Iran vs Uzbekistan Player Ratings | Post Match Discussion

[AIrani]

I was surprised that CQ was not happy, especially Iran's last game at home.

The ground was slippery. It is good that no one was injured badly.

Good to see new faces.

I am NOT happy with the picture or so little picture of Uzplang. What the heck?

This was a preparation and Uzbekistan played decently, better than their main team. Players were motivated and some good shots on Iran's goal.

Iran will leave on Monday going to Turkey. Best wishes to our team.

[mahestan]

I know a lot of you gents are saying that Gucci is going to be dropped, but I honestly don't think CQ is going to drop him. How many times we thought Amiri was going to get dropped and CQ is still calling him up? CQ has his "security blanket" players and Gucci is one of them. I honestly don't think he is going to drop him.

[Kiarash]

I know a lot of you gents are saying that Gucci is going to be dropped, but I honestly don't think CQ is going to drop him. How many times we thought Amiri was going to get dropped and CQ is still calling him up? CQ has his "security blanket" players and Gucci is one of them. I honestly don't think he is going to drop him.

Honestly, when was the last time Gucci was important for Team Melli? It was almost 2 years back when the Qatari GK misplaced a shot and Gucci scored.

Gucci now lacks everything. He looks lethargic, lacks speed, doesn't link up well, seems very lost...he's not going to be the striker we need at the World Cup with all these psychical Moroccan defenders.

[greenguy4life]

Abedzadeh - 6. Not tested. Did the necessary.

Ghafouri - 6. Decent performance.

Khanzadeh - 4. Leave.

Majid Hosseini - 7. A tank.

Gholizadeh - 7. Brilliant player.

Cheshmi - 5. Did okay, nice goal, just needs to calm himself.

Ansarifard - 5. Tried and tried, didn't come off for him

Hajsafi - 7. Excellent performance.

Torabi - 6.5. Tale of two halves.

Ghoochannejhad - 2. Very poor. Never gave us an option.

Taremi - 6.5. Played well.

Hossein Hosseini - 6. Did well

Jalal Hosseini - 5.5. Looked slower than usual but did fine too.

Milad Mohammadi - 6. Pace

Montazeri - 5. Interesting playing him as a CDM. But looked very slow.

Ezzatolahi - 5.5. Has to much potential, just has to stop flying into tackles like Cheshmi.

Amiri - 4.5. Leave.

[vatanparast]

standouts and observation

torabi, hajsafi, taremi, cheshmi, voria were the first half standouts
gholizadeh wasn't too shabby either. He needs more time and he may become a good addition.

in 2nd half ezatollahi, seyed jalal and MiMo were good as well. vahid amiri did his job well.

khanzadeh scares me. he gets dribbled and jooked too easily. He is a liability in the back line. For now he should be a last resort backup, I doubt much will change by WC. maybe for future he will improve
Karim had a very nice move and shot, but wasn't very effective in the role that CQ used him.
Gucci was mostly invisible. He didn't really receive any service. His invisibility demonstrates the clear need of masood, ashkan or ghodos as playmakers to serve him.
abedzadeh wasn't really tested. Hossein Hoseeini had a very good save, but also made an error which he recovered from.
Majid Hosseini was Ok.

My hunch is that CQ was testing the likes of majid hosseini, gholizadeh, hossein hosseini and abedzadeh to see if they will make the cut.

torabi, hajsafi, seyed jalal, MiMO, voria, ezatollahi are the only players that I can confidently say will be part of 23 from the players he used today.
out of gucci, karim, taremi I can not pick one as a definite choice. It's a nice luxury to have to pick from them as well as kaveh and azmoun

Players that weren't used that are definitely in the 23 Beiranvand, azmoun, ashkan, masood, omid, PAJ, ramin rezaeian. JB, saman unless they dont' recover from injury and aren't match ready a slight possiblity for ashkan, masood and omid.

so final 7 from karim, gucci, kaveh, taremi, khanzade, gholizadeh, vahid, pejman, majid hoseeini,, hoseein hosseini, mazaheri, ansari, abedzadeh, beitashour, 2 of which will be keepers. that means out of all those players he can only pick 5. that is really tough. my guess will be he'd take karim, taremi, pejman, vahid. It is hard to imagine kaveh or gucci may not make the list that's how stacked our front line, wing and cam are.
Another observation is that CQ never shows his cards. He always has a few aces up his sleeve.

