Beiranvand - 6.5 . Strong with his feet, he has improved so much in this regard. Strong aerial exits. Big improvement here too. Positioning was a bit weird on the goal, so I knock him down a point for that but he had an important, difficult stop at the end he executed perfectly.
Moharrami - 3 . Really poor. His awareness on first goal was shocking, to lose their best guy like that. In possession he was timid, often he would make one nice dribble and follow it up with a backpass or pass straight to korea. Needs to be way more decisive when he is attacking. Strange considering he was our best player in this area vs UAE.
Khalilzadeh - 6.5 - Strong first half, so so second half. Think you can see 1v1 he is not an excellent defender although some iranians really want to believe that. He does have solid speed, anticipation, and leadership qualities to marshall the backline and will continue to do so moving forward, but there are some deficiencies we will have to accept.
Kanani - 6.5. His 1v1 defending was better than shoja but his passing wasnt great. Too many bezan ziresh moments to nobody, although this wasnt totally his fault. The midfield besides saeid offers zero passing options, and skocic continues to fail to address this issue, or even attempt to.
Amiri - 7. Back to usual self. Physically imposed himself on the koreans, great energy, and helped a lot when he moved to midfield in second half. His passing wasnt as good as it could have been but still solid display.
Ezatolahi - 8. MOTM. Cant believe some people kept calling for his TM exclusion. He is so far and away our best midfielder. He totally dominated the koreans from technical and physical perspective. His turns were beautiful, directed play perfectly. He would look even better with a couple technically competent players next to him. I really dont know how his club situation is how it is, I guess it his consistency and persistence, but he has the talent to play in bundesliga or serie A without any issue. The play for his shot that hit the post was top class and something I have rarely seen any TM player produce in last 10 years.
Nourollahi - 6 Not his worst game. Did his usual running around. But its obvious he is technically super limited. The angles he gives saeid and the defenders when they are trying to play out of the back suck. He is usually hiding himself behind multiple players. His game could look so much better if somebody like ghoddos was next to him to alleviate the burden on him when we are in possession.
Gholizadeh - 4.5 - Pretty non existent, forgot he was even playing besides a couple horrible passes and giveaways. This guys issue is also consistency. He showed a great cameo vs UAE, gets a start, then plays like crap.
Jahanbakhsh - 7 - He was objectively horrible in first half again and deserved a sub, but the goal was very hard one to generate power and he did so brilliantly. After that he really started playing with some confidence. There is a player somewhere in there, its just buried deep beneath years of inactivity.
Azmoun - 7. Solid game from Sardar. Wasnt given any great or even good service, but nearly scored with long range effort (he is improving in this category a lot) and the assist for ARJ from basically toop e morde was pure class. We had players (Taremi, ARJ, nourollahi) in similar cutback positions all night and none could produce a decent ball. From a much harder angle with his entire weight going the opposite way the accuracy he showed with the clip to ARJ just highlights what a high level player he is. I can see him holding out of some challenges he normally wouldn't, I am pretty sure transfer is looming for him and he prefers to take less risks if possible these days.
Taremi - 6.5 Obviously he was our most dangerous guy like usual, but he decision making was selfish and usually wrong today. Unlucky he didnt score with the bike or the great long distance effort. I prefer him to be playing off the left like vs Iraq, today him and azmoun were playing as orthodox CFswith taremi dropping deep in second half to facilitate offense more.
Subs :
Noorafkan - 5. Kid gets subbed in and immediately gets a dumb yellow. Next play he goes to ground for a risky tackle where it was unnecessary. I know he is young and just starting with TM, some decent games, but he needs to learn from this shit, it shouldnt be too hard to minimize dumb fouls.
Others - N/A.
Skocic - 5. Hard to see the overall game plan through the midfield, if possible will one of his huge fans just explain it to all of us idiots who struggle to see it? The midfield has zero identity besides saeid, they dont offer any good passing angles to CBs, Fullbacks, or saeid and then when ball goes to front 2 there is often huge gap between them and midfield for combo plays. Not incorporating ghoddos is quite frankly ridiculous and at this stage looking very very worrying. He will not have time to assimilate into the xi the day before WC. He needs multiple games there to gel with ezatolahi, one of amiri/nour, the wings and forwards, etc.
To me it seems skocic is a bit fixated with undefeated record. He takes zero risks. The game was right there for the win, with a ghoddos sub we probably would have unlocked them a few more times and gotten it. Instead when we were in ascendency he didnt make a game winning sub, waited for our guys to get tired and fizz out, then he subs with 90 seconds left to waste time and secure point. In the end it almost backfired.
If he doesnt start incorporating ghoddos, salmani, ghayedi more vs lebanon and syria he really is setting this team up for failure in WC. We are too one dimensional in reliance on Mehdi and Sardar. We are basically forcing them to be our main playmakers and finishers, instead of allowing them to focus on their strength and having midfield function as a cohesive unit and provide them steady supply line. WE have the personnel to at least try and address that, and he just totally ignores them. Subbing on Norafkan for gholi when you are chasing a game is just weird, even if it allows amiri to move one line forward. Just underlines how cautious the guy is.
I am not saying he is a shit coach, the record of course proves he is decent and the team isnt playing horrendously. But imo he has a very clear ceiling in terms of his ideas and long term vision that his career has shown he will not exceed. For a WC we need some fresh ideas, variability in our play to build on our decent base. Unfortunately after 11 games he doesnt really show he is coming up with any new schemes or ideas.
