Defence issue

[Darloc]

Contrary to what people say i am not fully sure about our defence being flawless. Ever since Montazeri being out of the picture i see TM making some mistakes in the defence... under CQ our defensive line was very tight and there was no room for a single mistake (last few WCQ games and during/after the WC). In the games against Bahrain and Qatar i witnessed quite a few mistakes that could prove costly if we were facing Japan,Australia (or Koreans).

So i am not really fully assured by our defence even though it is the best in Asia. Montazeri being out of the TM defensive line has made a negative impact. What do you guys think ? Are you seeing the same thing and should we be worried about it !! ?

[HuSsAiN]

I think defence has been solid, the protection they get from Nekou and Ando has been solid, plus they play such a deep line.. remember hajsafi is also a defensive left midfielder..There's hardly much space for attackers to go behind.

You can't complain with two cleansheets.. let's get behind the boys ; been happy with the defence, and if anyone thinks the defence is crap really doesn't understands football.. you can argue the quality of qatar/bahrain is not great, but you can only defend what's infront of you.
Jalal Hosseini - ROCK

We will definitely know more about this defence vs UAE, and vs Japan/Iraq.. but for now, they deserve all the credit

[Darloc]

I think defence has been solid, the protection they get from Nekou and Ando has been solid, plus they play such a deep line.. remember hajsafi is also a defensive left midfielder..There's hardly much space for attackers to go behind.

You can't complain with two cleansheets.. let's get behind the boys ; been happy with the defence, and if anyone thinks the defence is crap really doesn't understands football.. you can argue the quality of qatar/bahrain is not great, but you can only defend what's infront of you.
Jalal Hosseini - ROCK

We will definitely know more about this defence vs UAE, and vs Japan/Iraq.. but for now, they deserve all the credit

I am not saying the defence sucks... read my first post in this thread. I said there are some issues with the defence after Montazeri injury.

[Ghermez Agha]

There definitely are some holes that were not there before but IMO that's a result of the absence of sadeghi. He didn't play vs SK, Iraq, or Bahrain and in each game we saw on several occasions someone either getting beat to a ball, beat in the box, or beat in an aerial challenge. Pouraliganji did very well against Bahrain but proved to be shaky against a stronger Qatar team and seeing how UAE will be our toughest opponent, I personally would like to see sadeghi be slotted back into the CB spot. Montazeri's shoes are being pretty well filled in IMO and isn't really the cause for these holes in seeing. Just my two cents.

[Bi-honar]

I never thought our defense was flawless, but I do think it was solid and think it has been solid in this tournament so far. Haghighi has really had to make one or two EASY saves so far after 180 minutes!

[sirvan]

Montazeri is being missed, he's a quality defender for sure. Ghafouri is doing well as RB though, but Montazeri is a better skilled defender who could play in several positions, real shame he's injured but that's football. So far our defensie ia performing good despite some shaky moments.

[vatanparast]

There definitely are some holes that were there before but IMO that's a result of the absence of sadeghi. He didn't play vs SK, Iraq, or Bahrain and in each game we saw on several occasions getting beat either to a ball, in the box, or in an aerial challenge. Pouraliganji did very well against Bahrain but proved to be shaky against a stronger Qatar team and seeing how UAE will be our toughest opponent, I personally would like to see sadeghi be slotted back into the CB spot. Montazeri's shoes are being pretty well filled in IMO and isn't really the cause for these holes in seeing. Just my two cents.

Our defence has been rock solid. It has held its own and two clean sheets. Considering we have two new players in the back line in ghafouri and paj im impressed also pouladi hadnt been with tm for a long time due to sarbazee issue bs. Now regarding sadeghi vs paj. I think paj has done amazing and although sadeghi is better as a defender due to more experience and playing alongside jalal the gap between the two isnt huge. where paj really shines is in bringing up the ball which it what we need given pejmans injury and jalal or sadeghi arent good on the ball. What about sardars goal. That was like zizou. Shouldnt this thread be merged with postmatch discussion?

