logical to me. Our main wingers are injured/not fit. There is no one else to replace them. I think the tactic is to play with the same formation but different strategy depending on home and away. The full backs and wingers will be offensive at home, and balanced/defensive away.

[Paradigm]

I hope Mr. CQ "must win it at home" brings in Khalatbari and Dejagah in the 2nd half. Iran needs strikers to get goals!!
South Korea won their 2nd match 3-0 today... As usual they are getting max points before their tough matches arrive.

Doc Doom, you posted the same thread twice back to back, I think you can delete the other one yourself before someone posts a reply (after that the server won't allow it.)

[Martin-Reza]

Positive notes:
- 4 points
- no goals conceded, defense looks quite stable
- we dominated today's game
- we made less unforced errors than usual
- Karimi looks sharp, Rahmati is back to his old self, Ando rocks
- we didn't blindly attack and concede a late goal like Uzbekistan (or Daei's 2009 Iran against Saudi)

Negative notes:
- not won a homegame
- crosses are unprecise
- we made nothing out of tons of setpieces
- we simply play too slowly, making it easier for teams like Qatar to defend against us (unlike against Korea)
- reason for that are players like Heydari, who is a solid player, but too slow in the head and always needs to control the ball before sending in a cross - the only thing he actually can do

Overall, we are in good position after two games and with constant improvement will qualify for WC.

[Doctor DOOM]

^ till when are you going to blindly defend coaches just becoz of their title?

lol. defense looks quite stable? there's a reason for this: THEY DIDNT ATTACK!
the one corner they had, they almost scored (due to defenders' inability to head off the ball and Rahmati's perpetual paralysis in exiting on crosses!!

2 points were LOST as this was our HOME game.

we dominated? again becoz the qataris didnt have any ambition of coming forward. their game plan was sit back in numbers and defende and maybe get lucky on fast counters. therefore, it is easy to dominate the pitch when the opponent surrenders the middle to you willingly
and again, we had less bad passes ... SIMPLY BECOZ WE WERENT UNDER ANY PRESSURE until we got close to their box. less numbers of qataris and no pressure in the middle of the pitch, obviously facilitates easier passes for us


rahmati again reminded us of his weakness.

we actually did BLINDLY cross (after cross after cross after cross ....) !


but it is no wonder you see a positive in this draw. you seem to love 0-0 draws much much more than wins!
testament to more than 11-12 years of discussions and arguments between us!

[Martin-Reza]

^ till when will you critisize everyone and everything, including all coaches we ever had and will have?

And where did I defend Queiroz, does naming positive aspects besides negative ones equal worhsipping a coach??! Lol.

[Doctor DOOM]

what's even more scary is knowing how cautious CQ is proving to be (him insisting on friendlies against teams ranked beyond 150 shd have been the first give away. then his blowing up teams like maldives and indonesia and even the very same qatar was the seond give away. the third one was his line up and arrangements!), I think he'll go to lebanon for a freaking DRAW (I know someone who'd be ecstatic with a draw!) again!

exactly WHEN are we going to see this "international quality" at TM?
how long more are we to wait? another month, if a year isnt enough? another 6 months? a year? by 2015 maybe?

[K. Nader]

I agree with most things you say DD but you won't be seeing attractive football under CQ's tenure (and I say this with no disrespect towards CQ). Remember, CQ was not brought in to 'restructure' Team Melli but rather to qualify us for the 2014 World Cup. The moment this task is accomplished, CQ will have earned his paycheck (based on the arrangement with the IFF).

Also, we need to put things in perspective - the winning formula to qualifying to the World Cup from Asia is to win your home matches and draw away. Thus far, we've played two matches (1 home, 1 away), and have a total of 4 points. While I do agree that Iran COULD have won today, the result still keeps us within the parameters of the 'winning formula'.

Some other 'fun' facts:

- We're currently tied with Qatar in terms of points. However, we're in 2nd place given that we've played one less game.
- Lebanon only has 1 point from three matches and a loss against us in September would practically place them out of contention only halfway through the campaign.
- South Korea will face Uzbekistan next and if they manage to win, Uzbekistan will be sitting on 1 point from three matches!

[Doctor DOOM]

akhe nader jan ... "attractive football" aslan nakhastim ... what about "sensible" football?
you keep walking into a wall, 2 times, 5 times, 10 times ... eventually you shd say to yourself "maybe I ought to try a different thing, like go around it" instead of trying walk through it again and again till you're left with a bloody nose and face

the problem is we havent seen SENSIBLE football from CQ's team, especially in games where it mattered. "attractive football" ke peesh-keshet.

having a little daisy ballerina as your center forward, who shies away from ANY contact and more importantly, AS YOUR SOLE FORWARD is not sensible (although ansarifard may be attractive to some for being the IPL top scorer and all. and I say it in a very NON-homo way ).

