Offensive or defensive? Which style of football should we be playing?

[perspolis#1]

I hope we go with a 5-3-2 or 4-3-2-1 in our first two matches at least. But you also need the right coach to implement such a system

Beiro
Moharrami - Kanaani - Hosseini - PAG- Amiri
-----Eza/Ahmad Nour ------Ebrahimi-------------
--------------------Jahanbaksh-----------------
-------------Azmoun--------Taremi------------- (taremi in more of a support role)

Beiro
---Moharrami-----Kanaani---Hosseini----Amiri
--------------Eza--------------Ebrahimi---------
---------------------Taremi----------------------
-------Jahanbaksh-------------Sayyadmanesh
---------------------Azmoun------------------

I wonder what thoughts would be playing Pouraliganji at RB or DMF, sort of like what CQ did with Montazeri in 2014

Im not a fan of PAG at RB because that takes away the fear of Wales and USA getting hit on the right side which frees them up to attack. Both teams right now think they are the better side but are being trained that if they take our counters too lightly they will pay for it. Might as well give them a reason.

At CDM, I will be honest have not followed him in that position. If he is able to be a destroyer I'll be happy but he will need to be quick because in the middle he will get pressed and will need to be able to clear out of danger.

Right now our decade long lack of a real CAM is hurting us and our midfield needs to figure out how they will feed Azmoun and Taremi. If we put the most experienced in Ghoddos and Ebrahimi, Amiri etc we need a combo that can run, hold possession, and pass.

[DR Strangemoosh]

I have no major problem with the two 34 year olds being engines in midfield - Ebrahimi and Amiri.

We have relied on them a lot and their world cup experience will help.

But the lack of anything like a Nekounam figure as a deep lying playmaker (let alone a CAM or a trequartista) means that any hope of playing any kind of football the CQ-haters want to see in the world cup is fantastical. Japan have dozens of European pedigree players who can do this. Realistically speaking, we have pretty much zero.

I'm sure with whichever coach we will be forced to play defensively minded football unless we want to be Saudied. The difference between draw, 1-0 win or 1-0 loss is just how tidy and disciplined we will be and thats where being well-drilled counts. Both Amiri and Ebrahimi have shown themselves to be astute from that perspective

[Babak agha]

^Apparently Azmoun is given the CQ-haters hope, not only by being realistic and don't wanting to sack our current coach, but also as a CAM at Leverkusen.

On the other hand our wingers and captain are becoming a major problem.

[Altamonte]

Moderate. We don't have the calibre of defence to play offensive, but at the same time we'd waste our calibre of attack by playing too defensive

[Babak agha]

Moderate. We don't have the calibre of defence to play offensive, but at the same time we'd waste our calibre of attack by playing too defensive

Some people think this doesn't exist. You either have to park the bus or have no defence at all. Yet yesterday PSV showcased how you could have worse players, have less of the ball, but still play normal football whenever you can and easily win 5-3 against a better Ajax.

If Skocic is the man that can pull off something like this, I don't know (probably not).

[Hosseini]

People who say CQ made us park the bus throughout the WC in 2018 simply didn't watch the game. Iran didn't park it vs Morocco or Portugal and attacked throughout the match pretty consistently. We had decent chances. And the Spain match realistically we played ultra defensive and then also had them on their heels for a periods too. So I don't know where CQ got this reputation as a "bus parker" because it just isn't true. We had a very well-drilled, disciplined defense.

That defense is clearly gone now and will our biggest weakness come the WC. Like Kateb said, Lebanon, Algeria, and Korea made it look like warm shooleh zard

[Babak agha]

Against Morocco, for the first 30 mins the players literally thought that they were plumbers, playing against Real Madrid. Eventually they realized that they are not plumbers but football players and they were not playing Real Madrid but Morocco. For some reason Morocco that day just forgot how to score in the right goal. It threw all its powers at us, and just for some reason (probably also the same reason why our players forgot they were football players, anxiety) couldn't score. At some point Morocco just realized this wasn't their day and both were okay with the draw. Eventually Morocco did score, but in the wrong goal.

