DPR Korea vs. Iran Nov. 14th WCQ Match Thread

[Damavand]

Another voice for the favor of dropping Shoja from the team. Hope GN and his technical team come to their senses and drop Shoja ASAP.

[Super Shojaei]

In some positive news, I would like to highlight just how important Ghaedi and Mohebi have been for TM in the last 15 months (Ghaedi more this year). Both have grown into some wonderful players. Shame our defense and defensive transition doesn't exist to truly let them shine

Ghaedi is levels above the UAE pro league- he’s been a handful for any Asian defence

Mohebi has improved a lot

[teammelli91]

Shoja holds a grudge against Queiroz for ruining 8 years of his football career. For not calling him up to the national team because Shoja made too many careless mistakes.

As great as Khalilzadeh is, because he is a great center back. We won’t deny him that. He makes too many careless mistakes. On many occasions he’s gotten a red card and it ended up either costing us the match, or somehow we are saved by the skin of our teeth.

Against UAE in the 2022 WCQ’ers, he made a careless mistake and if his red card wasn’t overturned, who knows if we’d even drew the match.

Against Qatar in the last Asian Cup. Yesterday against Korea DPR. He continues to make careless mistakes on the offside trap.

As a fan of his football, and as many strengths he has, he’s one of the most confident CB’s we have, he can’t be called up again.

[Ghermez Agha]

Of the 3000 crimes committed by Ghalenoie against TM, I would rank playing Shoja regularly as one of his biggest.

this a-hole Shoja has ran with the narrative that “he was robbed for 8 years” by CQ and started a pity party for himself, and the incompetent moron GN is, he is eating it all up.

we know including Shoja is not merit-based as it is CLEAR AS DAY this guy has been atroscious for TM. He had one or two decent games in 2022 WCQs and one or two decent ones in the AC and that’s about it…..every other game of his you can find countless errors and mishaps where he himself gave a goal scoring chance clear as day on a silver platter to the opposition. Most of the time it didn’t result in a goal which is why some casuals might not see it as much….had we played better oppositions in those games it would have resulted in embarrassment after embarrassment.

who is a bigger disgrace and damage to TM….Shoja or GN? It’s a tough question to answer but I would go with GN for eating up all this nonsense and allowing us to play a man down basically with Shoja on the field in such a crucial area.

it has never been harder to watch TM IMO. Had it not been for top tier talents, many of which have been playing together for a long time, we like not be in a good place in the standings right now and unfortunately just like 2022 the results of WCQs covers up the real level of incompetence that exists within this staff and this team.

[Ghermez Agha]

In some positive news, I would like to highlight just how important Ghaedi and Mohebi have been for TM in the last 15 months (Ghaedi more this year). Both have grown into some wonderful players. Shame our defense and defensive transition doesn't exist to truly let them shine

agreed…ghaedi and mohebi’s growth has been awesome. One of the few things in our footy giving me some hope these days. Mohebbi I never expected to reach the level he has gotten to and I think his ceiling is really high too…..needs to get out of Russia this summer, he has been great for Rostov and I’m 1000% sure they can cash in on a transfer to a bigger and better league.

[PEJ]

While I have also been ‘pleasantly surprised by GHAEDI’s performance lately, I do keep wondering if his success is due to the fact that we have no game plan and he doesn’t have many responsibilities. He can just go out there and play street football which lends to his greatest strength of dribbling.

[PSGman#19]

agreed…ghaedi and mohebi’s growth has been awesome. One of the few things in our footy giving me some hope these days. Mohebbi I never expected to reach the level he has gotten to and I think his ceiling is really high too…..needs to get out of Russia this summer, he has been great for Rostov and I’m 1000% sure they can cash in on a transfer to a bigger and better league.

Can we have the list of team ghaedi score on? Not even the average of asia, let alone the top

[Nokhodi]

Can we have the list of team ghaedi score on? Not even the average of asia, let alone the top

Best team he’s scored on is Bosnia.

[Pluto2000]

Can we have the list of team ghaedi score on? Not even the average of asia, let alone the top

I mean...you can say that about anyone in TM aside from Taremi. Even Azmoun has not scored in 2 world cups. Probably something like 90% of his goals are against Arab teams/Russian teams besides a few quality champions league appearances. Whether we like it or not Ghaedi is currently the most productive winger we've had in last 4 years aside from Mohebi.

Saeed Ezatollahi still has 1 goal for TM after 8 years

Not to say I agree with him staying in UAE...he would leave if he has any respect for himself. Alas......

[a_m]

CQ was a defense specialist, Shoja was never part of his plans because, CQ twice took us 1 game away from R-16 appearances, the closest we have ever been and I know the style he played , but with a player like shoja we would have never ever been in that position, he has proven time after time , to make a lot of mistakes

he gets red card against weak Asian teams , he is not a bad player but he is nothing amazing either , that you would give him the starting spot just like that ,

can you really see shoja locking down a In form young 20 something forward, in the World Cup ?!

and as a Coach GN has proven time after time , he makes the wrong choices , he makes the wrong player selections as well as the wrong substitutions as well as his tactics , everything really, if not for the level of this opposition we face , we wouldn’t win these games …

we really should not expect anything as long as GN is coach , just a WC appearance that is it , nothing other than 3 loses at the World Cup maybe a Tie but yes

GN does not have the intelligence or the know how , to make us great , we had CQ who coached at Manu Real Madrid and Portugal and the best he could do was 1 game away ….. you really think the GN can do better ?!?!?

make no sense at all ….