4-2-3-1 with a little daisy as the sole forward is pure non-sense. now, if I havent talked about this formation for a while is becoz we had Ghazi, who is physical enough and is someone who doesnt shy away from conflict and getting into the thick of things. But ansarifard? really?
not to mention having two def-mids in a home game against an exhausted team that had a big game 3 days prior, when you need the 3 points is just pure absurd and ridiculous.



on the matter of "formula of winning at home an ddrawing away", I must say it's all well and nice and cute. but didnt we try to follow the same formula with daei & ghotbi too? same with ciro and a whole host of other coaches.
but it's one thing to look at what's ON PAPER. what's reality is you can very easily lose points at home while dominating a game (as we just did. also just ask the uzbeks). so are you GUARANTEEING we'd get 4 points off south korea, or beat the uzbeks and qataris too? are you?

if not, then I must remind you of the last 3 match-days in our schedule and remind you of what we went through in the very similar circumstances the last time: ... meaning needing a win AT korea to qualify.

leave what's on paper. what's reality is in such situations/schedules, you try your hardest, even tear your arse in the EARLY stages of the campaign so you wouldnt need to get so desperate in the last few games when you have to play 3 games in 11 days!
that's what sensible koreans and japanese and ... do in each and every campaign.
and them finding their way to the WC, edition after edition is testament enough that such an attitude is better than relying on what formulas we see written "on paper".

[Doctor DOOM]

maybe there's a reason CQ was successfuly as the SECOND-in-command under Fergi and failed as head coach in Real Madrid.

something many of us fail to account for or realize is there's a whole world of difference between the duties and responsibilities of a HEAD coach and his assistant/right hand man.
I remember I used to talk about the very same thing with Branko as coach too, especially when we faced international quality teams/coaches in WCQ's and WC (thank god we got lucky with an easy group and 50% chance of qualifying) who outsmarted him easily, while he was glued to the bench with a brain-freeze.

maybe CQ would be, and by all account, IS a fantastic trainer, theoretician and assistant. But team line up, tactics, arrangements, ... etc are ultimately the responsibility of the head coach who has a different bent of mind and capabilities.
food for thought

[oldcoach]

"اين بازي كسل*كننده دقيقا 95 دقيقه وقت تلف شده داشت. 5 دقيقه را قطري*ها تلف كردند، 90 دقيقه را خودمان"

[maij]

I think this match was a hell of an improvement on the match against Uzbekistan, but unfortunately that is not really something I would brag about.

I believe that Carlos Queiroz is quickly exposing his weaknesses even for the untrained eyes. I have no problem with CQ being defensive or even being "Cautious", the facts clearly indicate that he is both. The problem with him which was clearly evident in this match is that he was employing a strategy that consistently failed to yield result , YET he had no alternative plan up his sleeve !!!!!

I thought that every professional coach must has some sort of alternative game plan/ strategy and option to employ when the original fails to yield the required result !!! Hmmmmmm

OK….. So , CQ elected for crosses from the flanks as a the plan to beat the opposition. Such strategy worked quite well for the Koreans against Qatar a few days back. So , why not try that to break them ? However, Autouri , a Wiley and an experienced coach filled all the gaps that resulted in that heavy defeat an strengthen his defenses. For Queiroz , those crosses were not good enough at all, (and I really will not fault Karim Ansarifard for his weak display , because the service delivery was of a poor quality.)

Why not change the game plan? What about shooting from outside the box? What about penetration from the center? What about splitting up the defense using one-two balls ? What about any other damn tactics in the book , for Heaven sake....It was quite clear that Qassim Burhan , the Qatari keeper was like an F16 ruling the sky , why not try something else....or am I out of my senses here , Mr. Queiroz?


Despite Team Melli not conceding a goal , I really do not have a lot of confidence in the defense. They looked quite shaky , but I must credit Rahmati for that save.


If there was one positive point in the performance, it was couple of those majestic Ali Karimi moves that really delighted the fans. In fact he sent some sublime passes at the end of each of those moves to Heydari for the guy to screw it up like he always does. I am sorry guys , I am not really convinced with Khosrow Heydari , seriously not my cup of tea !!

[Doctor DOOM]

any half decent coach would have come to the line and would have screamed "KEEP THE DAMNED BALL ON THE GROUND" after minute 30.
but Mr. international coach, CQ ....?

[maij]

any half decent coach would have come to the line and would have screamed "KEEP THE DAMNED BALL ON THE GROUND" after minute 30.
but Mr. international coach, CQ ....?

You know Doc, I really doubt that CQ had an alternative game plan, If he had , I really love to know why it was not deployed?

Some of his staunch defenders might provide us with some insight on that question.

[Doctor DOOM]

^ why shd they? do we have coaching certificates? No. so we shd not dare question the lack of plan B