Moharrami - 3 . Really poor. His awareness on first goal was shocking, to lose their best guy like that. In possession he was timid, often he would make one nice dribble and follow it up with a backpass or pass straight to korea. Needs to be way more decisive when he is attacking. Strange considering he was our best player in this area vs UAE.
Khalilzadeh - 6.5 - Strong first half, so so second half. Think you can see 1v1 he is not an excellent defender although some iranians really want to believe that. He does have solid speed, anticipation, and leadership qualities to marshall the backline and will continue to do so moving forward, but there are some deficiencies we will have to accept.
Kanani - 6.5. His 1v1 defending was better than shoja but his passing wasnt great. Too many bezan ziresh moments to nobody, although this wasnt totally his fault. The midfield besides saeid offers zero passing options, and skocic continues to fail to address this issue, or even attempt to.
Amiri - 7. Back to usual self. Physically imposed himself on the koreans, great energy, and helped a lot when he moved to midfield in second half. His passing wasnt as good as it could have been but still solid display.
Ezatolahi - 8. MOTM. Cant believe some people kept calling for his TM exclusion. He is so far and away our best midfielder. He totally dominated the koreans from technical and physical perspective. His turns were beautiful, directed play perfectly. He would look even better with a couple technically competent players next to him. I really dont know how his club situation is how it is, I guess it his consistency and persistence, but he has the talent to play in bundesliga or serie A without any issue. The play for his shot that hit the post was top class and something I have rarely seen any TM player produce in last 10 years.
Nourollahi - 6 Not his worst game. Did his usual running around. But its obvious he is technically super limited. The angles he gives saeid and the defenders when they are trying to play out of the back suck. He is usually hiding himself behind multiple players. His game could look so much better if somebody like ghoddos was next to him to alleviate the burden on him when we are in possession.
Gholizadeh - 4.5 - Pretty non existent, forgot he was even playing besides a couple horrible passes and giveaways. This guys issue is also consistency. He showed a great cameo vs UAE, gets a start, then plays like crap.
Jahanbakhsh - 7 - He was objectively horrible in first half again and deserved a sub, but the goal was very hard one to generate power and he did so brilliantly. After that he really started playing with some confidence. There is a player somewhere in there, its just buried deep beneath years of inactivity.
Azmoun - 7. Solid game from Sardar. Wasnt given any great or even good service, but nearly scored with long range effort (he is improving in this category a lot) and the assist for ARJ from basically toop e morde was pure class. We had players (Taremi, ARJ, nourollahi) in similar cutback positions all night and none could produce a decent ball. From a much harder angle with his entire weight going the opposite way the accuracy he showed with the clip to ARJ just highlights what a high level player he is. I can see him holding out of some challenges he normally wouldn't, I am pretty sure transfer is looming for him and he prefers to take less risks if possible these days.
Taremi - 6.5 Obviously he was our most dangerous guy like usual, but he decision making was selfish and usually wrong today. Unlucky he didnt score with the bike or the great long distance effort. I prefer him to be playing off the left like vs Iraq, today him and azmoun were playing as orthodox CFswith taremi dropping deep in second half to facilitate offense more.
Subs :
Noorafkan - 5. Kid gets subbed in and immediately gets a dumb yellow. Next play he goes to ground for a risky tackle where it was unnecessary. I know he is young and just starting with TM, some decent games, but he needs to learn from this shit, it shouldnt be too hard to minimize dumb fouls.
Others - N/A.
Skocic - 5. Hard to see the overall game plan through the midfield, if possible will one of his huge fans just explain it to all of us idiots who struggle to see it? The midfield has zero identity besides saeid, they dont offer any good passing angles to CBs, Fullbacks, or saeid and then when ball goes to front 2 there is often huge gap between them and midfield for combo plays. Not incorporating ghoddos is quite frankly ridiculous and at this stage looking very very worrying. He will not have time to assimilate into the xi the day before WC. He needs multiple games there to gel with ezatolahi, one of amiri/nour, the wings and forwards, etc.
To me it seems skocic is a bit fixated with undefeated record. He takes zero risks. The game was right there for the win, with a ghoddos sub we probably would have unlocked them a few more times and gotten it. Instead when we were in ascendency he didnt make a game winning sub, waited for our guys to get tired and fizz out, then he subs with 90 seconds left to waste time and secure point. In the end it almost backfired.
If he doesnt start incorporating ghoddos, salmani, ghayedi more vs lebanon and syria he really is setting this team up for failure in WC. We are too one dimensional in reliance on Mehdi and Sardar. We are basically forcing them to be our main playmakers and finishers, instead of allowing them to focus on their strength and having midfield function as a cohesive unit and provide them steady supply line. WE have the personnel to at least try and address that, and he just totally ignores them. Subbing on Norafkan for gholi when you are chasing a game is just weird, even if it allows amiri to move one line forward. Just underlines how cautious the guy is.
I am not saying he is a shit coach, the record of course proves he is decent and the team isnt playing horrendously. But imo he has a very clear ceiling in terms of his ideas and long term vision that his career has shown he will not exceed. For a WC we need some fresh ideas, variability in our play to build on our decent base. Unfortunately after 11 games he doesnt really show he is coming up with any new schemes or ideas.
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