Is there any Iranian defender who is 195 cm+ in IPL or abroad?

[Afat11]

Hi guys,

I wanted to create this thread to bring attention to something vital I think our TM is going to be missing very soon. That is a tall, strong defender. We saw against Sweden that we are overpowered by bigger stronger teams, since we cannot win headers.

Are there any young Iranian defenders in IPL or abroad who are the equivalents of a Jerome Boateng, David Luiz, or Vincent Kompany. Essentially the strong-style defender who wins most air battles?

I really think our future back-line with the pending retirement of Seyed Jalal will be:

Ghafouri-Pouraligangi-_________-Hajsafi

Pouraligangi looks like he will develop well into the Thiago Silva style center back, who has speed, decent technique and can chase down breaking defenders. This is very similar to Seyed Jalal's playing style. I feel the best teams in the world pair up one speedy defender like Pouraligangi with one strong, slower defender to win all the headers.

Do you guys have any suggestions from watching IPL. I only follow the main teams very closely, and I know some of the lower teams probably have gems that aren't in the top 3-4 teams. Even TM youth players should be considered.

This is the TM I hope to see as we get closer to 2018:

----------------Biranvand-----------------
Ghafouri-Pouraligangi-________-Hajsafi
---------Teymourian-Ezatollahi----------
Jahanbakhsh---Dejagah------------Amiri
-----------------Azmoun------------------

If Teymourian is too old by 2018, we may think of pulling Pouraligangi up to the CDM position and having 2 new defenders. In my mind, finding new defenders for the aging Hosseini, Montazeri and Sadeghi is imperative. Would like to see some scouting from you guys. I know Kiarash jan will likely have a few ex-pats in mind :P Put your suggestions here!

[Kiarash]

We have one expat who is 1.96cm to be precise.

He is Ryan Tafazolli, an English-Iranian CB playing for Mansfield Town in League Two of England. He is 23 years old and he has been the best player of his team.

Scottish team Dundee United made a formal offer for Tafazolli but his club rejected the transfer. Obviously he can play for a better team in a higher division, perhaps Championship mid-table / bottom.

He is a youth product of Southampton academy which has produced good players. I don't say he is our best CB we have and we should call him up right now, but he might be worth an invitation if he moves to a better team and becomes fixed there.

I am sure CQ will look for few more foreign based players since it has been a while ago and considering the fact many players are close to retiring, he may take a shot and call up potential TM candidates from abroad (another one is Radjabali-Fardi).

Like you suggested, I came up with my advice and anyone can feel free to disagree!

I would like to hear our other CB's options from IPL as well.

[Camran khan]

I think we are blowing this a little out of porportion.. Sweden is like one of the tallest (if not the tallest) teams in the world, so yup they're gonna have us beat in the air. But they're missing in so many other aspects of the game, height is not even close to everything. We still even for world standards have a very tall team. And in the Sweden game I thought our best defender was Sadeghi when he came on in the 2nd half, the tallest one too.

[EKBATAN]

i dont think you necessarily need height to win aerial battles. its the way you read the game and react a lot of times. sure height plays a big factor but cannavaro is a great example, not a tall defender but one of the best all time and in 2006 wc he won every single aerial battle and they faced some tall teams like czech, US, australia, germany

[Z Joon]

Is there any Iranian defender who is 195 cm+ in IPL or abroad?

If you target a tall player specifically I can think of Rouzbeh Cheshmi of Saba who is a 21 year old DM naturally but can play CB like PAG, he plays that position with Iran U23. 190cm, very strong physically for his age, but could be also an option to replace Nekounam along with Ali Karimi.

We have couple of decent and young CBs: Hajmohammadi (Naft), Kanaani (Loan to Malavan from PP), Majid Hosseini (SS, 18 years old), Khalilzadeh is 25 but decent, Khanzadeh can play CB and is 188 cm

[TheBoss]

we have to look into azadegan league as well, for good, young and tall defenders. we have plenty of strikers, couple great midfielders but we have an aging defense.

[Afat11]

I think we are blowing this a little out of porportion.. Sweden is like one of the tallest (if not the tallest) teams in the world, so yup they're gonna have us beat in the air. But they're missing in so many other aspects of the game, height is not even close to everything. We still even for world standards have a very tall team. And in the Sweden game I thought our best defender was Sadeghi when he came on in the 2nd half, the tallest one too.

I agree with you and Ekbatan's points, Camran Khan. I definitely think it's not a good idea to put out a bunch of tall players for every game, we need to have depth in the team. We don't necessarily need to put out tall strong players against a team like China who doesn't necessarily have the tallest players in the world.