Here I would say that our coach could have prepared the boys a bit better so that they wouldn't step on the field with 1 kilo of poop in their pants. Eventually we got the result we wanted, so overall no harm done, but this wasn't the first time that we were extremely underestimating ourselves under CQ.
The beauty of football is that the best team doesn't have to win and you always have a chance. However most of our important games with CQ in charge against stronger teams, we play like we are Vietnam or something.

Against Spain, I have the same criticism.
After getting scored on (something that eventually will happen if all you do is defend in your own box, simply because the ball is there all the time, meaning fluke accidental goal is a possibility.), we showed that we were much more capable of holding off Spain from our own goal and even half, than we gave ourselves credit for. Funny thing is, once we played normal football, we probably did play our best football I've ever seen under any coach.

My criticism with CQ is not that he's not capable of letting us play above our potential, he has shown that he can very well do this. I also won't say that he's not the best coach we've ever had, that I atleast have witnessed myself.
My criticism is that eventhough we are by far not as good as some people might think, we are better than CQ sometimes has in mind. This fear of conceding goals if we remotely think of playing football really gets on the nerves of our boys, making them look like amateurs at some points.

CQ has shown on multiple occasions that he knows how to lead our players to overperform and our players have shown that they are capable to this against strong opposition. The only problem here is that CQ mostly does this when it's too late.

All of this doesn't matter though as CQ is not our coach now and also will not be our coach.

I've said this 100 times now I think the last weeks.

Let's just get on with our lives.

[Leicester City]

Against Morocco, for the first 30 mins the players literally thought that they were plumbers, playing against Real Madrid. Eventually they realized that they are not plumbers but footballer players and they were not playing Real Madrid but Morocco. For some reason Morocco that day just forgot how to score in the right goal. It threw all its powers at us and just for some reason (probably also the same reason why our players forgot they were football players, anxiety) couldn't score. At some point Morocco just realized this wasn't their day and both were okay with the draw. Eventually Morocco did score, but in the wrong goal.

Here I would say that our coach could have prepared the boys a bit better so that they wouldn't step on the field with 1 kilo of poop in their pants. Eventually we got the result we wanted, so overall no harm done, but this wasn't the first time that we were extremely underestimating ourselfs under CQ. The beauty of football is that the best team doesn't have to win and you always have a chance. However most of our important games with CQ against stronger teams, we play like we are Vietnam or something.

Against Spain, I have the same criticism. After getting scored on (something that eventually will happen if all you do is defend in your own box, simply because the ball is there all the time, meaning fluke accidental goals a possibility.), we showed that we were much more capable of holding off Spain from our goal and even half, than we gave ourselves credit for. Funny thing is, once we played normal football, we probably did play our best football I've ever seen under any coach.

My criticism with CQ is not that he's not capable of letting us play above our potential, he has showed that he can very well do this. I also won't say that he's not the best coach we've ever that I atleast have witnessed myself.

My criticism is that eventhough we are by far not as good as some people might think, we are better than CQ sometimes has in his mind. This fear of conceding goals if we remotely think of playing football really gets on the nerves of our boys, making them look like amateurs at some points.

He has shown on multiple occasions that he knows how to lead our players to overperform and our players have shown that they are capable to this against strong opposition. The only problem here is that CQ mostly does this when it's too late.

All of this doesn't matter though as CQ is not our coach now and also will not be our coach. I've said this 100 times now I think the last weeks.

Let's just get on with our lives.

Ok bro, we heard you the first time.

[Farzadfarhangni]

People who say CQ made us park the bus throughout the WC in 2018 simply didn't watch the game. Iran didn't park it vs Morocco or Portugal and attacked throughout the match pretty consistently. We had decent chances. And the Spain match realistically we played ultra defensive and then also had them on their heels for a periods too. So I don't know where CQ got this reputation as a "bus parker" because it just isn't true. We had a very well-drilled, disciplined defense.

