Iran's offense was a disaster [By the numbers]

[Scooter]

Funny that you mention Mourinho, his teams were either leading the league or were in top 3 Goals scored during his time at Inter and Chelsea.
Playing defensively doesn't necessarily translated to being the worst offensive team.

Do we have players anywhere near that level???

Chelsea still conceded possession to their opponents, and played the same style.

Chelsea has/had clinical finishers.

Please learn to argue the point, and stop attempting to sidetrack.

[krol]

Because Branko took Perspolis out of the bottom of the table in his first season and then won the IPL title twice in a row and then guided Perspolis in the last eight of the champions league,he deserves credit.

He deserves credit for being slightly better than an average Iranian coach. That's it. Nothing more. A team with as many quality players and the large fan base of Perspolis should always be in contention. The fact that it wasn't doing well before Branko doesn't mean Branko did anything special. It just means the coaches before him like Derakhshan were garbage. What Veisi did with Esteghlal Khuzestan with a bunch of young players and very few fans outside their home area is far more impressive. Making the last eight of the ACL is also nothing special for a top Iranian club. Zob Ahan, Sepahan and Esteghlal have all done that, and Zob Ahan actually reached the final itself with Ebrahim Zadeh! I can only imagine what red fans would be saying about him if that had been Perspolis!

On the issue of attacking football, I think those of us who prefer to see that type of a football, would like to see a world class coach who is in the same caliber as CQ but offensive minded to be hired. If available, Jose Pekerman, or the Dutch head coach of Australia can be good candidates.
If Iranian players are physically fit to chase the ball for much of the 90 minutes, which is a very difficult thing to do, then, they can be equally fit to take the game to the opponent by moving the ball among themselves for much of the game. A great example of that would be Peru or Croatia of this world cup, and Bosnia of 2014.

Very shallow observation. Playing attacking is not just about stamina. We have a backward youth system where our players don't even learn to shoot and pass properly until they're adult professionals. Pekerman didn't have to coach a team like Iran against La Liga All Stars. Croatia has many players at top European clubs and just one of them like Modric is worth more than some Iranian clubs! Iran versus Spain is like Perspolis versus Real Madrid or Barcelona. Very few coaches will choose an attacking system in that situation. Branko doesn't even play attacking against Al-Hilal and other top Arab clubs! I can only imagine how defensive he would be against Real or Barca.

[Irandoust]

He deserves credit for being slightly better than an average Iranian coach. That's it. Nothing more. A team with as many quality players and the large fan base of Perspolis should always be in contention. The fact that it wasn't doing well before Branko doesn't mean Branko did anything special. It just means the coaches before him like Derakhshan were garbage. What Veisi did with Esteghlal Khuzestan with a bunch of young players and very few fans outside their home area is far more impressive. Making the last eight of the ACL is also nothing special for a top Iranian club. Zob Ahan, Sepahan and Esteghlal have all done that, and Zob Ahan actually reached the final itself with Ebrahim Zadeh! I can only imagine what red fans would be saying about him if that had been Perspolis!

Very shallow observation. Playing attacking is not just about stamina. We have a backward youth system where our players don't even learn to shoot and pass properly until they're adult professionals. Pekerman didn't have to coach a team like Iran against La Liga All Stars. Croatia has many players at top European clubs and just one of them like Modric is worth more than some Iranian clubs! Iran versus Spain is like Perspolis versus Real Madrid or Barcelona. Very few coaches will choose an attacking system in that situation. Branko doesn't even play attacking against Al-Hilal and other top Arab clubs! I can only imagine how defensive he would be against Real or Barca.

Even though you make sense, but I still would want Iran to have more of the ball, at least against Asian teams in this up coming Asian cup. But I get what you are saying. To be continued in another discussion.

[Tehranto]

We were playing defensive against two of the best teams in the world. Our offensive numbers of course will be weak.

Put us in front of Asian teams, and we will see much better numbers. What's the problem?

[Irandoust]

We were playing defensive against two of the best teams in the world. Our offensive numbers of course will be weak.

Put us in front of Asian teams, and we will see much better numbers. What's the problem?

We desperately need to get reminded that we too can play an attractive football. Asian cup would be a good start to see us perform more attacking football.

[metallica69]

The team played as a great defensive unit, we have perfected defensive play. What I agree with is that we need to be able to play better offensive game and that requires better transition play, we have good forwards, but the transition to the forwards is slow.

This is mainly due to not having the right players, I think CQ has done great with the current crop of players, with that said the guy likes defensive football and it’s clear from his past.

[Irandoust]

The team played as a great defensive unit, we have perfected defensive play. What I agree with is that we need to be able to play better offensive game and that requires better transition play, we have good forwards, but the transition to the forwards is slow.

This is mainly due to not having the right players, I think CQ has done great with the current crop of players, with that said the guy likes defensive football and it’s clear from his past.

This issue is not the fact that we do not have the right players, but rather it is very difficult to transition from defending deep in your own half to pressing forward with numbers in the opposite half.

[Philosophy_King]

Is it just me or others feel that we improved game-by-game? Possisioons or little possession, Shots on goals or deflections, the fact remains that we created clear-cut opportunities and above all this is the best result achieved in any World Cup.

I believe that to expect a team to entertain you and generate high stats, you would expect them to have had the experience of friendlies against top oppositions in line with the profile of the former World Champions and the current European Champions! Well I guess we didn’t have that luxury so while I respect others opinion, in my humble view we should be grateful and be honoured by what these boys gave us.