I think having a good strong defender in the team can help against teams like Korea who had that Kim Shin Wook guy, and other teams that try to use tall strong strikers to bully opposing defenses.

I feel that Pouraligangi will be the natural replacement of Hosseini. In my mind, we need another Aghili type player, but even bigger and stronger up our sleeve so that when we meet up with a strong African team or European team we can use that as our defensive pairing.

Having 2 183 cm defenders will be good for us against the likes of Chile, Argentina, etc. If we get matched up with Germany, or Bosnia again, we will have a tougher time. We need to ideally have 2 players in each position, that we can call upon. We have Azmoun who is the stronger more technically gifted version of the faster Gucci. We can swap them, which gives our team depth.

In our defensive position, we should have 3 Hosseini/Pouraligangi type defenders who are good in the air, but fast. In my personal opinion, we need 1 Kompany/Boateng style defender to be on the bench who we can give a game to when we see fit.

I agree that Sadeghi was our best defender against Sweden. He was the tallest and strongest of the lot. If we had a younger, taller, and stronger version of him in IPL, I would have started him alongside Hosseini or Pouraligangi against Sweden.

[KeonKish]

Omranzadeh is very tall, 6'4 or 6'5 if I am not mistaken. I agree with camran khan, most teams are shorter than us, and even against nigeria we didnt have a problem. I just hope we replace nekounam with someone tall.

[Afat11]

If you target a tall player specifically I can think of Rouzbeh Cheshmi of Saba who is a 21 year old DM naturally but can play CB like PAG, he plays that position with Iran U23. 190cm, very strong physically for his age, but could be also an option to replace Nekounam along with Ali Karimi.

We have couple of decent and young CBs: Hajmohammadi (Naft), Kanaani (Loan to Malavan from PP), Majid Hosseini (SS, 18 years old), Khalilzadeh is 25 but decent, Khanzadeh can play CB and is 188 cm

Did some research on some of these guys, just basically looking at their stats and pictures and such. I don't know if I'm just finding pictures of them when they were young or what, but they all seem very skinny to me. Like the same body type as Pouraligangi. Tall, but gangly limbs like Reza Haghighi.

Khalilzadeh also seems to be fairly short. Do you know of any young defenders that are both tall but also have a vazneh heycal? Like Mohsen Bengar's body type, but taller. Hopefully a better defender too.

[Camran khan]

I agree with you and Ekbatan's points, Camran Khan. I definitely think it's not a good idea to put out a bunch of tall players for every game, we need to have depth in the team. We don't necessarily need to put out tall strong players against a team like China who doesn't necessarily have the tallest players in the world.

I think having a good strong defender in the team can help against teams like Korea who had that Kim Shin Wook guy, and other teams that try to use tall strong strikers to bully opposing defenses.

I feel that Pouraligangi will be the natural replacement of Hosseini. In my mind, we need another Aghili type player, but even bigger and stronger up our sleeve so that when we meet up with a strong African team or European team we can use that as our defensive pairing.

Having 2 183 cm defenders will be good for us against the likes of Chile, Argentina, etc. If we get matched up with Germany, or Bosnia again, we will have a tougher time. We need to ideally have 2 players in each position, that we can call upon. We have Azmoun who is the stronger more technically gifted version of the faster Gucci. We can swap them, which gives our team depth.

In our defensive position, we should have 3 Hosseini/Pouraligangi type defenders who are good in the air, but fast. In my personal opinion, we need 1 Kompany/Boateng style defender to be on the bench who we can give a game to when we see fit.

I agree that Sadeghi was our best defender against Sweden. He was the tallest and strongest of the lot. If we had a younger, taller, and stronger version of him in IPL, I would have started him alongside Hosseini or Pouraligangi against Sweden.

You makes som good points. I have to also say though that Pouraliganji despite being 183cm can beat most tall forwards, considering he jumps incredibly high, another example is Ronaldo, who is 185cm, but beats pretty much due to his high jump almost all defenders in the world, no matter what their height is. Ramos is also great in the air, scores a sh!tload of corner goals for Real Madrid, yet is only 183cm tall. So I think height is a bonus, but not determinal whether they can defend good in the air. But yeah, like you said, Aghili was very strong in the air, just sucks that he was awful every where else.. I think currently Sadeghi is the closest we have to what you're describing.


A side note: Sweden's tall defenders were great in the air, but they lacked tremendously in speed ,which is how Amiri got the penalty, and Ronaldo scored a hattrick against them. Unfortunately, it is very hard to have it all in football, so you just have to pick the best players you have and hope that the shortcomings are not too many

[TheBoss]

Omranzadeh is very tall, 6'4 or 6'5 if I am not mistaken. I agree with camran khan, most teams are shorter than us, and even against nigeria we didnt have a problem. I just hope we replace nekounam with someone tall.