That defense is clearly gone now and will our biggest weakness come the WC. Like Kateb said, Lebanon, Algeria, and Korea made it look like warm shooleh zard

Ostad, I think Babak-Agha's post above is very illuminating. Just like you said, once we opened up against Spain, we had them on their heels so why would one play ultra defensively against such a team for 55 minutes?

People here have a digital mentality. (Not you Hosseini jan) Either we play ultra defensively or completely open attacking football. In reality, there are 10,000 shades between the two. Against Portugal, where we needed results, I think we played a more balanced form of soccer and got a 1-1 result. Lets assume that Portugal was equal in strength to Spain. They tied each other 3-3 in that same WC. Why would we play that first 55 minutes against Spain in that fashion when we can play the way we did against Portugal for 90 minutes? Which one gives us a better chance of getting results? Which one showcases TM's soccer better?

I 100% agree with what Babak-Agha is saying above, especially CQ underestimating our level of soccer.

[Babak agha]

Ok bro, we heard you the first time.

Lol triple post, that's a first.

[BacheLot]

Generally cautious & counter attacking approach is just about the only way to pull outa this group ....imo...especially so vs England and USA ..!!
to play a possession-based attacking game, you gonna need a good to an excellent Team Passing efficiency..! to do that you gonna need a well-poised players (especially along the backline and MF) who'd position themselves intelligently and constantly are on the move with or W/O the ball, in order to make passing triangles thus making themselves available for a quick, one touch passes..!! i've said this a million times before TM as a whole sucks pretty bad on this Team Passing front (barring very few occasional patches of game in the past) because most of our players dont have the necessary poise and composure to not get rushed when pressed during passing spells and to boot most are too koongoshaad to move W/O the ball at their feet in order to make passing game easier on their teammates..!
just about the only Asian side well capable of running such a possession based attacking game is Japan and SK is a distant 2nd on that front..!!

in World Cup group play its all about getting results and something outa every game... one loss and you are already behind the 8 ball especially so as a 3rd seeded team ..! we have proven time and over under carlos that we attain most positive results playing cautious/defensively and just resort to counters and balls over the top and set pieces for that one chance to get a something more than point from the match..!! it works especially well considering our weak point of MF and sorta solid overall defense and keeper and especially with couple of great attacking weapons..!

[DR Strangemoosh]

People who say CQ made us park the bus throughout the WC in 2018 simply didn't watch the game. Iran didn't park it vs Morocco or Portugal and attacked throughout the match pretty consistently. We had decent chances. And the Spain match realistically we played ultra defensive and then also had them on their heels for a periods too. So I don't know where CQ got this reputation as a "bus parker" because it just isn't true. We had a very well-drilled, disciplined defense.
That defense is clearly gone now and will our biggest weakness come the WC. Like Kateb said, Lebanon, Algeria, and Korea made it look like warm shooleh zard

Agree 100%! I would go further and say perhaps the appreciation of various facets of football is not quite there... Is that controversial?

I was at Wembley yesterday for England vs Germany and for the first half Sarina Wiegman's team soaked up pressure, sat deep and was a defensive phalanx with the defensive line generally knowing exactly where the others were. The team shape looked very solid and each crunching tackle and good positioning play were cheered by the fans.

Then like a coiled spring, the team started punishing Germany on counter attacks in the second half and into extra time - always keeping a good shape. Overall, Germany was the stronger side for much of the match but ultimately England became European champions.

I just can't get my head round how fantastic defensive discipline and a solid team shape is a bad thing? Why can't the team being well-drilled, disciplined and stronger than the sum of its parts be a good thing for some fans (let alone for TM where we hadn't really seen this before and were so used to deimi style shapeless football)? urely it should be other fans who are whingeing about "parking the bus" etc..., not our own fans?