Wilmots OUT NOW

[NYCTeamMelli]

well, at least we are safe in knowledge that wilmots has the "tit factor" down.

With women now being allowed into stadiums, the "tit factor" is needed.

[orbicular]

I didn't watch Iran's latest game, so I'm not going to make specific statements about their performance on the field. However, I'd like to make a few general comments about the big picture.

Iran's football has basically been in turmoil since they made their first World Cup appearance in 1978. In effect, our beloved sport, possibly the most popular pastime in our history, has been sort of a microcosm of the Iranian society at large-conflicted, whimsical, undisciplined, and yet passionate in many ways. Even though our football nation has had its ups and downs, continuously traversing both extremes of demoralizing failure and exhilarating victories , we, as fans, players and organizers, have often shown an uncanny ability to bounce back from heartbreaking defeat.

It was after years of turmoil and inconsistencies when Carlos Queiroz came onto the scene. (I have always been one of his proud admirers, and my posts attest to that; however, I'm not going to get more deeply into that argument here.) Hiring Queiroz might have been a fortuitous event, a choice that ultimately turned out to be the most wonderful thing for Iran and its football, as he proved to be tough, intelligent, and capable. Above all, he almost immediately sensed a profound affinity with the nation and its soccer tradition as a whole, and decided that Iran would be his second home for years to come. Furthermore, he quickly realized that the task ahead was tortuous, but he remained poised and steadfastly overcame many obstacles that, throughout history, have characterized our labyrinthic society and its bureaucratic traditions. That kind of vision and work ethic enabled him to gain the trust and loyalty of vast majority of his players, a task initially marked by countless difficulties as well.

Following Iran's exit from the World Cup in 2018, I and many others on this site clamored for renewing Queiroz' contract. Many of us envisioned that, under the circumstances, failure to do so would lead to the kind of deterioration we are witnessing today, and we have been proven to be right. Now Iran's national team is clearly on life support. Team Morale has been understandably low since Queiroz' departure, and lack of friendlies and a capable coach, both a direct result of debilitating sanctions, have greatly exacerbated the situation. Interestingly, circumstances today are eerily similar to 2002, when Iran finished third in its group and was ultimately beaten by Ireland and failed to qualify for the World Cup. But even then the obstacles we were facing were not as insurmountable as they seem to be today.

What is to be done now? Many on this forum are calling for Wilmot's firing; yet it's clear that the problem is multifaceted and it far surpasses the coach and his abilities, as there are way too many unanswered questions: Is he being paid? Is he able to arrange friendlies against decent opponents? Have the players been able to emotionally bounce back from Queiroz' departure? ( I believe the answer to the last question is a resounding no, as many of them wholeheartedly tried, but ultimately failed, to keep him at the helm. Some of the heroes who fought in the trenches with Queiroz are ostensibly absent due to injuries or contractual violations, but I believe those reasons could be a direct result of their collective disillusionment over his departure.)

It is with these thoughts in mind that, short of a miracle, including sudden emergence of healthy and fit Ezatollahi, Jahanbakhsh, Ghodoos and Ghuchannejd, I am not hopeful about Iran's chances for qualification. Then again, Iran tends to perform admirably when its back is against the wall, and today it clearly finds itself in the most difficult situation. I believe taking some of the following actions might be helpful:

First, the team needs to arrange a players-only meeting and do some soul searching to boost morale. (They should make that inclination public.) They also need to issue a strong challenge to the aforementioned players, demanding that they get themselves in superb condition (they have at least 5 months) and be ready to deliver. Iran's soccer federation has to either fire Wilmot immediately or, having consulted with many key players, express unequivocal confidence in him. After all, at this point, what do we have to lose? And, just as importantly, it needs to find a way to arrange some meaningful friendlies. Furthermore, various sports programs on Iranian TV need to band together and invite the players on their shows and express the country's unequivocal support for the team and its gratitude for our players' continuous loyalty to the fans and their persistence under extremely difficult circumstances. Remember, unlike many of us who post messages here, the players are under tremendous pressure. As for us, we too need to send them positive feedback and provide them with some badly-needed psychological support. Simply whining and being harshly dismissive will not yield any positive results. Let's hope things begin to turn around soon.

[Roxanaz80]

I didn't watch Iran's latest game, so I'm not going to make specific statements about their performance on the field. However, I'd like to make a few general comments about the big picture.

Iran's football has basically been in turmoil since they made their first World Cup appearance in 1978. In effect, our beloved sport, possibly the most popular pastime in our history, has been sort of a microcosm of the Iranian society at large-conflicted, whimsical, undisciplined, and yet passionate in many ways. Even though our football nation has had its ups and downs, continuously traversing both extremes of demoralizing failure and exhilarating victories , we, as fans, players and organizers, have often shown an uncanny ability to bounce back from heartbreaking defeat.