We need a better coach , a strong leader who will make ethical decisions as well as , create an atmosphere and culture that make us a better team…

[babak_iran]

Why playing bench against Kyrgyzstan? We have to line up our best in next game but please no shoja.

We can beat Kyrgyzstan with our young players or should beat them with our young player. It will also give them more experience for the future especially when we have to play in the World Cup. As for Shoja he needs to be completely cut from TM. He is too old and he already cost us the Asian cup in a way and he keeps making stupid mental mistakes. He’s done this multiple times at club level too for Pp, Sepahan and Tractor.

[PSGman#19]

I mean...you can say that about anyone in TM aside from Taremi. Even Azmoun has not scored in 2 world cups. Probably something like 90% of his goals are against Arab teams/Russian teams besides a few quality champions league appearances. Whether we like it or not Ghaedi is currently the most productive winger we've had in last 4 years aside from Mohebi.

Saeed Ezatollahi still has 1 goal for TM after 8 years

Not to say I agree with him staying in UAE...he would leave if he has any respect for himself. Alas......

Azmoun at least scored on Top european clubs and also on team like senegal or even better Asian team like Uzbekistan or qatar. Torabi Mohebi scored on japan, jb on sk..

[BacheLot]

Shoja holds a grudge against Queiroz for ruining 8 years of his football career. For not calling him up to the national team because Shoja made too many careless mistakes.

As great as Khalilzadeh is, because he is a great center back. We won’t deny him that. He makes too many careless mistakes. On many occasions he’s gotten a red card and it ended up either costing us the match, or somehow we are saved by the skin of our teeth.

Against UAE in the 2022 WCQ’ers, he made a careless mistake and if his red card wasn’t overturned, who knows if we’d even drew the match.

Against Qatar in the last Asian Cup. Yesterday against Korea DPR. He continues to make careless mistakes on the offside trap.

As a fan of his football, and as many strengths he has, he’s one of the most confident CB’s we have, he can’t be called up again.

i largely agree to this, however i have yet to see another (YOUNG) Promising/formidable CB worth the risk of completely dropping off Shoja for..!!??
besides, although i agree that he has tendencies to be bit risky and overzealous in his defending, but the big, costly mistakes with him often occur when partnered with crappy/inexperienced CB partner where he has to overextend himself well beyond his own defensive duties in order to cover for his CB partner's amature positionings and sever defensive deficiencies or a complete breakdown of our whole team's defensive posture ..!
Shoja has excellent chemistry with Kannani and the two of them when in form are still the most formidable CB pairing in TM..!!

PS
i suppose technically the right call, but the contact which resulted in his expulsion seemed largely unlucky, incidental contact and perhaps not quiet worthy of Red card ..??

[BacheLot]

While I have also been ‘pleasantly surprised by GHAEDI’s performance lately, I do keep wondering if his success is due to the fact that we have no game plan and he doesn’t have many responsibilities. He can just go out there and play street football which lends to his greatest strength of dribbling.

hum..!! perhaps so but only to a small degree..!!
nonetheless, little can be taken away from his very clever attacking approach and even more surprising to me his high class, instinctive finishing touches..!!

i admit that i was also highly skeptical of him ever becoming a legit squad option in senior TM...! But that largely stemmed from his overly diminutive (pre-teen looking) physical stature ...!!

besides, i can't even recall the last time we had a legit goal-scoring Left winger option in TM... ..?

[teammelli91]

i largely agree to this, however i have yet to see another (YOUNG) Promising/formidable CB worth the risk of completely dropping off Shoja for..!!??
besides, although i agree that he has tendencies to be bit risky and overzealous in his defending, but the big, costly mistakes with him often occur when partnered with crappy/inexperienced CB partner where he has to overextend himself well beyond his own defensive duties in order to cover for his CB partner's amature positionings and sever defensive deficiencies or a complete breakdown of our whole team's defensive posture ..!
Shoja has excellent chemistry with Kannani and the two of them when in form are still the most formidable CB pairing in TM..!!

PS
i suppose technically the right call, but the contact which resulted in his expulsion seemed largely unlucky, incidental contact and perhaps not quiet worthy of Red card ..??

That’s the thing, at the moment it’s obvious GN doesn’t trust our promising young CBs to start a WCQ match. I’m not a coach but if I was GN I would gradually bring on Hazbavi and let him start matches.

You’re right, it’s usually when he’s paired with a partner he’s not used to. But that shouldn’t be an excuse for him to make careless mistakes. Obviously he’s no Sergio Ramos, but he’s experienced enough to handle a new partner. With Kanaani he’s a lot better but what if there’s no Kanaani and he’s injured? I don’t know man, that call vs. Korea DPR looked 60-40 against Shoja for me. We can’t risk it.

We (as Iranians) have always lacked talent in the center back position. We’d get players here and there who were talented but who never lived up to their full potential. My opinion is because they never left for Europe. Or left Iran in general for Japan or Korea, somewhere there’s a consistent level of playing against strong opposition on standard pitches.

I won’t lie I don’t know much about Hazbavi. But what I’ve seen of him and have heard is that he’s got the potential to become a decent CB for us down the line. GN must see something in him to call him up in the past 4-5 camps. Now I think he should put him on in that position.