[Discussion] Iran's line-up against Japan announced

[BacheLot]

Ando's benching is surely to put some fire under his ass in order to step up his game..! CQ and we all know in better form and fitness he is a much more impactful player than he has been of late in TM..!
Nevertheless its a very risky proposition to throw a rusty, youngin Ezzatolahi in his place..!! but i suppose it is a friendly afterall and time to experiment and results shouldn't be our primary goal..!? then i dont get the insistence of not testing another LB option than the tried and failed Haj Safi..!!
imo Haj Safi's failures as a defender is mostly due to his casual/careless demeanor on the pitch..!! as an attacking player you could be careless with possession and get away with a misplace pass or two, but as a defender you must be very hard-nosed and ruthless in your approach and take any approach by an opponent on your defensive zone serious and challenge it rightaway..!(ie, Hossaini's approach and playing mentality in our backline.!)
Fact; is that Haj Safi is simply not (what CQ expects) top class type FullBack, a high energy player capable of defending and still adequetly support the attack on his wing and do so for full 90min. such players are very rare anyways and hard to come by..!! Kaebi and i'd even argue that K. Heydari were both better in that regards than Ehsan ..!
like DD mentioned, sarbazi issues are a legit complaint but still CQ can't just resort to that excuse and keep trying the same failed option of HS in LB..!! why not that Mohamadi kid or testing out another natural LB from the PGL..?

Ramin Rezaian may be good PGL winger..? but hasnt been all that convincing so far in TM..! i suppose its a good chance to really assess his quality in this game..?

also too much unjustified criticism of O.Ebrahimi being thrown around since the last game..!
sure he is undersized and he isnt defensively stout, or even quick enough with his decision-making and movement..!!
But IMO, he understands well the concept of Triangle play and Without the Ball he moves about the pitch better than any other current TM player, has fantastic touch and above average accuracy on his long passes ..! and on D, he does a pretty decent job of closing passing lanes and filling the open gaps in our defensive posture..!!
if you see him miss-place a pass or two, its mostly because the retarded players around him arent moving well enough without the ball to provide him with a clear passing lane to receive the pass..!! thats another big reason why this TM cant string together more 2-3 passes and move the ball about the pitch efficiently..!!
I like to see Saeed slowly taking Omid's spot and minutes away in TM, but with Ando struggling with fitness, we still gonna be needing Omid's services for foreseeable near future..!

i hope there 6 or so allotted substitutions for this game, so we can test a bunch of other players too..!
overall its an experimental and as a result risky starting line-up..!! i think our boys will fair well enough, so long Japs dont line up all their regular starters and go hard ...! which is unlikely..!!?

[greatpersian]

Sakai is a new player for Japan with 23 caps but started in the WC & AC for Japan and majority of times he was invited.

He is a right back and Japan has a better player (Uchida/Schalke) than him in the position. But Uchida has been injured since winter.

[ramingeles2000]

I absolutely understand this military service has ruined so much of our football. But that doesn't mean CQ has to stop trying to get things right. Yes, he has his excuse. But where's his effort? He's not even trying to find one!!!

The Hajsafi experiment has failed. The whole world sees it. Try another player. Show some initiative. You're getting paid top dollar because we expect you to behave differently than a clueless vatani coach. Not for you to act exactly like one.

There are bound to be one or two LB's in the league. Hell, if there's absolutely no LB, then try RB. The duties are exactly the same. Only flank orientation is different. And we do have quite a few RB prospects who could be groomed as LB's .... even if temporarily.

But the chap isn't even trying anymore!!!

We as a nation are so obsessed with "the coach's performance" that we never look at the harsher truths, most notably, that our domestic league is pathetic, that we have a talent drought, and as a result, some of our players are AMATEUR. They lack basic fundamentals because they suck. Today Ashkan gave Ramin Rezaeian a world-class pass from across the pitch to switch the game to the right side and Rezaeian couldn't even stop the ball properly. On at least 5-6 occasions I saw our players fail to stop the ball. This is the type of skill you're supposed to learn when you're 10 years old, and our players don't have it.

