Iran vs UAE post match ratings

[Iranianarsenal11]

It wasn't pretty but a win is a win! Mashalla bacheha!

Here are my ratings

Skocic: 6, team didn't look very prepared, but a win is all that matters. Tactically I didn't see enough to justify giving him more than an average rating

Beiranvand: 7, looked solid and sharp IMO. Didn't take any crazy risks and had better than average distribution.

Moharrami: 8, he was my MOTM in the first half. Was super sharp defensively and offensively going forward. He got a bit tired in the second half and was more quiet.

Kanaani: 8, besides the lack of pace, Kanaani looked super! Great aerially and sharp with his tackles.

Shoja: 8.5, he was awesome defensively. Everything was stunning.. Passing, pace, aerial play, defending. Just awesome!

Noorafkan: 7.5, he was one of the better players in the first half. Such a tank offensively and in the aerial game. Opened play up a lot.

Ezatolahi: 8, one of our best players overall today. Defensively sharp and looked quicker than usual. Always makes the right passes it seems and is by far our best at that category. Only issue with him is that his first touch could be a bit quicker but he made the best of it.

Amiri: 6, first half Amiri was a 5. Very poor game and was slipping left and right. However, once he made the move to LB, he settled in quite nicely and made some great passes and interceptions

Nourollahi: 6.5, better than Amiri but not better than Ezatolahi in the midfield. He was pretty solid in the first half both offensively and defensively. Had a great run but was tackled in the box. Second half he was much more tired and didn't play as well.

ARJ: 4, worst player on the pitch today. He was straight up a disaster. Grading him on an actual footballing grading scale, so I objectively gave him a 4 because he had some good interceptions, but he was really a "1" or "2" today. He looked slow, had bad finishing, passing, set pieces, was just super poor. Sad rahmat be Gehram "Pothead".

Azmoun: 7.5, I would've given him an 8 if not for the missed penalty, but he still had a very good game offensively. Kept possession really well and had a beautiful assist to Taremi.

Taremi: 8.5 (MOTM). His goal and penalty were outstanding. He was absolutely piss poor in the first half, but the difference between a guy like ARJ and Taremi is that Taremi in one moment can completely change the flow of the game with a goal. He did just that and continued to toy with the UAE defense and honestly should've scored more. I'd still give him the MOTM tbh...

SUBS:

Hajsafi: 7, looked decent. No real mistakes or any great plays either

Gholizadeh: 8, was an awesome super sub! He starts alongside Ghoddos against South Korea IMO.. His dribbling moves were perfect today! Not wasteful like he was against Syria and not one dimensional like he was in his cameo against Iraq either.

Sarlak: N/A

Ansarifard: N/A

[ParthianDE]

Aussi ref team led by Christopher BEATH - 10

Can we finally burry the hatchet now?

[Camran khan]

VAR 10/10

[naderb94]

Some of my takes on this game.

- Skokic was poor tactically this game. Took him forever to make any real changes to the lineup.
- Jahanbakhsh was clearly our worst player today. His first touches, passing, set pieces, and decision making were all poor.
- Attacking was poor and out of sync for most of the game, clear chances were missing and passes were sloppy.
-Gholizadeh subbed on changed the dynamic of the game. Brought some speed and energy on that side of the field that was missing with Jahanbaksh.
- Great overall performances by Saeid, Sadegh. They were overall our best players today..

- The pitch and atmosphere didn't play to our advantage. Players were slipping all over the field today.
- Although I was overall pleased with the defense, UAE had several opportunities on long passes that made Beiro nervous.


MOTM: VAR/Christopher James: If it weren't for VAR, we would be down to 10 men with about 30 minutes left and in clear trouble. Overturning the Shoja red gave us much needed energy and new life.

[Ostad_Goosfand]

our press was excellent today. we intercepted and blocked so many passes from the UAE players.