[Ghermez Agha]

Our defence has been rock solid. It has held its own and two clean sheets. Considering we have two new players in the back line in ghafouri and paj im impressed also pouladi hadnt been with tm for a long time due to sarbazee issue bs. Now regarding sadeghi vs paj. I think paj has done amazing and although sadeghi is better as a defender due to more experience and playing alongside jalal the gap between the two isnt huge. where paj really shines is in bringing up the ball which it what we need given pejmans injury and jalal or sadeghi arent good on the ball. What about sardars goal. That was like zizou. Shouldnt this thread be merged with postmatch discussion?

I pretty much agree with most of what you said but to specific again, pouraliganji was great in one game and IMO one of our weakest links yesterday. He almost had a disastrous turnover in near our box and didn't close down on the Qatari forwards well at all....most of the key tackles from our defense came from Hosseini or ghafouri.

That gap you are alluding to is exactly what I am talking about. In the sadeghi-hosseini combo I don't think I ever saw that. Against stronger upcoming oppositions it will be vital to have that tight line that we are used to seeing.

[oldcoach]

I am more worried about our offence rather than defence. If we are having trouble scoring against the likes of Bahrain and Qtr, how can we expect to beat Japan and Australia?

[Ali.Karimi79]

Contrary to what people say i am not fully sure about our defence being flawless. Ever since Montazeri being out of the picture i see TM making some mistakes in the defence... under CQ our defensive line was very tight and there was no room for a single mistake (last few WCQ games and during/after the WC). In the games against Bahrain and Qatar i witnessed quite a few mistakes that could prove costly if we were facing Japan,Australia (or Koreans).

So i am not really fully assured by our defence even though it is the best in Asia. Montazeri being out of the TM defensive line has made a negative impact. What do you guys think ? Are you seeing the same thing and should we be worried about it !! ?

I am more worried about our offence rather than defence. If we are having trouble scoring against the likes of Bahrain and Qtr, how can we expect to beat Japan and Australia?

Actually both of you are right. We should worry about both. As for the defense, if it wasn't for Hosseinis ability to head the ball away with his flying persian carpet body, we would have conceded already.
I wouldn't say Montazeri could solve it but i agree that i at least i felt more comfortable with him. But still you have to give Pouraliganji and Ghafouri credit for their performance till now. Who would have thought about that.

The main concern is a mixture of both of you. Our Defense must start way before the ball is inside our penalty area.
Ashkan tends to stay in place and sink his head instead of running back. His performance in his debut game vs Qatar was much much better than what he did today.

After 20 minutes he already looked exhausted. Don't know about the stats but he had a pretty bad game.

Masoud is the other issue. His weak physic makes me scream. He is so god damn slow and so weak it is unbelievable.

There was a huge gap between defense and strikers. I don't blame Gucci for being selfish. He is a striker and at least he shoots the god damn ball.

We are here for the title, so we better close that gap and bench masoud and tell Ashkan to get back his hunger like in his debut. He was such a beast in that game. He was everywhere.
Yes it was because the likes of AK8 and Khalatbari were present.

Playing with Masoud is like driving with a maximum pulled handbreak.

[Paradigm]

I agree with Darloc that loss of Montazeri was a blow to TM's defensive line. He has good ball control skills and a lot of vision to pass the ball forward to initiate constructive plays. The fact that Montazeri was injured playing in Qatar right before the start of AC, makes me wonder if there was any ulterior motive involved. I guess we'd never know for sure.

For now the existing defensive players need to be coordinated so that they don't mangle with each other or the goalkeeper, specially with the balls that are thrown long into the box. CQ should be hard at work fixing this issue prior to Iran starting the elimination round... There is no time for messing around since the clock is ticking.

P.S. Has anyone seen Dr. Doom lately? He usually posts something during tournaments such as the Asian Cup, but he's been quiet thus far.

[Karimi 8]

Our defense definately was stronger going into the WC but i dont think we have a defense issue. 2 clean sheets, and Qatar I dont think had a serious shot on target for that whole 95 minute. Obviously we could always be better, Montazeri is missed and having 2 new players does take time too coordinate. But Hosseini in particular has been outstanding, and Ando and Nekounam are putting in great work in controlling the middle of the field.

[ehsan singapore]

i think amir hosein will be back with seyed jala for the knock out stages, also maybe kosro heydari will be back in the right back position