It was after years of turmoil and inconsistencies when Carlos Queiroz came onto the scene. ( I have always been one of his proud admirers, and my posts attest to that; however, I'm not going to get more deeply into that argument here.) Hiring Queiroz might have been a fortuitous event, a choice that ultimately turned out to be the most wonderful thing for Iran and its football, as he proved to be tough, intelligent, and capable. Above all, he almost immediately sensed a profound affinity with the nation and its soccer tradition as a whole, and decided that Iran would be his second home for years to come. Furthermore, he quickly realized that the task ahead was tortuous, but he remained poised and steadfastly overcame many obstacles that, throughout history, have characterized our labyrinthic society and its bureaucratic traditions. That kind of vision and work ethic enabled him to gain the trust and loyalty of vast majority of his players, a task initially marked by countless difficulties as well.

Following Iran's exit from the World Cup 2018, I and many others on this site clamored for renewing Queiroz' contract. Many of us envisioned that, under the circumstances, failure to do so would lead to the kind of deterioration we are witnessing today, and we have been proven to be right. Now Iran's national team is clearly on life support. Team Morale has been understandably low since Queiroz' departure, and lack of friendlies and a capable coach, both a direct result of debilitating sanctions, have greatly exacerbated the situation. Interestingly, circumstances today are eerily similar to 2002, when Iran finished third in its group and was ultimately beaten by Ireland and failed to qualify for the World Cup. But even then the obstacles we were facing were not as insurmountable as they seem to be today.

What is to be done now? Many on this forum are calling for Wilmot's firing; yet it's clear that the problem is multifaceted and it far surpasses the coach and his abilities, as there are way too many unanswered questions: Is he being paid? Is he able to arrange friendlies against decent opponents? Have the players been able to emotionally bounce back from Queiroz' departure? ( I believe the answer to the last question is a resounding no, as many of them wholeheartedly tried, but ultimately failed, to keep him at the helm. Some of the heroes who fought in the trenches with Queiroz are ostensibly absent due to injuries or contractual violations, but I believe those reasons could be a direct result of their collective disillusionment over his departure.)

It is with these thoughts in mind that, short of a miracle, including sudden emergence of healthy and fit Ezatollahi, Jahanbakhsh, Ghodoos and Ghuchannejd, I am not hopeful about Iran's chances for qualification. Then again, Iran tends to perform admirably when its back is against the wall, and today it clearly finds itself in the most difficult situation. I believe some of the following actions might be helpful:

First, the team needs to arrange a players-only meeting and do some soul searching to boost morale. (They should make that inclination public.) They also need to issue a strong challenge to the aforementioned players, demanding that they get themselves in superb condition (they have at least 5 months) and be ready to deliver. Iran's soccer federation has to either fire Wilmot immediately or, having consulted with many key players, express unequivocal confidence in him. After all, at this point, what do we have to lose? And, just as importantly, it needs to find a way to arrange some meaningful friendlies. Furthermore, various sports programs on Iranian TV need to band together and invite the players on their shows and express the country's unequivocal support for the team and its gratitude for our players continuous loyalty to the fans and their persistence under extremely difficult circumstances. Remember, unlike many of us who post messages here, the players are under tremendous pressure. As for us, we too need to send them positive messages and provide them with some badly-needed psychological support. Simply whining and being harshly dismissive of their efforts will not yield any positive results. Let's hope things begin to turn around soon.

Orbicular jan I missed u!
U are a tremendous, wise writer. I think your latest to the point masterpiece should be used as an editorial on Pfdc page.

Nothing to add, maybe only to insist that our players need unconditional support. Enough with the lengesh kon, a foreign coach is not superman. Your article illustrates how lucky we are to even have a TM. Our players have done more than some of our naneh ghamar public figures.

[orbicular]

Roxanaz80, as always, your positive and thoughtful feedbacks are encouraging. Hope we can exchange ideas under better circumstances for our team.

[Philosophy_King]

After some days of the Iraq shock, i was checking the Highlights of our WCQ Games so far. Some points that i have observed:

-Since the arrival of Wilmots the Team has obviously a much more offensive playing style, many times Sardar, Karim and Taremi try to create spaces with short Tiki-Taka passes which is definitely a new element in our game. In the first Game against Syria in Azadi and the game against South Korea in Seol one could see, that we are more active upfront and at the same time more open in our defense, which seems to be normal/ok only if we are able to create more scoring chances than our opponent which was the case in every game beside the Iraq-Game. We used this tool to score the second goal and partly the first goal against Hong Kong (don't need to speak about Cambodia, were we totally demolished the defense). Even against Bahrain we have created so much scoring chances, here we were truly unlucky. Just watch the highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ZrBjuFEMI

-Having said that, i was happy with our performance against Hong Kong, Cambodia and Bahrain, since we dominated all of this Teams and create many scoring chances. Again in the Bahrain game we were unlucky to give away an unnecessary penalty and to miss so many scoring chances. Therefore i am definitely optimistic that we are going to defeat all this three Teams in Style. I even expect us to destroy Bahrain by a 3-0 or even 4-0 Result. Interestingly enough, although Masoud was called up to the Squad he didn't get any playing time against Bahrain and Hong Kong, only playing some minutes against Cambodia where we were already leading 9-0, hence to me it was clear that Masoud had only a symbolic role in the Squad before the Iraq-Disaster happens.

