Which mistakes did CQ make during WC2018?

[shahname]

I love Carlos Q and I hope he stays as headcoach until WC2022. I think we will have a realistic chance to shine in WC2022 and advance to the last 16. I love the fact that he introduced several young defenders to TM like Hosseini and Cheshmi. I also hope that if Carlos stays, then he works to advance our game towards a more offensive style of play with more ball position. I think he has "fixed" our defence and need to take the next step towards making us a more dominant team with stronger offence and more on the ball.

I also praise our results in this WC. We achieved 4 points for the first time in a world cup. That being said, I only truly enjoyed the way Iran played in the last 30 minutes of the game against Spain. I wish we had displayed more attacking football and taken a few more chances. In the match yesterday we truly saw how Iran has advanced and progressed in comparison til WC2014 as our players did not run out of gas like 2014 and we put on a real fight.

I opened this thread to discus what tactical mistakes there were made on our behalf during the games. CQ is a tactical genius but he is also a human being that makes mistakes.

For my sake, the biggest mistake CQ made during this WC was playing Hajisafi instead of M. Mohammadi in the LB position. Believe me, I love Hajisafi and his style. But I was pretty sure he would be used in the midfield as LM during this world cup just like he has been utilised in the past few years. M. Mohammadi is a faster and much more reliable defender. We almost paid the price for this mistake in the first match against Morocco when Hajisafi was defenceless against Amrabat. But we paid the final price in the match yesterday when hajisafi let Quaresma run towards the edge of the penalty area and take his shot and score.

[Martin-Reza]

I hate to sound like Doctor DOOM, but I think his only mistake might have been not to play a little more daring. Not high defending and not pressing all the time, we can't do that, we would be thrashed. But if we occassionaly would have played like after falling behind, before actually falling behind, we might have had the chance to beat Spain or Portiugal.

On the other hand, more likely we would have ended up worse than with 4 points in 3 games...

We will never find out. I don't think we can blame him for anything, he did an amazing job and I think tactically we were among the best teams of the tournament, which is the achievement of this amazing coach and his staff.

I hope he continues his work, I am sure we didn't peak yet!

The true reason we didn't make it out of the group stage is that this certainly was the group of death. Best teams of Asia and Africa together with European champs Portgual and powerhouse Spain! This was more a confed cup than a World Cup group. Very sad Poland's cheating cost us the chance to be in a normal group, but I think we achieved in showing the world that we are much better than anyone outside Asia would have thought.

[shahname]

I hate to sound like Doctor DOOM, but I think his only mistake might have been not to play a little more daring. Not high defending and not pressing all the time, we can't do that, we would be thrashed. But if we occassionaly would have played like after falling behind, before actually falling behind, we might have had the chance to beat Spain or Portiugal.
On the other hand, more likely we would have ended up worse than with 4 points in 3 games...
We will never find out. I don't think we can blame him for anything, he did an amazing job and I think tactically we were among the best teams of the tournament, which is the achievement of this amazing coach and his staff.
I hope he continues his work, I am sure we didn't peak yet!
The true reason we didn't make it out of the group stage is that this certainly was the group of death. Best teams of Asia and Africa together with European champs Portgual and powerhouse Spain! This was more a confed cup than a World Cup group. Very sad Poland's cheating cost us the chance to be in a normal group, but I think we achieved in showing the world that we are much better than anyone outside Asia would have thought.

I agree. I also wish we had played more offensive at times. The way Iran had played in some friendlies prior to WC (against Russia and Turkey) there were some implications that Iran might want to show a more offensive approach to the game. But we pretty much did the same thing we did in the last WC, but marginally better in the offensive aspect.

Still, I don't understand why CQ did play Hajisafi as LB rather than in the midfield and put Mohammadi out on the bench!

[metallica69]

I feel we really needed Hajsafei in the last game to play in the CM and play an actual 4-3-3 in the second half against Portugal. Also we should use have used ghodoos more in this tournament. As i said from before and with all the live i have for Ashkhan Dejaghar, it was clear that he wasnt going to fit enough. Also i feel Gucci deserved at least the last 15 minutes of the game against portugal or spain.

[shahname]

I feel we really needed Hajsafei in the last game to play in the CM and play an actual 4-3-3 in the second half against Portugal. Also we should use have used ghodoos more in this tournament. As i said from before and with all the live i have for Ashkhan Dejaghar, it was clear that he wasnt going to fit enough. Also i feel Gucci deserved at least the last 15 minutes of the game against portugal or spain.

Exactly. Hajisafi should have played in the midfield. I also didn't understand how we could take Ashkan and Gucci to this World Cup and not let them play a single second?! Ghoddos could also have come on earlier in the second half and not in the last 10 minutes. As Martin-Reza says, we had to have more guts in this World Cup and taken our chance.

But CQ didn't want to take a chance. I think honestly he preferred that we are knocked out in a respectful manner than risking everything and maybe losing with a 2 or 3 goals margin. But that was maybe what we should have done to earn our place in the last 16.

[Sam van Dam]

Ghoddos not having a bigger role

MiMo not starting

MR. Clutch Dutch not coming on, but instead Karim came in. Gucci thrives in situations like today. I'm certain he would have capitalized if he was in Taremi's position

[Essi]

Of course I'm not an expert but I do understand football like many other fans/friends here and IMO, if I was coach:

1- I would never use Hajsafi as LB when I have Milad Mohammadi.
2- I would give Ghoddos more playing time
3- I would make subs much earlier than he normally do. He barely subs before 70th minut.

But hey, I'm just a simple fan who loves his team regardless and respect the coach and his decisions.

Btw, a good thread.

[Zamboor]

Ghoddos not getting more playing time, he showed yesterday against Portugal that he is a danger to any defence when subbed in

[shahname]

If he had played Hajisafi in the midfield, we might also have had a better chance to build up from the defence. We had practically no ball position in this World Cup. We also barely could string 5 passes in a row.

