CQ knows better than anyone that friendly games are few and far between for TM. With 2 coming up against better opposition, we should get a good idea of his plans for the second round of WC 2018 qualifying. It's likely he'll stick with a familiar squad but in the event he drops some senior players for relative unknowns, would it really be a bad thing?
Nekounam is retiring and will definitely feature in at least one of those games but there are other players on the fringes of retirement who may prove useful in qualifying but will undoubtedly be too old to take to Russia, if we qualify.
From our current squad these are the over 30s, their age on June 14th 2018 in brackets:
Jalal Hosseini (36)
Amir Hossein Sadeghi (36)
Khosro Heydari (34)
Javad Nekounam (37) - retiring
Masoud Shojaei (34)
Andranik Teymourian (35)
*Combined total of 463 caps and counting
There are already names in the current squad who can replace any outgoing players from above and a few in reserves - Khalilizadeh, Ali Rahmani, Karimi, Mosalman, Sharifi, etc - but equally there are also other recent call ups we should now look to phase out of selection consideration (2018 ages in brackets):
Rahman Ahmadi (37)
Hashem Beikzadeh (34)
Pejman Montazeri (34)
Ahmad Alenemeh (35)
Iman Mobali (35)
Mohammad Nouri (35)
Habib Gordani (35)
Mohammad Reza Khalatbari (34)
Ghasem Haddadifar (34)
Reza Nouri (35)
The dilemma for CQ must surely be; do I stick with what I have for now, slowly introduce players over the next few years and in all likelihood end up taking several inexperienced players to the World Cup OR do I revamp the squad now, weakening the talent pool somewhat in the short-term and at greater risk of qualification, but with the intention of having a more balanced squad of experienced (30+ caps) players.
Realistically, I'd like CQ to keep hold of Hosseini and Ando for as long as they can do the job but scrap the others above straight away (barring any emergencies) with a view to building the team around the following:
Alireza Haghighi, 14 caps
Morteza Pouraliganji, 5 caps
Mehrdad Pooladi, 28 caps
Ehsan Hajsafi, 69 caps
Alireza Jahanbakhsh, 15 caps
Ashkan Dejagah, 23 caps
Reza Ghoochannejhad, 23 caps
Sardar Azmoun, 8 caps
With World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying combined, there will be 20 qualifiers plus whatever friendlies we can muster between now and summer 2018 to blood a squad for Russia.
On a side note; CQ also needs to address an issue which hasn't really been discussed on here. I've seen a lot of threads discussing our midfield, PAG being the natural replacement for Nekounam and calls for Ebrahimi to have greater involvement... but there is a real dearth of Central Defenders in our squad of late.
Hosseini isn't going to be around much longer, PAG is playing there out of position and in favour of Sadeghi (so his days must be numbered). We only took 2 recognised CBs to Australia, 3 if you count Khanzadeh. With the exception of Khalilzadeh, there isn't much to be excited about in reserve. Perhaps CQ will continue playing PAG there as we have far more promising talent in the midfield than in defense.
Thoughts?
Nekounam is retiring and will definitely feature in at least one of those games but there are other players on the fringes of retirement who may prove useful in qualifying but will undoubtedly be too old to take to Russia, if we qualify.
From our current squad these are the over 30s, their age on June 14th 2018 in brackets:
Jalal Hosseini (36)
Amir Hossein Sadeghi (36)
Khosro Heydari (34)
Javad Nekounam (37) - retiring
Masoud Shojaei (34)
Andranik Teymourian (35)
*Combined total of 463 caps and counting
There are already names in the current squad who can replace any outgoing players from above and a few in reserves - Khalilizadeh, Ali Rahmani, Karimi, Mosalman, Sharifi, etc - but equally there are also other recent call ups we should now look to phase out of selection consideration (2018 ages in brackets):
Rahman Ahmadi (37)
Hashem Beikzadeh (34)
Pejman Montazeri (34)
Ahmad Alenemeh (35)
Iman Mobali (35)
Mohammad Nouri (35)
Habib Gordani (35)
Mohammad Reza Khalatbari (34)
Ghasem Haddadifar (34)
Reza Nouri (35)
The dilemma for CQ must surely be; do I stick with what I have for now, slowly introduce players over the next few years and in all likelihood end up taking several inexperienced players to the World Cup OR do I revamp the squad now, weakening the talent pool somewhat in the short-term and at greater risk of qualification, but with the intention of having a more balanced squad of experienced (30+ caps) players.
Realistically, I'd like CQ to keep hold of Hosseini and Ando for as long as they can do the job but scrap the others above straight away (barring any emergencies) with a view to building the team around the following:
Alireza Haghighi, 14 caps
Morteza Pouraliganji, 5 caps
Mehrdad Pooladi, 28 caps
Ehsan Hajsafi, 69 caps
Alireza Jahanbakhsh, 15 caps
Ashkan Dejagah, 23 caps
Reza Ghoochannejhad, 23 caps
Sardar Azmoun, 8 caps
With World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying combined, there will be 20 qualifiers plus whatever friendlies we can muster between now and summer 2018 to blood a squad for Russia.
On a side note; CQ also needs to address an issue which hasn't really been discussed on here. I've seen a lot of threads discussing our midfield, PAG being the natural replacement for Nekounam and calls for Ebrahimi to have greater involvement... but there is a real dearth of Central Defenders in our squad of late.
Hosseini isn't going to be around much longer, PAG is playing there out of position and in favour of Sadeghi (so his days must be numbered). We only took 2 recognised CBs to Australia, 3 if you count Khanzadeh. With the exception of Khalilzadeh, there isn't much to be excited about in reserve. Perhaps CQ will continue playing PAG there as we have far more promising talent in the midfield than in defense.
Thoughts?
. But seriously I don't know why you guys bash Khanzadeh so much, he is a good player but he is played out of position to often (in Persepolis and TM) at full back. At CB he is a okay defender, but has good ability with the ball at his feet.
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