Post-match analysis

[pajamNL]

He probaly has qualities we don't see ; - )

Although in his prime, he was our only left footed defender i think? And that only is worth a lot.
ATM he has experience on international level (NT wise) , some European experience and can be used to lead the young ones or as back up. We already lost Jalal, Shojaei, Gucci, Ghafouri and Dejagah, so experience isn't that widespread.

But please no starting place or set pieces for him anymore.

[inarsenewetrust]

Shoja is a great defender, shame he got called up so late in his career. Looking back Queiroz should have included him, he's better than Majid Hosseini, Cheshmi, Khanzadeh etc. He'll make a solid duo with Pouraliganji, otherwise Kanaanizadegan or Majid Hosseini are good back ups.

maybe we can say this now but it should also be noted that Shoja matured a LOT in just past couple seasons.

I credit a lot of this to yahya who even noted he was a bit too volatile to be trusted on international level before. Now he is much more in control.

I think laurent Blanc who was also top class center back now coaching him at al rayyan may be giving some additional pointers too.

Like many cbs tend to do, Shoja is aging well and now has experience of his previous mistakes/wrong actions and is using those to perform at the high level he is now.

[Kavian]

TM performance against Syria and the remaining time for preparation raises some concerns:

1. I don't know how to say this, but all good defense lines have a so called "character" and someone there who is the leader. At the moment there is such "character" and certainly none who can be a leader. In the game with Syria the defense was flat-footed almost all the time. You cannot survive teams with better and faster attacking structure. Iraq is a dangerous team on attack no comparable with Syria.

2. The left and right backs were quiet and uncreative. Only when Jalali was subbed in, we saw some activities. In 4-4-2, you need left and right backs to run back and forth and create opportunity.

3. Our midfield lacked creativity and play making. They could not feed the attacking line. When you have 4 midfielders, you expect a lot more ... hey were sleeping most of the time.

4. Our attacking line was the worse. I hope Sardar's scouts weren't watching. That was a disaster performance by him. He should have been subbed much earlier. Taremi was a bit better, but he also underperformed.


This team better get in shape soon, or we are going to be in trouble! ... We need our European players for sure.

[Farzadfarhangni]

TM performance against Syria and the remaining time for preparation raises some concerns:
1. I don't know how to say this, but all good defense lines have a so called "character" and someone there who is the leader. At the moment there is such "character" and certainly none who can be a leader. In the game with Syria the defense was flat-footed almost all the time. You cannot survive teams with better and faster attacking structure. Iraq is a dangerous team on attack no comparable with Syria.
2. The left and right backs were quiet and uncreative. Only when Jalali was subbed in, we saw some activities. In 4-4-2, you need left and right backs to run back and forth and create opportunity.
3. Our midfield lacked creativity and play making. They could not feed the attacking line. When you have 4 midfielders, you expect a lot more ... hey were sleeping most of the time.
4. Our attacking line was the worse. I hope Sardar's scouts weren't watching. That was a disaster performance by him. He should have been subbed much earlier. Taremi was a bit better, but he also underperformed.
This team better get in shape soon, or we are going to be in trouble! ... We need our European players for sure.

I don't know if you guys noticed or not, but camera was on Sardar and he send the signal to the bench that he needed a sub, and 2 minutes later, he was subbed out. Not sure if he is just out shape or some kind of injury or what...

[Sepehr9]

maybe we can say this now but it should also be noted that Shoja matured a LOT in just past couple seasons.
I credit a lot of this to yahya who even noted he was a bit too volatile to be trusted on international level before. Now he is much more in control.
I think laurent Blanc who was also top class center back now coaching him at al rayyan may be giving some additional pointers too.
Like many cbs tend to do, Shoja is aging well and now has experience of his previous mistakes/wrong actions and is using those to perform at the high level he is now.

I don't know about him being volatile, but he is impressive for every club he has played for, namely Sepahan and Tractor, not just at Perspolis. It's obvious he is more talented than our other central defenders. Surely a great coach such as Queiroz would have been the right man for the job, Queiroz made defenders flourish. Khanzadeh was also a hot head when he joined TM but not nearly as talented as Shoja.

Anyway coaches have their own preferences, maybe he just didn't like Khalilzadeh's personality, an important factor which many of us tend to overlook.

[Sepehr9]

Also there is no need for panic, TM beat Bosnia 2-0 in Sarajevo while France beat them 1-0. We did good there. Furthermore, we missed some important players but we comfortably beat Syria 3-0. I trust the lads to guide Iran to the second round, even though it is not going to be easy (unless IFF manages to change the venue).

[Hosseini]

Bosnian war criminal?

That was disgusting. As disgusting as 3-0 wins get. Yes, Syria may be a decent side and yes we won easily and kept a clean-sheet but Beiro and Ebrahimi aside, no player comes out of that looking good. To make 2 elite strikers look so hopeless is truly an art. No idea what the Bosnian war criminal is doing in training but all the signs are there for a bumpy June and a generally hopeless team against top opposition.

I do think we probably have to accept this bezan ziresh and inshallah style as our primary style now so with that in mind, you may as well get rid of Gholi and embrace Beiro being our playmaker. What a sad sad state of affairs. RIP CQ, we bulldozed your castle and put up a portable toilet in its place.

[Taz]

Forgive me, I was misakenly under the impression he was Bosnian at the time

[Karimi 8]

I have a small request for the admins:

Can we please not post highlight videos of our matches in languages other than Persian or English on our homepage?
It isn't a good look in my opinion to have the highlight video of the match in Arabic... We should try to keep the videos in our own language, or in the language that the website is run in.

The Iran vs Syria match highlight video exists in Persian. Perhaps we can make this change and keep this consistent in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-8Ylh_0wV0

[pajamNL]

^^ Good feedback IMHO