Our players don't understand basic spacing. We might be the only team in the top 50 in the world where, in any given game, you'll see 2-3 TM players huddled up next to one another, completely confused about where they should be on the pitch. Again, this is the result of a defective football infrastructure that has nothing to do with CQ.

Are you so arrogant as to believe that CQ hasn't noticed that Shojaei sucks, that Heydari sucks, and that Hajsafi isn't a good LB? Do you think you're some sort of genius, or that CQ is stupid? Obviously there's a reason behind everything he does. There's a reason that 4 TM coaches in a row started Heydari and Shojaei. It's laughable that you don't realize how little information you have, and that you don't give CQ the benefit of the doubt.

[mahestan]

We as a nation are so obsessed with "the coach's performance" that we never look at the harsher truths, most notably, that our domestic league is pathetic, that we have a talent drought, and as a result, some of our players are AMATEUR. They lack basic fundamentals because they suck. Today Ashkan gave Ramin Rezaeian a world-class pass from across the pitch to switch the game to the right side and Rezaeian couldn't even stop the ball properly. On at least 5-6 occasions I saw our players fail to stop the ball. This is the type of skill you're supposed to learn when you're 10 years old, and our players don't have it.

Our players don't understand basic spacing. We might be the only team in the top 50 in the world where, in any given game, you'll see 2-3 TM players huddled up next to one another, completely confused about where they should be on the pitch. Again, this is the result of a defective football infrastructure that has nothing to do with CQ.

Are you so arrogant as to believe that CQ hasn't noticed that Shojaei sucks, that Heydari sucks, and that Hajsafi isn't a good LB? Do you think you're some sort of genius, or that CQ is stupid? Obviously there's a reason behind everything he does. There's a reason that 4 TM coaches in a row started Heydari and Shojaei. It's laughable that you don't realize how little information you have, and that you don't give CQ the benefit of the doubt.

CQ isn't stupid, he is stubborn, and the pass you are talking about, if I recall correctly, was ridiculously high and Rezaeian tried to control it with his chest.

[PersianLegion]

Benching Shojai, Taremi and Ando was a great move. Look at our team performances getting good all of a sudden. I begin to cheer for this torobche Torabi!

[ramingeles2000]

CQ isn't stupid, he is stubborn, and the pass you are talking about, if I recall correctly, was ridiculously high and Rezaeian tried to control it with his chest.

so ghotbi, daei, and ghalenoi were stubborn too? the pass i'm referring to would have been stopped easily by any player worthy of an international callup.

what hope do we have in inviting 25 year old IPL players who just above average? useless exercise. we should go younger (18-21) so that there's still a possibility of upside. at 25 a playerusually has peaked in terms of what he can bring to the table. this is certainly the case with iranian players.

[mahestan]

so ghotbi, daei, and ghalenoi were stubborn too? the pass i'm referring to would have been stopped easily by any player worthy of an international callup.

what hope do we have in inviting 25 year old IPL players who just above average? useless exercise. we should go younger (18-21) so that there's still a possibility of upside. at 25 a playerusually has peaked in terms of what he can bring to the table. this is certainly the case with iranian players.

You know what they say, can't teach an old dog new tricks. Ghotbi, Daei, Galenoi and all the other TM coaches had their flaws and downfalls also. CQ is stubborn. His job as a coach is to utilize the resources at his disposal, and morph the players into one well oiled machine. You make it seem like 25 years is old and he should be already waiting on his deathbed. If CQ is as much as a coach people say he is, he should be able to teach Rezaeian the extremely simple stop you speak of within a short period of time.

[ramingeles2000]

You know what they say, can't teach an old dog new tricks. Ghotbi, Daei, Galenoi and all the other TM coaches had their flaws and downfalls also. CQ is stubborn. His job as a coach is to utilize the resources at his disposal, and morph the players into one well oiled machine. You make it seem like 25 years is old and he should be already waiting on his deathbed. If CQ is as much as a coach people say he is, he should be able to teach Rezaeian the extremely simple stop you speak of within a short period of time.

but it's not a national team coach's job to teach skills. you know this.