[mahestan]

Honestly, when was the last time Gucci was important for Team Melli? It was almost 2 years back when the Qatari GK misplaced a shot and Gucci scored.

Gucci now lacks everything. He looks lethargic, lacks speed, doesn't link up well, seems very lost...he's not going to be the striker we need at the World Cup with all these psychical Moroccan defenders.

I understand what you are saying, and Gucci's last few performances for TM have been definitely underwhelming, I am just basing my comment on how CQ operates. Not arguing that Gucci should be called up, just saying that there is a high probability that he will called up based on CQs mindset.

[ABalls]

Hopefully we are correct in thinking that today's match was only a warm-up -- a chance to build chemistry, try new ideas, continue to work on our fitness and teamwork. Many of those featured today are on the cutting block for the 23 man roster. I think the next game against Turkey will give us a better sense for who has the class to represent TM at the WC. On to the ratings:

STARTERS

Abdezdeh - 5.5 - Wasn't really tested in a meaningful way today. His positioning is questionable, ran out of the box once and has to hurry a clearance on the right side. Caught everything is reasonable distance.

M. Hosseini - 5.5 - Seemed to be a solid addition in the back today. The level of opposition we were facing leaves question. Early on for the first 15-20 min the defense looked disorganized (outside of Gholizadeh who apparently can play LB) -- even more so than the rest of the squad.

Khanzadeh - 5 - Honestly, mirrors what I wrote about Hosseini. Perhaps a little less balanced moving backwards. Difficult to say much against this opposition for the CBs and GKs. The defense was a bit disorganized early, cleaned it up as the game went on, and weren't really tested.

Gholizadeh - 8 - Great game, playing both on the left and right, as a back and midfielder throughout the game. During the first half displayed nice hustle coming down the left side, bringing the ball up and had some good passes. A nice one-two with Taremi in the box where Gholizadeh did his best to get off a shot with defenders closing in was notable. During the second half, particularly around the 70th minute, you started to see fatigue, but his work rate remained high if not a bit sloppier (then again, he was also on the right by the end of the game, so perhaps it was his discomfort with that side). One flag -- this Uzbek offense didn't test our defense in any serious way today. Gholizadeh may not be so great an LB when he has to defend stronger efforts than those measly attempts he saw today. He also may not be able to have the time or luxury to go forward as he did today.

Ghafouri - 6 - Looked good moving up, displayed chemistry with his teammates. Again, difficult to judge defenders in this game outside of their link up play with the midfield and efforts to bring the ball up. Hopefully Turkey and Greece will provide a better challenge for our defense.

Cheshmi - 6.5 - Great header for the goal, it has to be said. I thought he was playing as CB, but perhaps a CDM. In any case, did decent moving up, despite lacking speed. But when on defense there have been a few stupid fouls to allow dangerous set pieces for the opposition. The player has value, but he comes with risk.

Haj Safi - 7 - Clearly the midfield general, I'm glad he also captained. The set pieces weren't amazing by him, but outside of that I have a good review for Ehsan and will also say that he did a fair job organizing the team throughout. Good hustle (although you can see how slow he is), great passing, good defense. Has created opportunities with his crosses and passes in the final third. Also cleans up the midfield and does a good job linking up with his defenders.

Taremi - 6.5 - Didn't have too many touches in the first half, perhaps a few more in the second. However, consistently produced dangerous runs and passes in the first half and had I think a couple of shots in the second. Looks good on the ball, but needs to be more involved. Is just waiting to get or assist a goal.

Ansarifard - 4.5 - I appreciate that he's being played out of position in the midfield, but Karim looks so lost. Terrible passes, aimless positioning, and he doesn't seem that he is comfortable on our half of the pitch. Looks decent going forward still, had a few nice shots/headers on goal.

Gucci - 2 - So disappointing, he was completely invisible the entire game. There were spots where you could see him chasing the ball, unable to get involved in the game. Completely out of sync with the team. That said, I don't think this is a skills issue. Needs to "re-appear" if given another chance. Did damage to his chances of making the WC squad today.

