Set Pieces

[Saam]

While I have watched pretty much every Iran game ever under Queiroz’s tenure and have enjoyed the strides we have made in our defensive ability, there is one thing that has always concerned me, especially now that the World Cup is coming up. I have noticed that we tend to give away a lot of free kicks with careless fouls pretty close to the penalty area. While this has not hurt us much given the opposition we have faced, good free kick takers would take full advantage of this weakness. We saw how a good set piece taker could punish us (the Syrian guy in the last WC qualifier game).

I think this is one of the most important things that CQ needs to take care of in preparing us tactically for the World Cup. The teams we are going to play against have some insane set piece takers. Ziyech is an amazing free kick taker and I don’t have to mention the ability of Spain and Portugal’s players. Add to this the fact that all 3 teams are known for their technical attacking midfielders that they use in numbers. Morocco has a bunch, Spain has a ton of them and Portugal has Bernardo Silva and others. If we are not careful, they will draw a lot of fouls against us and get good opportunities with their set piece takers. I am sure that the opposing coaches will catch this in analyzing our matches and I hope that we will be ready on both fronts (minimizing fouls outside the box and defending set pieces). What do you guys think?

[Kiarash]

Yeah true, in big games we always tend to foul a lot and I think it's due to the nerves.

On the other hand we need to take more advantage of our set pieces. When was the last time we scored from a freekick?

[Abtin]

Yeah true, in big games we always tend to foul a lot and I think it's due to the nerves.
On the other hand we need to take more advantage of our set pieces. When was the last time we scored from a freekick?

WCQ away against Uzbekistan I remember one.

[persiangodfather]

And I wish we would stop with the long throw ins
It wont work vs big teams

[JamB]

Yeah we foul a lot to slow the game down rather than nerves. Could be nerves too. But free kicks around the box against any of the teams we are playing in the cup could be detrimental.

[Swiss Persian]

still hurts to think of WC98 the freekick Yugoslavia got against us and Mihajlovic scored against Nakisa ...we would have easily got a draw and maybe advanced with 4points.

[Babak agha]

Mobali for TM

(now see MR coming out of shadows and post a very long epistle on why he shoudn't be :P)

[teammelli91]

We need to be very careful fouling in and near the box. I’m sure Carlos and the staff will have a plan put in place to improve this. We need to be careful in all of our matches but especially the first one vs Morocco as it’s the group decider for us. We don’t want for a silly foul to cost us that early on in the competition.