His likely replacement, Saeed Ezzatolahi, is 6'3"

[IranTM]

Hi guys,

I wanted to create this thread to bring attention to something vital I think our TM is going to be missing very soon. That is a tall, strong defender. We saw against Sweden that we are overpowered by bigger stronger teams, since we cannot win headers.

Are there any young Iranian defenders in IPL or abroad who are the equivalents of a Jerome Boateng, David Luiz, or Vincent Kompany. Essentially the strong-style defender who wins most air battles?

I really think our future back-line with the pending retirement of Seyed Jalal will be:

Ghafouri-Pouraligangi-_________-Hajsafi

Pouraligangi looks like he will develop well into the Thiago Silva style center back, who has speed, decent technique and can chase down breaking defenders. This is very similar to Seyed Jalal's playing style. I feel the best teams in the world pair up one speedy defender like Pouraligangi with one strong, slower defender to win all the headers.

Do you guys have any suggestions from watching IPL. I only follow the main teams very closely, and I know some of the lower teams probably have gems that aren't in the top 3-4 teams. Even TM youth players should be considered.

This is the TM I hope to see as we get closer to 2018:

----------------Biranvand-----------------
Ghafouri-Pouraligangi-________-Hajsafi
---------Teymourian-Ezatollahi----------
Jahanbakhsh---Dejagah------------Amiri
-----------------Azmoun------------------

If Teymourian is too old by 2018, we may think of pulling Pouraligangi up to the CDM position and having 2 new defenders. In my mind, finding new defenders for the aging Hosseini, Montazeri and Sadeghi is imperative. Would like to see some scouting from you guys. I know Kiarash jan will likely have a few ex-pats in mind :P Put your suggestions here!

Honestly, we could have the best CB in the world but if we're always cowering away and not attacking our opponents, we will loose. It also doesn't hurt to actually field experienced and quality players in important positions, such as RB & LB. We conceded all goals from the flanks.

[Z Joon]

Did some research on some of these guys, just basically looking at their stats and pictures and such. I don't know if I'm just finding pictures of them when they were young or what, but they all seem very skinny to me. Like the same body type as Pouraligangi. Tall, but gangly limbs like Reza Haghighi.

Khalilzadeh also seems to be fairly short. Do you know of any young defenders that are both tall but also have a vazneh heycal? Like Mohsen Bengar's body type, but taller. Hopefully a better defender too.

Well, Khalilzadeh is about 180 I think but he jumps very high, similar to Pouraliganji and is a big threat on set pieces, even better than PAG in that area IMO. Great on corners.

Khanzadeh is pretty strong physically,

Cheshmi is not particularly robust but isn't really skinny, he is stronger than he looks and is 190 cm. Physically he is similar to Nekounam, just a little taller. I wouldn't be surprised to see him called-up soon because he is very much CQ's "type of player".





Hajmohammadi isn't really skinny either, another likely candidate for future call-up by CQ. Also solid physically for his age







Let's not forget that these guys are U23, we won't find any overly muscular player in that age range, they will get better with age.

Otherwise I can't think of a "Bengar" type of player except much older guys like Omranzadeh, S.J. Hosseini, Alenemeh, Aghili etc.. simply for the fact that under 23 guys are still very young and will bulk up with time. But there are many of these guys that would deserve a chance and I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the names I gave in the next WCQ matches

[Ando Teymourian]

Hajmohammadi is one to watch. He isn't Omranzadeh/Bengar height, but he is strong in the air and physical on the ground.

Smart player who can move the ball well on the ground. Kind of a Montazeri type player in my mind, maybe a bit more physical.

[teammelli91]

You guys forgot to mention Alireza Ezzati (CDM) of Naft Tehran.

I don't know exactly how tall this guy is, but he is pretty tall.

He's a defensive midfielder and the captain of Naft Tehran.

A Naft Tehran who is doing very well in both the PGL and the ACL.

If you've seen Ezzati, you can tell he has similar physique to Javad Nekounam.

I think Ezzati is a VERY possible call-up for the 2018 WCQ'ers.



He is also the backbone and a veteran in Naft Tehran. He started his footballing career with Naft Tehran and is still playing for them today. I don't think his loyalty for his club will go unnoticed when Carlos is writing down names for June.

I'm not sure if he can play CB or not, because not all CDM are comfortable playing CB. But Ezzati in my book is a clear call-up to the national team. Especially if he continues to impress in both Iran and Asia like he has so far.