Torabi - 6 - Good runner on the ball, but doesn't know when to make a pass and missed many open men today. Took a few fouls because of how long he holds the ball, but we didn't get anything out of those calls. He needs to be more than a decent runner with some moves -- he needs to see the field and pass, and his chances on goal didn't show much creativity. Decent appearance, but seems more like a role player than anything else. Also went down easily a number of times today.

SUBS

Amiri - ? - wasn't on long enough to evaluate

Mohammadi - ? - love watching this guy hustle and fly on the pitch, but didn't play long enough to give a rating. Also not a good day to evaluate defenders.

Montazeri - ? - same as above, minus the "flying" part.

Ezatolahi - 7 - some nice challenges and made his strength evident. Out-muscled the Uzbeks on 50-50 balls without fouling. On the ball (and going forward) had heads up passing. Looking forward to seeing him against stronger opposition.

SJ Hosseini - 6.5 - while the defense never looked bad today (because it was barely tested) it looked like a wall once he got in there. Jalal still has good strength, hustle and enough speed to get by. Was knocking the Uzbeks around. A commanding presence, I imagine some of the U23 players were intimidated.

H. Hosseini - 5.5 - Once again, not a good day to make evaluations of our centre-backs and keepers. Did a fair job it seemed. Should've held at least one ball he missed. His coverage of shots seems a bit odd, doesn't always put his entire body behind them from what I saw. Also had a clearance nearly blocked.

[ehsan singapore]

CQ is dropping Gucci. There is no doubt about it

he wont be dropped, but i agree he has declined alot, but if he get good service he can score. his experience and scoring in world cup, i believe he will be taken to russia

[Leicester City]

he wont be dropped, but i agree he has declined alot, but if he get good service he can score. his experience and scoring in world cup, i believe he will be taken to russia

He will drop him, what did he do on the field today to warrant a place at the WC?

[PersianLegion]

he wont be dropped, but i agree he has declined alot, but if he get good service he can score. his experience and scoring in world cup, i believe he will be taken to russia

Buddy the 23 players will be announced tomorrow. There is nothing more to show for Gucci. He had his chances and blow it up. Out of all of our strikers playing in European leagues, only Gucci struggled scoring goals even in practically defenseless Eredivisie league! JB a right winger scored more than twice of Gucci, a forward, in the same league! For me this is the ranking of our current forwards

1. Azmoun
2. Kaveh Rezai
3. Taremi
4. Karim Ansarifard
- Ali Alipour
.
.
5. Gucci

[JamB]

he wont be dropped, but i agree he has declined alot, but if he get good service he can score. his experience and scoring in world cup, i believe he will be taken to russia

Ehasan man im sick of hearing that he has experience scoring in the world cup. WTF does that even mean. He scored in a 3-1 loss to bosnia. Why take him when he is under so many in the pecking order. He looked so so terrible today. Give it up man.

[DireStraits]

I don't understand so much of what CQ was testing I guess it is above my knowledge. However I can say Hosseini >>Abedzadeh Hajsafi was better than Ezatollahi and he
is certainly his best replacement if we play 4-1-4-1. Haj Safi was man of the match. I have no idea why Gholizadeh is playing LB his defensive ability was not tested.
Generally I don't know how Gucci, Torabi or Gholizadeh will be added to TM.
CQ's reaction to the referee worry me too.

[maniei]

I will not get into rating players. Generally this match was another frustration at the hands of the IRIFF. The worst part is that it was 100% foreseable.
a) they should have came up with a better oponent for the farewell match
b) they should have made sure, via proper contracting, that Uzb doesnt field its U23.
I really feel for CQ having to work under these conditions. If he complains he is immediately slapped by IRIFF and inside Iran there is nobody to come to his support, except for Ali Karimi8.

Having said that, CQ made the best possible use of this match using it to monitor those players that are doubtful for the 23 men list.