I am pretty sure even Saudi Arabia played much more passes than us. We don't remember seeing Iran ever building up from the defence and passing the ball through our midfield up to our attackers.

We had the lowest percentage of ball position in this World Cup.

We also displayed the utter most defensive approach to the game in this World Cup in the first 55 minutes against Spain until the scored.

We played too defensive and put a lot of energy on destroying the game of our opponent rather than playing football ourselves.

Yes, the goal of Spain was very lucky. But you also have to remember, that when you stand and defend sooo deep in your own penalty area, you statistically raise the risk of this kind of mistakes that can lead to a goal against you.

[JoojehKoobedeh2]

Queiroz has inarguably given us the best result for a WC against strong big named opponents without the kind of investments and infrastructure of other WC teams! Everyone makes mistakes. I think his mistakes imo were not playing Ghoddos(who plays 90 minutes against a top team like Arsenal and manages assists left and right) at the beginning of this match. Yes he wasn’t 100% familiar with our style of play but if you think about that’s How Sweden play too. Besides if we are going for a win we should have one player who is more offensive minded play longer I’m sure we wouldn’t see as huge of a change in our defensive capabilities considering that Ghoddos is able to be the connecting player our offense needs or even be the guy who could turn games for us! I don’t like living based of “Ifs and what Ifs” but If Ghoddoss shot wasn’t blocked that would’ve undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and iconic goals for us and in the tournament and we would’ve avoided Taremi getting so hurt from his miss. Also MiMo I’m kinda confused about I’m sure matters would’ve been different for Queresma if it would’ve been for MiMos 90 minute presence but Quieroz didn’t want to risk to lose the chemistry and momentum built up by the line up of the first two games. Also I think Azmoun off the bench would’ve been very interesting in this match but idk Quieroz is still the man. The guy went against own ethnic background.

[Vestvood Vizard]

I hate to sound like Doctor DOOM, but I think his only mistake might have been not to play a little more daring. Not high defending and not pressing all the time, we can't do that, we would be thrashed. But if we occassionaly would have played like after falling behind, before actually falling behind, we might have had the chance to beat Spain or Portiugal.

All the pundits I've heard today are praising Iran yet asking why we don't play with more ambition until later on.

Iran has now proven it can play football at the highest level. But we shouldn't have to wait until our backs are against the wall to do it - like we did in the second halves against Spain and Portugal.

Just imagine if we could score a goal and take the lead early on in a match, which THEN allows Iran to lock down and play conservatively for the remainder of the game in the way CQ prefers. Imagine not being reliant on a last-minute Own Goal or VAR penalty.

That is my biggest issue with Coach Quieroz. While I truly admire the tenacity and fight he's instilled in our players, his tactics don't allow for much creative development. And there is plenty of young talent there to harness. We didn't really get to see players like Azmoun, Jahanbaksh and Ansarifard shine on this global stage the last couple weeks - probably because it's hard to do so when the opponent is allowed to possess the ball over 70% of the time. Counterattacking doesn't produce results when our players up top still lack the killer instinct, the type needed to produce that ONE moment of brilliance in must-win games.

[Babak agha]

His biggest mistake was playing Shojaei in the first game and our left side during each game. We had a Left Midfield player who wasn't a LM and we had a Left Back that wasn't LB......And it showed during all 3 games that our left side was weaker than right.

We can say that his mistake was playing too defensively when he should have attacked and as per usual subbing in players way too later.

But then again it's CQ and those are not mistakes, ultra defensive and late subs are his "thing".

Another big issue and I'm not sure whether it's his fault (to some extent due to his formation and players fielded) or our players mistake: we couldn't set-up an attack. We didn't really have a game plan for it and we didn't know how to do (next to not being able to do it).

[Bi-honar]

Honestly, after Iran's best WC performance ever, it's very unfair to talk about CQ's 'mistakes' (in absolute terms) or any of our boys but there are of course things that can improve for the future.

Other than what has already been mentioned, I think as passionate as he is for TM, at times he needs to keep cool and stay in charge of his men and pull them together, rather that getting emotional himself.

We saw this in the Asian Cup after the red card to Pouladi and it was the same thing after the penalty to Ronaldo. They missed and that was a GREAT reason for us to get back into the match and turn it completely around but the team played very emotional and chaotic after that and I think we could have played a lot better.

Of course, it's much easier saying that sitting in front of the TV than actually being there and I myself was pretty pissed. But I think given CQ's professionalism, he needs to be able to rise above that in the sense that nothing good will come out of a situation of being angry or not remaining calm and cool.

Overall, a GREAT performance and GREAT campaign from him and his men, including the 12th one, the fans cheering TM from the stands who did an absolutely fantastic job and made us all very proud.

It was very touching to see Spanish newspapers refer to the "Great Iran" this morning - thank you CQ, thank you TM, thank you the rest of the TM cadre and a big thank you to all the fans. The future's bright.

[Love TM]

His biggest mistake was not trying to go for the win against Spain and Portugal. We defended too deep which made our players too tired going forward. He should brought in Ghoddos a lot earlier in both matches. The subs came in too late.

[Nariman]

CQ is a genius and was on point throughout all 3 games. Really the only thing that can be criticized is that he didn’t really make use of the squad and kept playing the same players. The main difference with 2014 was that we actually had a squad to change players and rotate. This is what CQ even himself said before the WC, but he didn’t do it.

Gucci should have replaced a very disappointing Azmoun. Mohammadi and Ghoddos should have gotten much more playing time. Other than that Torabi deserved a chance, while I still think Kaveh Rezaei, Hosseini (instead of Montazeri) and Ghafouri should have been invited.