Ghoochannejhad or Sardar?

[Kiarash]

Ghoochannejhad or Sardar?

lol kiarash, come on man. you're gonna start masoud but not dejagah? dejagah's our best player.

Dejagah has fitness issues. He clearly has troubles playing 90 minutes, during the WC he looked fatigued as hell. I would start Masoud in the group stage since he plays well against Arab teams, and then in the Quarterfinals on rotate between Dejagah and Masoud.

I think Masoud is more instrumental, but that's my personal opinion.

[perspolis#1]

--------------- Haghighi----------------

Heydari-------Hosseini----Sadeghi-----Pouladi

------------Ando-----Neko---------------

Jahanbaksh----Azmoun------Dejagah

----------------Gucci--------------


This could also work. Azmoun has been employed in many positions for Rubin Kazan, Right Midfield and CAM being two of them other than striker. We need our physicality to overwork the teams in our group, while keeping a counter attacking setup. Shojaei can be brought on as a means of holding the ball and killing the game off. If we need a more defensive change, we could also bring on Rezaeian for Heydari or Ebrahimi for Dejagah/Jahanbaksh

[scotian]

Dejagah not starting!??!?!?!??! He's literally our best player.

[Karimi 8]

Ghoochannejhad for sure. He has a lot more experience, despite playing in a crappy league his from hasn't dropped or his fitness it seems. He is used to the pressure, has played in the worldcup and is one of our best players. Azmoun is proving to be dangerous, and he should get play time, would be good to have him as a substitute, but as of now I dont see him near Reza's level. Hope he continues to get playing time and improve.

[BacheLot]

The question of the thread was Who should be our AC Starter in our likely Lone Striker formation & I voted Reza, mostly due to his better workRate & defensive pressure uptop & off course his experience.
But I'm in agreement with much of what Sirvan claims in this thread about Azmoun.
I also think Azmoun is already a better overall footballer than Reza ..!
This kid is a legend in making..! Since AK8, I simply haven't been this impressed with an Iranian footballing talent...!

[ShiroKhorshid]

True, Jahanbakhsh is also a joy to watch but somehow i think Sardar has what it takes to make it as a world class player. In my opinion he is the first since Karimi, lets hope Sardar makes better desicions than him, stays focussed and injury free. Its great that he is already playing in Europe since 2 yrs ago unlike Karimi who only moved to Europe at the age of 26.

[KeonKish]

Re: Ghoochannejhad or Sardar?

I have no doubt sardar will one day be a world class striker. He has the right foundation, played already two seasons in a top 10 league. And in Europa league. He is hard working, tough, and quick. I think his finishing will get better and better with time. He missed like 4goals in Rubin this season by less than a foot.

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[ShiroKhorshid]

Lets hope so. Personally i would love to see him in a average Serie A or Primera Division side , i think he could do very well there.

[KeonKish]

Yes, That would be ideal. Sardar has an advantage because Russian League is probably top 2 or 3 most physical leagues, so in other leagues he will be very strong compared to other players. He looks thin but look at what kind of gardan kolofts are recruited to play in russian league. Hulk, Rondon, Witsel, etc. you dont see a player like llorente soldado or pedro in russian league. Azmoun would be a great fit for pretty much any league.

[onebloodfool]

Azmoun is the kind of player that Ansarifard should have become (but never did).

[KeonKish]

Re: Ghoochannejhad or Sardar?

Azmoun is the kind of player that Ansarifard should have become (but never did).

Ansarifard scored a lot of goals in ipl but as a stand alone striker he has never really impressed me. He has good footwork and speed but he is very dependent on someone to give him good set ups. Without it he goes invisible.

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[sirvan]

Talent wise Ansarifard is the second best strikter we have, but mentally he is not stable, he's not a killer. I hope he changes his mentality he's still young, i like his style. We have three quality strikers, which is something new for TM.

[Afat11]

Azmoun is the kind of player that Ansarifard should have become (but never did).

It's fairly clear at this point why Ansarifard never achieved his full potential. It was more of bad-timing than anything. If you compare Ansarifard and Azmoun, you will see that they both had similar views of their potential at a young age. Both have very high hopes on them to become international stars. The main difference between the two is a matter of circumstance at the time when they are meant to blossom. By this, I mean these 2 differences:

1.) Current Competition in TM
2.) Pressure Being put on the player.

These 2 factors go hand-in-hand, but I will elaborate. When Ansarifard was coming up in his days as Mr. Goal in the IPL, there were literally no strikers of value in the team for him to compete with. We had guys with flickers of hope like Gholami and Ghazi, but nobody who was the established #1 striker. If anything, Ansarifard was already getting the starting job often when he was Azmoun's age.

This lack of competition made him complacent in his game. There was nobody like Gucci at the time for him to attempt to jump over. He was the best Iran had to offer at the time, and when you know you don't have competition, you don't take risks to better yourself. We all know he had offers from Euro teams back then, but he held back until it became clear recently that he had lost his place in the team to Gucci.

If he would have left for Europe back then and not spent his formative years at Persepolis, he may have become a great player.

Unlike Ansarifard, Azmoun had an established star in the team to attempt to jump over, Gucci. So Azmoun knew that he had to head to Europe early to get CQ's attention. As a result, he is developing much better than Ansarifard was at his age.

My second point is about the pressure on the players. Ansarifard was really unlucky to be dubbed the heir to Ali Daei's throne and being given the task of the starting job at aroun 20 or 21 years old. That is immense pressure to put on a young talent, and since we were not overflowing with striking talent, a lot of Iran's success was hinged on him scoring goals. This can cause anyone to devolve as a player and it has in the past. Pressure leads to mistakes which leads to more scrutiny and pressure.

Azmoun was lucky to come up at a time where he has a guy like Gucci already ahead of him. If Azmoun makes a mistake, it is understandable because he is a young substitute, not Iran's main striker. People are more forgiving of these players than the starters, naturally. This lack of pressure will allow Azmoun to develop at his own pace and one day surpass Gucci and maybe even become a major football star.

Ansarifard was a victim of circumstance, and we should be sad as he could have been ahead of Azmoun now if he had the correct circumstances. Instead, he didn't develop properly and we missed out on a major talent blossoming and a crazy World Class strike force for TM.

[littlepersia17]

Ghoochannejhad or Sardar?

Azmoun needs to get the hell out of Russia and join a team where he will get the minutes he deserves.

I'm never convinced with Russia's league as a development platform for youngster. It's just a place where Brazilians go to make more $$$$$

[Kiarash]

Ansarifard is still not a lost hope, if he can break through in Osasuna this season or the next one (he has a contract till 2016) he will have a good shot to become well-established. He is almost 25 so he is at his peak of his career.

Give him some credits: Ansarifard is willing to work hard in Europe and that's what I like about him. Eventually he left the party-bazi and IPL behind him, that alone deserves my respect.