Abedzadeh vs. Hosseini

One from these two is going to be dropped. Beiranvand and Mazaheri are fixed as it seems.
Abedzadeh was one of the revelations today. Not that he was tested and had to make any saves, but he appeared extremely solid and confident. You never had to worry on set pieces that is about to mess up, like with the other 3. He took part in the passing, where he was also absolutely flawless, and most importantly he was constantly communicating with with his defense and the rest of the team, what you dont see with Hosseini or Mazaheri.
Hosseini had about 3 serious attempts at his goal, 2 of them he saved, on one he was sloppy.
All in all my vote goes to Abedzadeh, because he would be an asset to the team, and because Hosseini is too similar to Mazaheri and he cant offer additional selling points over Mazaheri at this point in his career.

M. Hosseini vs. Khanzadeh

Hosseini was the biggest revelation to me today. It felt like his star rose up today and he is going to be one of our starters for the years to come. He has extemely high potential. Khanzadeh was pretty much flawless as well, but my vote goes to Hosseini, also considering none of them is actually going to be used in the wc. Unlike Khanzadeh, who is pretty much an established player, Hosseini can still develop into a world class, and taking him to the wc would give him an extra boost in his career. Or maybe none of them will make it to make room for an extra attacking player.

Cheshmi

Not that he is good enough for top level football yet, but in case of emergencies it would be good to have a player around who can play both CD and DM, especially DM. At this point I wanted to say how worried I am about our DM vs. Morocco. We are going to need defensive skills and Ezatollahi is banned, Ebrahimi has other strenghts and he is injured, Ali Karimi doesnt have any and he is out, Hajisafi and Abdollahzadeh are not supposed to have them and Cheshmi is not yet the material to start at the wc. And god forbid one of the DM's we have gets injured at the wc. To me bringing Ando seems like a must.

Gholizadeh vs. Torabi vs. Amiri

Based on Dejagah's situation at least one of the three is going to be crossed off, it seems. Maybe none of the three will make it, 23 players is a very small number. This is the toughest call of them all.
Amiri is the least skilled of the three, but CQ is familiar with him and they understand each other.
Mainly due to Torabis long injury he seems like the most doubtful, especially since Gholizadeh showed himself really well recently. Gholizadeh would also be the only classical left winger on the team (we will play 4231 at wc).
But what could have happened today with Gholizadeh starting as something like a leftback, is CQ wanting to determine if he could cross off both Beitashour and Aghaei, and have Gholi as a spare-player for the entire left side. In this case Torabi could have a chance.

Ghoochannejad

Up untill today it never even crossed my mind that he could actually miss the wc. However with all Azmoun, Ansarifard, Rezaei, Taremi looking like sure bets, it seems like there is not enough room for him, which is a shame since he is still our only true "fox in the box" and he has been performing well at Heerenveen these two years. I hope he makes it.



What I would like to see vs. Turkey is that we pick up where we left in Russia. In the meantime CQ had been building our bench, and he did so masterfully, as we now have a very broad squad and strong competition in every position. Now serious business starts and we have to turn our starting 11 into an all out powerful team with no weaknesses.
What was shown vs. Russia was that we are pretty much set in defense, but in offense we were extremely hasty, lost the ball easily, wasted our attacks and simply didnt play them out properly. That has to improve, our leading players have to train together, play with each other and get accustomed and test themselves against strong opponents in order to be ready for Morocco.

=====

My list of 23:

Beiranvand
Mazaheri
Abedzadeh

Ghafouri
Rezaeian
Montazeri
Hosseini
Pouraliganji
Ansari
Mohammadi

Ezatollahi
Hajisafi
Andranik
Cheshmi / Ebrahimi
Jahanbakhsh
Dejagah / Amiri
Shojaei
Ghoddos
Gholizadeh / Torabi

Azmoun
Ansarifard / Taremi
Rezaei

M. Hosseini in defense or Ghoochannejad in offense.

[darvish_gorgali]

I will not get into rating players. Generally this match was another frustration at the hands of the IRIFF. The worst part is that it was 100% foreseable.
a) they should have came up with a better oponent for the farewell match
b) they should have made sure, via proper contracting, that Uzb doesnt field its U23.
I really feel for CQ having to work under these conditions. If he complains he is immediately slapped by IRIFF and inside Iran there is nobody to come to his support, except for Ali Karimi8.