I think our most fluid and agressive game was against Spain. Not just that we closed
them down better than portugal we really CREATE some chances, specially the nice
nutmeg from Amiri and the perfect cross to Taremi.
I think the reason we got back into the portugal game was specially because of
our Lorestanhero-Beiranvand who clear CR7 penalty just perfectly and
because we were able to involve the portugese into our mental game, just
look how frustated CR got when he punshed PAG.

I still think that our hardest game was against Marocco not just because
the stress and the pressure in the first game but also because they
attack much faster and harder than the Spaniards&Portugese had done.
Actually Marocco totally dominate Portugal and deserved the victory
over spain.

[alitor82]

I don't know about everyone here, but I only expected us to lose "badly" (by a 2 goal margin) against Spain. We took the game to the Moroccans as well as the Portuguese. Looking at our offensive game of 2014 vs 2018, we were significantly better. We just couldn't capitalize on our chances.

This style of play has suited us for the past 4 years. For me, this WC was a success. Can you imagine the confidence that Beiranvand, Cheshmi, Ebrahimi, Rezaeian (4 players which everyone thought were the weak links in our team) will have heading into the Asian Cup? We did not have a lousy offense. Maybe we did not string a lot of passes together or held possession for very long, but we had more clear cut chances against our opponents.

This is a TM with a great potential and I see them getting stronger from here on out, irrespective of what some members here think.

I can't believe that TM is getting criticized for getting such a respectable 4 points. TV commentators and analysts were negative against TM for the game against Morocco and first half of Spain game. From the 2nd half of Spain and Portugal game, they were surprised and congratulated TM on the accomplishment. We played against the No. 4 ranked Portugal (European champions) and No. 8 ranked Spain (Barcelona and Real). We only conceded 2 goals and scored 1. What else do you want???

[alitor82]

Saying our offensive play needs improvement is fair. But "Iran's offense was a disaster", come on. We all know this is just stats. Anyone that watched the 3 games can easily see our offense did relatively well, given the opponents we were up against.

[Sam khan]

Yea, we almost qualified, tough opponents, bacheha motchakereem, and all that Jazz, but here are some concerning stats:
Iran had the lowest pass completion (68%) of any team this world cup. Not even by a little. The next worst team was Iceland at 72 %, followed by Sweden at 78%. Also the least total passes With 436.
Iran also ranked last with 4 shots on net Total.
We also got dominated in possession in every game we played.
This isn't sustainable, and if it was not for a lucky last minute own goal against Morocco and a very questionable late Penalty against Portugal, Iran would be goalless this world cup.
Doesn't matter if it's CQ or someone else, but by the next world cup we really need to focus on building up plays and passing the ball more.

Spot on. Good to see now responses are generally favourable compared to my bizarrely unpopular post about our horribly defensive play.

It is no surprise that our possession stats and pass completion and attacking stats are so poor. Our tactic seems to have been not to play football for the first hour or so (at least) of matches. Just put 11 men in the box and hoof it straight back up the pitch to the opposition at the first opportunity. No wonder we had no possession or pass accuracy.

When a goal down or when we decided to play we were actually quite good but as our teams are geared up to be defensive we've struggled to get confidence going forward. Surely when we have attacking players topping European leagues we can't be that bad going forward? When we did try we looked dangerous. A goal against Spain which in any other world cup would have stood. Other chances to equalise too. Yes an own goal for Morocco but that came after great attacking work and had he not knocked it in we had two players behind him who would have. The penalty against Portugal was as dubious as Ronaldo not getting sent off but again we attacked more in that match and looked more dangerous.

My point is the way we play gives us these shit stats and if we just try to play more football our attacking stats will pick up too.

[Taz]

If we play more attacking our defensive stats would also take a hit and we would not have had 4 points and only conceded 2 goals against three top sides.

Completely disagree with the 'this is not sustainable' line of argument, this is exactly the only sustainable method a team with players as technically limited as us can achieve success. The pass completion stats is more a reflection of technical inferiority than lack of attacking intent or tactical weakness. Also lol at 'if it wasn't for a lucky goal and a penalty...'. Yeah, and if my ammeh had a pair of bollocks she'd be my amoo. We had a successful tournament based on these tactics, the 4 points is what matters, not some useless possession stat.

[GolfePersique]

Our offense created clearer and more dangerous chances than all three opponents in my opinion. The only shortcoming was the conversion rate.IF we had played a few friendlies against big teams, the outcome could have been a lot different.

Let's also not forget the caliber of our opponents!

[Babak agha]

If we play more attacking our defensive stats would also take a hit and we would not have had 4 points and only conceded 2 goals against three top sides.

Completely disagree with the 'this is not sustainable' line of argument, this is exactly the only sustainable method a team with players as technically limited as us can achieve success. The pass completion stats is more a reflection of technical inferiority than lack of attacking intent or tactical weakness. Also lol at 'if it wasn't for a lucky goal and a penalty...'. Yeah, and if my ammeh had a pair of bollocks she'd be my amoo. We had a successful tournament based on these tactics, the 4 points is what matters, not some useless possession stat.

Finally someone with logic. If this wasn't the case, why would one even defend our way of defensive play? If we have the best defence regardless, why the hell wouldn't you want us to attack more? It's because of the very reason Taz explained, this is the way we should've played and we even almost ended up at the top of the group.

[inarsenewetrust]

I agree, we are out because our forwards were not efficient enough with the chances they did have, but disaster ?? Come on, they created chances, but you cant really expect sardar azmoun and mehdi taremi, after defending for an entire match, to then go and do pique and sergio ramos every time they get the ball...lets be realistic, our forwards are decent players, not world class.