Moharrami was my standout, looked really well composed at RB and did well on the ball

[Karimi 8]

10/10, Faghat VAR #Joonam

[persiangodfather]

The reality is 9 of the players on the pitch for us are average, we have 2 world class strikers Taremi and Azmoun who can play on any club in the world and perform well. We are blessed to have them, Now we have to focus on getting the most out of average players

[Mahsaa]

The reality is 9 of the players on the pitch for us are average, we have 2 world class strikers Taremi and Azmoun who can play on any club in the world and perform well. We are blessed to have them, Now we have to focus on getting the most out of average players

Replace the two with Ansarifard and Rezaei or anyone and you will see we still win

[inarsenewetrust]

The biggest concern is not he performance really, which although bad isnt really out if the norm for some WCQ (Across the world everybody struggles in random games in these qualifiers) and especially our first of 2 game international breaks.
The biggest concern is actually that after 10+ games skocic has still not developed the central midfield situation AT ALL compared to when he took over. He has not trusted ghoddos more and gotten him worked in, he did not find a new young gem in iran and trust them. HE instead continues to persist with a weak nourollahi who has no playmaking skills or superior game management skills (either by keeping possession or being a smart defensive presence). He is wasting precious time in this key role. Nourollahi will not manage to do jack shit ina WC, and nor will somebody like ghoddos if he doesnt get more regular minutes now. Subbing on sarlak at the end, also so weird. The guy should be nowhere near the national team and quickly showed that to everybody.

As for ratings :

Beiranvand - 7. I was really impressed with how his aerial exits, foot skills have developed. Much better than pre europe, and in particular pre portugal. His passing under pressure is smart, consistent, and executed well. Even the play where shoja gave him a bad backpass his decision to pass it out of play for the corner instead of risk was spot on. His run out to collect a long through ball was perfect too, and many times he waited and waited for saeid to become available before giving him a strong pass to break initial UAE press and start the attacking sequence. undisputed #1.

Moharrami - 7 Sturdy defensively. Very solid in possession. His acceleration and dribbling skills are great. Some really good crossing tonight too, including one azmoun should have buried. Another who is undisputed starter and proving why.

Kanani - 7 Solid in possession and in the air. No errors really apart from questionable positioning on RC scene which ended up being offside. Still will be a concern when he is confronted with a strong CF.

Shoja - 7 He could have let the guy just shoot on RC scene instead of fouling, bad choice. But in general he was great. Rapid over 10 yards, strong in the tackle and in the air. Sometimes he can make better passing choices but helped by amiri and nourollahi providing zero outlets for him on the short passes, instead he often had to go long towards azmoun but those passes were not effective usually.

Noorafkan - 6 He is strong in possesion, better than hasjafi and milad, but not ready defensively. He makes some bad errors, loses his guy, and dumb fouls. In the future he is risk if confronted by a really dangerous winger. Our best LB is unfortunately still milad if he performs at his average level.

Ezatolahi - 7. He looked slimmer and anyways still our best midfielder on the pitch. Smart and cool in possession, some great tackles and interceptions, on the ground and in the air. Issue is he is slow and cannot recover ground against speedy midfielders quickly. That wasnt a big deal tonight bc UAE suck but its his biggest weak point and something we can only hope he personally addresses in upcoming months.

Nourollahi - 5.5 Weak on the ball. His decision making quite frankly sucks, he makes passes to offensive players who have no room to receive the ball or get it out of the situation he plays them into. He lacks big game vision and IQ. Defensively his best attribute is he can press the ball well, but in terms of 1v1 defensive skills again he is a liability. Not worth sticking with him instead of ghoddos or salmani. Yes they are more offensive, yes they may not press as aggresively, but the upside of having one of them who is actually able to dictate play a bit and make smart passes to our two best players is too high to keep rejecting just to keep nourollahi in.

Amiri - 5 One of his worst TM games. Better at LB in second half. Only one of him and nourollahi should start, I prefer amiri but tonight was not his night. Sloppy touch and passing, kept slipping, no good ball advancements like he usually has.

ARJ - 2. He is just really really poor 1v1. He cannot beat anybody! Its ridiculous for a winger. Then add to his once good decision making has gone to pure shit. So many times he passes where he should shoot, shoots where he should pass, plays ball backwards or ends up losing possession when he should just beat the guy 1v1. And his set pieces...less said the better. Does not deserve to start vs Korea and will probably cost the team if he does.

Taremi - 8. MOTM Our best player overall and again tonight. Scored one with brilliant combo play between him and sardar, many great dribbling sequences and smart offensive decisions. Constantly harassing UAE defenders and got a great PK too. His dribbling has really developed, a side to his game we didnt see much before. Awesome.

Azmoun - 6.5 It wasnt his strongest game but even so he had a wonderful game winning assist and regularly troubled UAE backline. He shouldnt be taking PKs and in general struggles with this heat/humidity the most out of our guys, playing in russia his whole life makes the adjustment worst for him I think. Still think him and Taremi could and should be fed way better by the supporting cast.