Having said that, CQ made the best possible use of this match using it to monitor those players that are doubtful for the 23 men list.

Abedzadeh vs. Hosseini

One from these two is going to be dropped. Beiranvand and Mazaheri are fixed as it seems.
Abedzadeh was one of the revelations today. Not that he was tested and had to make any saves, but he appeared extremely solid and confident. You never had to worry on set pieces that is about to mess up, like with the other 3. He took part in the passing, where he was also absolutely flawless, and most importantly he was constantly communicating with with his defense and the rest of the team, what you dont see with Hosseini or Mazaheri.
Hosseini had about 3 serious attempts at his goal, 2 of them he saved, on one he was sloppy.
All in all my vote goes to Abedzadeh, because he would be an asset to the team, and because Hosseini is too similar to Mazaheri and he cant offer additional selling points over Mazaheri at this point in his career.

M. Hosseini vs. Khanzadeh

Hosseini was the biggest revelation to me today. It felt like his star rose up today and he is going to be one of our starters for the years to come. He has extemely high potential. Khanzadeh was pretty much flawless as well, but my vote goes to Hosseini, also considering none of them is actually going to be used in the wc. Unlike Khanzadeh, who is pretty much an established player, Hosseini can still develop into a world class, and taking him to the wc would give him an extra boost in his career. Or maybe none of them will make it to make room for an extra attacking player.

Cheshmi

Not that he is good enough for top level football yet, but in case of emergencies it would be good to have a player around who can play both CD and DM, especially DM. At this point I wanted to say how worried I am about our DM vs. Morocco. We are going to need defensive skills and Ezatollahi is banned, Ebrahimi has other strenghts and he is injured, Ali Karimi doesnt have any and he is out, Hajisafi and Abdollahzadeh are not supposed to have them and Cheshmi is not yet the material to start at the wc. And god forbid one of the DM's we have gets injured at the wc. To me bringing Ando seems like a must.

Gholizadeh vs. Torabi vs. Amiri

Based on Dejagah's situation at least one of the three is going to be crossed off, it seems. Maybe none of the three will make it, 23 players is a very small number. This is the toughest call of them all.
Amiri is the least skilled of the three, but CQ is familiar with him and they understand each other.
Mainly due to Torabis long injury he seems like the most doubtful, especially since Gholizadeh showed himself really well recently. Gholizadeh would also be the only classical left winger on the team (we will play 4231 at wc).
But what could have happened today with Gholizadeh starting as something like a leftback, is CQ wanting to determine if he could cross off both Beitashour and Aghaei, and have Gholi as a spare-player for the entire left side. In this case Torabi could have a chance.

Ghoochannejad

Up untill today it never even crossed my mind that he could actually miss the wc. However with all Azmoun, Ansarifard, Rezaei, Taremi looking like sure bets, it seems like there is not enough room for him, which is a shame since he is still our only true "fox in the box" and he has been performing well at Heerenveen these two years. I hope he makes it.



What I would like to see vs. Turkey is that we pick up where we left in Russia. In the meantime CQ had been building our bench, and he did so masterfully, as we now have a very broad squad and strong competition in every position. Now serious business starts and we have to turn our starting 11 into an all out powerful team with no weaknesses.
What was shown vs. Russia was that we are pretty much set in defense, but in offense we were extremely hasty, lost the ball easily, wasted our attacks and simply didnt play them out properly. That has to improve, our leading players have to train together, play with each other and get accustomed and test themselves against strong opponents in order to be ready for Morocco.

=====

My list of 23:

Beiranvand
Mazaheri
Abedzadeh

Ghafouri
Rezaeian
Montazeri
Hosseini
Pouraliganji
Ansari
Mohammadi

Ezatollahi
Hajisafi
Andranik
Cheshmi / Ebrahimi
Jahanbakhsh
Dejagah / Amiri
Shojaei
Ghoddos
Gholizadeh / Torabi

Azmoun
Ansarifard / Taremi
Rezaei

M. Hosseini in defense or Ghoochannejad in offense.

Andranik? Ansari? you k budd?

[scuderia]

I think the last spot in forward will be between Gucci and Kaveh. CQ likes Gucci but we'll have to see.