Your line-up vs. Chile and Sweden

[Kiarash]

These two games can be a very good window into the mind of CQ, whether he is an ambitious person or a conservative one.
Meaning is he going to go out with a BANG and make sure the IFF and Iran rue his departure and teach them a lesson what they'd be missing (have a daring formation and system to show guts and drive), or is he more concerned with his own personal stats and try to keep things as respectable as possible (his usual park the bus system).

I think this is a very unfair way to conduct things.

Given all the stuff is going on, do you think we actually have a chance of winning these games or at least put a respectable performance?

Plus, we don't have our two best forwards Jahanbakhsh and Azmoun. Basically we have to crack Sweden's and Chile's defense with an out-form Ansarifard and Al Wakrah's Ghoochannejhad as our MAIN strikers. Looking at Chile's squad and mainly there defense, we are dealing with a top 15 team. Players at Inter Milan, QPR, Elche, Mainz and Hannover 96..

If you were CQ, you would also try to keep your own status high with all the limitations, restrictions and issues with the federation. I think Iran will go into the two friendlies with an ultra-defensive approach, and rightfully so.

CQ absolutely turned into a more offensive minded coach when Iran needed goals. We beat Lebanon 4-0 when we were in need of goals, and we drew Iraq 3-3 when falling back behind twice.

[Bi-honar]

Basically we have to crack Sweden's and Chile's defense with an out-form Ansarifard and Al Wakrah's Ghoochannejhad as our MAIN strikers.

He picked those players though Kiarash jaan. If there's one thing IPL doesn't have a shortage of at the moment, it's in-form strikers and AM's. But CQ obviously thinks Spanish 2nd division or QSL relegation zone bench players are still better than IPL's top Iranian goalscorer and of course as the manager, that's his prerogative.

But I personally don't understand the inclusion of most of the players in this squad and my biggest concern is our defensive line, where JB and Azmoun wouldn't have made any difference any way.

Nekou's injured, Montazeri and Hosseini haven't exactly been honing their skills against some of Asia's best (never mind the world) and PAG has given away two penalties in his last 3 games outside Iran and sporting a dislocated shoulder on top of that. I'm even pretty doubtful about Haghighi at the moment.

So, the only in-form players in our back 7 are Ghafouri and Ando. Not exactly an ideal situation going up against two offensively VERY capable teams, especially if we're going to sit back and soak the pressure and try to hit them on counters (which is almost guaranteed to be the game plan).

[Camran khan]

You forgot Karim Bagheri?

Damn man, wasn't thinking of him, my bad :/

[Doctor DOOM]

@ kiarash

I didn't say we must win. I said daring. There's a big difference.

1- We can cower and park the bus to do damage limitation like how we did against Nigeria (which basically makes the entire match pretty useless for us, not to mention extremely unattractive)
OR
2- We can play a more sensible game and see how we measure up against a bigger team in terms of defense AS WELL AS OFFENSE.

Yes, we may end up losing in the latter case. But friendlies are for exactly that. To see how your tactics and system (which include offense btw) measure up against tougher and more professional opposition. So you go back and tweak things around and fine tune your team.


And once and for all lets stop using the likes of shitty Lebanon as a gauge for TM. For me neither Lebanon is a gauge, nor even Iraq. If at all I have to compare and measure TM it'd be against Korea or Japan or Aussies in Asia.
Keeping our standards as low as Lebanon and Iraq means absolutely no progress.

[Kavian]

Ahmad Reza Abdezadeh

Hossein Kaebi - Rahman Rezaei - Jalal Hosseini - Mehrdad Pouladi

Javad Nekounam - Andranik Teymourian

Mehdi Mahdavikia - Ali Karimi - Ashkan Dejagah

Ali Daei

Add Ostad Asadi and you got yourself a heck of a team!!! :-)

P.S. I never forget his superb header scoring an own goal against Japan. Thank God the ref had already called a foul or offside or something, otherwise that would have made to the top 5 goals of the decade.

[Ghermez Agha]

haghighi

ghafouri hosseini pouraliganji pooladi

ando nekounam ebrahimi

dejagah reza amiri

[ShiroKhorshid]

Gucci
Hajsafi Shoajaei Dejagah
Nekounam Andranik
Gordani Hosseini Pouraliganji Ghafouri
Haghighi

Gordani is invited right? Too bad Sardar and Jahanbakhsh are not available i think these 2 matches would have been a great experience for them.