Subs :

Gholizadeh - 7. Brought energy and 1v1 ability, opened more space and options for taremi and sardar than ARJ could and also combined well with sadegh. Deserves to start next game and he is back in form after slow first weeks of season.

Hajsafi - 5.5 Nothing good really, just committed a few dumb fouls when beaten 1v1 by his winger.

Sarlak - 4 You would think being on for a couple mins isnt enough to give him a rating but with those couple minutes he already showed why he shouldnt be near the team. How he is subbed in instead of ghoddos or salmani who at least can play a few one touch passes and keep possessions is criminal.

Skocic - 6. Bizarre not subbing ARJ, team in general lacked any clear plan and lot of random long balls to nobody. OFC that is not all down to him but he must take some of the responsibility as Head coach. Our best players by some distance are taremi and azmoun, he should be doing everything possible to feed them better. Selecting ARJ and nourollahi does nothing to achieve that goal. OFC winning matters and he is undefeated, but that will mean nothing if we go to WC and play like crap. The current games need to have us build some clear identity for WC in addition to winning and securing qualification. So far his steps to address midfield hole are not enough to yield results in WC.

[ParthianDE]

Noorafkan - 6 He is strong in possesion, better than hasjafi and milad, but not ready defensively. He makes some bad errors, loses his guy, and dumb fouls. In the future he is risk if confronted by a really dangerous winger. Our best LB is unfortunately still milad if he performs at his average level.

I'm glad someone is finally calling out a contrarian opinion on Noorafkan. IMO he has been getting way too much praise here close to the level of overhyping.

That doesn't mean he's a bad player or that he doesn't have potential, but he's not (yet) the long wished for final solution for that position, especially defensively. He will have to battle it out with our other options, all of whom are also not optimal.

[persiangodfather]

Replace the two with Ansarifard and Rezaei or anyone and you will see we still win

disagree

[nisfejahan]

For me Ezzi was the standout player again. He controls the midfield, rarely loses a challenge, make good simple passes and opens up the game. His long range passes are pretty good too. I cannot understand why he is not playing on a better team in a better league.

The defense was generally ok. Azmun and Taremi were both lethargic, but connected on the goal really well.

ARJ was poor. Gholi is better than both ARJ and Noorolahi. May be Skoochi was saving him for Korea.

I cannot understand why Saman is not starting, let alone get any minutes.

Given that Skoochi is 10-0-0, I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Ostad_Goosfand]

Replace the two with Ansarifard and Rezaei or anyone and you will see we still win

no way. we probably wouldnt lose but id say we would be at 5 or 6 points if not for azmoun and taremi. they score all our goals lol

[The]

Berio - 7 : not really tested.

Kaanani - 8: better of the two CBs. Some really good recoveries.

Shoja - 6: Got bailed out on that offside and also had a really dangerous backpass to Beiro in the first.

Moharammi - 9: Very good on offense made some crucial stops.

Noorafkan - 6: very lucky not to be red-carded. Shows some flashes on Offense though

Saeed - 9: MOTM for me. Great distribution, calm under pressure and smooth with dribbles.

Amiri - 5: better in the 2nd half but boy was he poor of the ball. Always in the wrong place on attack and unable to create anything.

Nourollahi -4: too many turnovers, slow in decision making, not good on D. To me our worst player.

JB - 5: Finally one performance I actually think PFDC is correct to bash him for. Couldn't create anything on offense. Bad set pieces, bad shots, inaccurate assists. Also don't understand why he plays so damn narrow this year. Both for Club and TM it almost feels like he's playing a supporting striker. Was redeemed by his defensive effort and the fact that he wasn't a turnover machine.

Mehdi - 6: Killed too many counters by being too relaxed and selfish. Would like to see him pass the ball more. If he didn't score, would be a 5.

Sardar - 5: Poor finishing, botched penalty, unable to press. I'm going to need more than an assist on a goalkeeper mistake to rate him.

Gholizadeh - 7: Swaggy. Would probably have at least one goal of Mehdi wasn't so damn selfish with the ball.

Sarlak - 5

Karim - NA

Ehsan - 5

[mehdi13]

no way. we probably wouldnt lose but id say we would be at 5 or 6 points if not for azmoun and taremi. they score all our goals lol

We might not lose because there would still be 10 player on the field besides Ansarifard.