Can We Improve Our Offensive Play Without Sacrificing Defensive Solidity?

[elnino99]

First off, I can't put to words how proud I am of all the boys, CQ, coaching staff and most importantly our beautiful and amazing fans who've been one of the best and loudest in the tounament. Just like the rest of you, it's a bittersweet....Sweet because our boys really did our country proud, no body expected us to get 4 points in this group...Bitter because, we were one dink away from TOPPING the group and having a R-16 showdown with Russia where we'd have a great chance of advancing to quarter-finals.

But that's done and we can't change it.

What I wonder though, is the next step. Can our team improve its cohesion and clear-cut chance making ability in opposition final third without sacrificing too much of our current stregnth which is team shape and defensive solidity?

All those misplaced passes in the final third, bad touches....is it all a talent issue or is it tactics that we can improve on with more coaching and some fluidity and flexibility?

My Polish and Egyptian friends wrote to me saying how Queiroz showed up Cuper and Nawalka to be such frauds with what he did with that Iran team. Do you guys think all we lack in the final third is an elite talent like Salah/Lewandowski (not that level, but closer to that compared to what we currently have), or can we make up for it with some tactical tweaks, similar to Japan NT who are more dangerous than us going forward, but more fragile in the back?

It's clear we've progressed a long way since 2014...no one can deny it, but I'm HUNGRY for us to progress even more and get to that next step.

I think we need to get lucky with an elite offensive talent. There is a reason strikers and offensive midfielders cost so much more than defenders in football...it's because talent and ability in those positions count more than tactics. Burnely could have a rock solid defense with cloiggers, but goalscorers are much harder to find.

We have a decent attacking options so far, but I reckon this team needs an elite attacking player with a cool finishing touch to get to the next step. I think that's what is holding us back now more than tactics. that aware first touch, that cool head to not take an extra touch, dink the ball instead of smashing it etc...

I'm intrigued to hear your opinions.

[arash123]

I think it would be Carlos' confidence in how fit our players can be for a 90+ minute match. He doesn't think we have the stamina to go back and forth for a whole match against stronger opponents. At least thats how I see it.

[diz]

yes....

[Mr Pouya]

Our offensive play in the final 3rd was actually good imo, we had the confidence to go forward when we could, the close range passing was good too but out biggest downfall was our finishing and getting players in the box in time.

With the finishing it all comes to the decisions our main offensive players made last summer. Sardar should have left Russia, Taremi should never have gone to Qatar. Ansarifard was a different story due to his out of position play. I'm just sightly sad that Gucci didn't get a fair chance, I think he might have done something.

[dcpp]

I think it would be Carlos' confidence in how fit our players can be for a 90+ minute match. He doesn't think we have the stamina to go back and forth for a whole match against stronger opponents. At least thats how I see it.

I believe that our problem is not only stamina but our defense in general. Look at the game against Spain where we reacted brilliantly after we got scored on but imagine us giving more space or getting scored on earlier, we would have conceded at least 3 goals. Until we get two midfielders who can control the midfield against any teams(not only Asian teams), we will always have to think about having two banks of 4 and counter attack. Actually we play with one bank of 5 and another of 4. So it's even more defensive minded. I think that our stamina was okay, when you run after the ball all the game but you're still able to cause problems to your opponents at the 90th min you definitely have some good stamina.

We really need a good partner for ezzatolahi, I'm sure queiroz used masoud for this purpose to hold the ball and allow us to build the game around him but unfortunately masoud is past his prime as shown against Morocco. If we could only have had nekounam now....

Edit : before someone says but our defense is good because I said our problem is our D. I'm talking about the back four as they are. If we would have had an offensive approach, our defense would be under constant threat, specially on an international level.

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[KC McElroy]

Other than the first half against Spain I think we did well offensively. If we weren't threatening more it wasn't by design but rather due to the strength of our opponents. We simply need more lethal attacking players. With what we have, this is where we are.

[Rooyintan]

I think our team did well. A bit disappointed for our team not being able to attack and score but at least they grabbed 4 points, one win and one draw and zero goal difference.

So sad that Gucci did not play and Ghoddos had not many minutes in the 3 games!

Jahanbakhsh looked exhausted in the Spain and Portugal games. He was fresh in the Morocco game.

Anyways there is always room for improvement. We have three tournaments coming up.

1. 2018 Asian Games (August) - Our coaching staff will be monitoring the matches of Team Omid very closely and hopefully some players can be identified for promotion to Team Melli.

2. 2018 Central Asia Football Association Cup (October) - This will be a great opportunity for bench players as well as some players who did not make it to the World Cup squad to be tried out and fully tested for the preparation of the AFC Asian Cup.

3. 2019 AFC Asian Cup (January) - Some new faces will be in the squad and some current players might no longer be in that team.

We have plenty of talent yet to be given opportunity such as Kaveh Rezaei, Reza Shekari, Allahyar Sayyad Manesh, Taha Shariati Khameneh, Younes Delfi, Seyed Hossein Hosseini, Ryan Tafazolli, etc.

There are also the experienced who can rejoin Team Melli such as Seyed Jalal Hosseini, Voria Ghafouri, Ali Karimi, Ezzatollah Pourghaz, Payam Sadeghian, Steven Beitashour.

[OzzyOscy]

We simply need the players to be ruthless finishers. If Taremi was luckier, if players in the area had a shot at goal instead of trying to pass it again, Iran would have won that.

The current tactics give Iran only 2 or 3 chances, but they are HUGE clear-cut chances. It's up to the players to put them away.

[milad_b]

we already have ! You don't expect us to play openly against spain and portugal and even morocco! When we played in WCQ look at how many goals we scored and conceded!

36 goals scored in 18 games
5 Goals conceded in 18 WCQ games !

I think this is perfect ! we just need a good finisher. I think we play good football for what we have in our hand.

CQ knows what his doing trust his game plan

[Adesor Vafaseya]

Of course you can play attacking football with good defending. Its called PRESSING!
But in oder to do that, you need 100% fit players, who can run 90+ mins evey single game!
Can Iran do that? with terribke youth infrastructure, terrible club facilities?
The answer is a plain and simple NO!

I also want to point out, its not about which style you play but how effective you make it
Italy wom 4 world championships playing defensive football!
But they were efficient when they had to score!
If we made out of our chances both vs Spain and Portugal, then we would have gone through with our style!
Wr are not efficient enough and thats due to lack of proper preparation and friendlies, league etc etc

[mahestan]

Our offensive play in the final 3rd was actually good imo, we had the confidence to go forward when we could, the close range passing was good too but out biggest downfall was our finishing and getting players in the box in time.

With the finishing it all comes to the decisions our main offensive players made last summer. Sardar should have left Russia, Taremi should never have gone to Qatar. Ansarifard was a different story due to his out of position play. I'm just sightly sad that Gucci didn't get a fair chance, I think he might have done something.

I was extremely anxious to see Gucci come in. He is the type of player that will make something out of nothing, while Sardar needs to have good service to make it happen. I am not downplaying Sardar's contribution today, he fought hard and really attempted to make room to make something happen.