-Our Game against Iraq was def. our worst performance in the WCQ, unfortunately against one of our arch-rivals and strongest opponent in our Group. Up to this day, i am thinking how on earth Wilmots got the Idea to rest Masoud in all the previous three games (here it would make much more sense to play him, since we were superior to our opponents and Masoud's lazy playing style wouldn't hurt us to much.) but line him up against the toughest opponent. The only answer i have to this is, that Wilmots thought Masouds Experience would help TM mentally in that derby, yet this game had proved that not only Masouds Skills, Decision Making, Physicality and Intelligence were below TM's Level, but also the Idea about his Experience is misleading, since Masoud not only couldn't control the emotions of our players but were also not able to control his own emotions leading to the red card in such a crucial game (same thing happens in WCQ 2014 against S.Korea in Tehran). I truly hope that Wilmots is able to recognize that there is no Aspect in which Masoud could help the Team and find the balls to just kick this Egoist out of the Team.

-All in all, it was after the Iraq game, that i have lost hope and believe in Wilmots, not only because we have lost, but the way we have lost. In the Second Half Iraq were dominating us totally, i think the reasons are: First of all, Iraqis are very familiar with the IPL and hence have an instinctive knowledge about our football culture and the way we play. Moreover Iraqs playing style may be the closest to our own style; Last but not least, Iraqis were totally pumped up to defeat I.R. in front of their fans, this game def. had political dimensions, just go back and watch the way Iraqis had celebrate their victory over us. Ofcourse i don't want to deny that Iraq has some skilled players like Tarik Hamam, Mohannad, the Nr.7 and Bashar Razan. On the other hand, our players were under pressure after the Bahrain defeat, Wilmots chooses an horrible Line-up, Masoud got red carded, MilMo got injured and after he was subbed out Tarik Hamam and the right side became much more active, the weak inexperienced Iraqi Goali was subbed out for the experienced one due to an injury, Iraq had scored in the dying minutes of the game.

Generally speaking, Iraq under Katanec is closing the middle field very good against TM (even under CQ in AC 2019), it is obvious that Iraq players exactly know what to do when playing Iran. To reconquer the middle field, next to Ebrahimi, Nourallahi, hard working players like Dejagah and Ezzatolahi are needed, otherwise Azmoun and Taremi have to went back to take the ball, not able to receive the ball in dangerous positions. Also we have to approve standard situations, we used to be so dangerous from Corners and set-pieces, we truly lost this tool over the years. I think Iraq is very beatable, if we can put their weak defensive line under pressure.

Our Final Game against Iraq will be crucial, not just to qualify for the next round but also to prove to ourselves that we are the better side. I just hope that 1) Masoud will be exclude from the Team and 2) that Ghoddus, Gholizadeh, Jahanbakhsh, maybe even Dejagah and Ezzatolahi, find their form back and are ready to play against Iraq. The last time we could defeat Iraq in an official game was back in AC2011, means 8 years ago. A packed Azadi (80.000-100.000 Fans) would be the perfect opportunity not just to defeat Iraq, but to humiliate them and once for all making them and their delusional fans clear what the difference between TM and Iraq is.

I believe the job can be done with Wilmots too, but i prefer a Vatani-Coach since Wilmots clearly lacks the gheyrat only looking for the payment. We have enough potential in the squad to qualify with Coaches like Aghajanian or Golmohammadi, don't need to spent so much money to Wilmots.

[Roxanaz80]

Roxanaz80, as always, your positive and thoughtful feedbacks are encouraging. Hope we can exchange ideas under better circumstances for our team.

Nice cosy tea time and a discussion about Viva Team Melli!

[Ghermez Agha]

Plz start trending #WilmotsOut on Twitter my dear friends. Maybe it got started a few days ago but I just did mine - we must do TM a service and have as many of these hashtags as possible

[Leicester City]

Who will be sacked first? Wilmots, Good ebening, or Ole Gunnar Solskjær?

[Iranianarsenal11]

Who will be sacked first? Wilmots, Good ebening, or Ole Gunnar Solskjær?

hahahahaha good ebening

[naderb94]

Who will be sacked first? Wilmots, Good ebening, or Ole Gunnar Solskjær?

I'll go with Wenger