PFDC Team Melli World Cup Squad

[The]

I feel like a lot of people are picking PAG based on his name and 2018 performance rather than his current abilities.

43 matches since the start of the 2018 season! That's 11 match per season. 13 matches over the past two years.
Recovering from a terrible injury.

There's absolutely no indication that he will be in form enough to handle the average PGPL attacker, let alone potentially dealing with Mbappe. Rather have Yazdani tbh.

[Kian Persepolis]

GK:
1. Amir Abedzadeh
2. Alireza Beiranvand
3. Payam Niazmand

DEF:
4. Ramin Rezaeian
5. Saleh Hardani
6. Morteza Pouraliganji
7. Hossein Kanaanizadegan
8. Majid Hosseini
9. Shoja Khalilzadeh
10. Vahid Amiri
11. Omid Noorafkan

MID:
12. Saeid Ezatolahi
13. Omid Ebrahimi
14. Mehdi Mehdipour
15. Ahmad Nourollahi
16. Saman Ghoddos
17. Yasin Salmani
18. Alireza Jahanbakhsh
19. Ali Gholizadeh

FWD:
20. Sardar Azmoun
21. Mehdi Taremi
22. Shahab Zahedi
23. Allahyar Sayyadmanesh

Stand-by options: Ali Alipour, Karim Ansarifard, Sadegh Moharrami

[teammelli91]

God I really miss Omid Ebrahimi in Team Melli these days..

Saeid is decent but without a solid partner at the WC it won’t be easy. Where the hell are all our central midfielders when we need them?

It feels as though when our team over is bad, somehow we have great central midfielders in Nekounam and Ando. Then when we get world class wingers, central attacking midfielders and strikers.. our central midfield disappears lol.

Saeid needs to get his ass back to Europe ASAP. As a Persepolisi it’s hard to watch Nourollahi start, I’m sorry. Kanaani has good days but he also has some shitty ones too. Those days can cost us.

So please TM staff, make the necessary changes/adjustments.

[Philosophy_King]

The recent games indicated that we have issues in our defensive line, our Middlefield and Goalkeepers.

The Goalkeeper situation in TM is very tricky, since Beiro and Abedzadeh were prone to some big mistakes. GK are very important for the confidence of the Team and overall Team spirit, in this regard i think that Abedzadeh is more mature and has a better mental strength. When he made that error against Korea, he was able to perform some great saves in the second half which indicates that he can fight back mentally. Beiro on the other hand seems to be shaky lately and lacks the seriousness/maturity. That is only my subjective feeling ; maybe i am wrong about that. The other reason i would give Abedzadeh the Edge over Beiro is that he is better with his feeds. Abedzadeh has the more precise passing game which can be crucial in our built-up game, specially when the opponents start to press us high. Hence i will go with Abedzadeh as our main GK!

We lost our defensive stability at the same time we rarely see runs from our LB and RB to receive the ball near the opponents box to give the final pass or cross. Although MiMo recent performance was not the best, i would still pick him over Nourafkan, he is very speedy, resilient in defensive work. MiMo also used to have great crosses, i just hope that he can somehow find his form back! Overall MiMo has everything to be a great modern LB, if he gets to his old-form i will give him the edge over Nourafkan and def. over Haysafi. For the RB position i was thinking about a more defensive stable RB compared to Moharami who made many errors and is physical to weak to compete at the highest Level IMO. IF PAG can comeback and get to his Level, i would try PAG-Kanaani as the Centre backs and Shoja as LB ( he had shown great performance in that position against Korea). [Since Sko will most likely stick with Moharami, i would suggest to try Moharami---Kanaani---PAG---Shoja.]

With a more stable defensive line our Middlefield can invest more in the attack and be more creative. Noural. and Haysafi are no TM material. If everyone is fit, i would love to see
--------Ezzi----------
Gholizadeh-----Amiri

Ezzi is the basis of our built up-game, when fit he is crucial for our game. Gholizadeh technical skills and visions ( see f.e. our goal against Iraq in the second stage of this WCQ) makes him a potential playmaker. When he receives the ball around the Half-way line he will have more space for his dribbling's and can be more creative. When opponents press us high he can fall back into our own half and find solutions with out technical abilities (instead of bekesh-ziresh) while Sardar and Taremi can stay in their position upfront ready for some counter-attacks. The Problem is when Sardar and Taremi drop back into our own half so that we can't generate any counter-play. Amiri is a hard worker and can be used both defensively but also offensively. He has also great vision and has a good understanding with Taremi.

Upfront is a no-brainer IMO:

------Jahanbakhsh-------
Azmoun-------------Taremi

All in all i would love to see this LineUp in our next friendlies

------------------Abedzadeh----------------------
-----------Kanaani------------PAG----------------
Shoja----------------------------------------MiMo
------------------Ezzi------------------------------
-------Gholizadeh---------Amiri------------------
------------------Jahanbakhsh--------------------
------Azmoun-----------------------Taremi-------

possible Subs: Ghoddus, Sayyadmanesh, Nourafkan, Karim

[PSGman#19]

Mine atm :
1. Amir Abedzadeh
2. Alireza Beiranvand
3. Payam Niazmand
DEF:
4. Sadegh Moharami
5. Saleh Hardani
6. Morteza Pouraliganji
7. Hossein Kanaanizadegan
8. Majid Hosseini
9. Shoja Khalilzadeh
10. Mohammad Naderi (or any good LB prospect except nourafkan)
11. Milad Mohammadi
MID:
12. Saeid Ezatolahi
13. Omid Ebrahimi
14. Mehdi Mehdipour
15. Vahid Amiri
16. Saman Ghoddos
17. Yasin Salmani
18. Alireza Jahanbakhsh
19. Ali Gholizadeh
FWD:
20. Sardar Azmoun
21. Mehdi Taremi
22. Shahab Zahedi
23. Allahyar Sayyadmanesh

Stand-by options: mohebi , Karim Ansarifard, Hosseinzadeh

[perspolis#1]

If hajsafi starts for us in the world cup the games are lost before they start.

[Prowess]

Our midfield is extremely worrying. We need to re-invite Ebrahimi, as well as other potentials to test them out. If I was Skocic, I would very much “groom” Ghoddos into our playmaker behind the forward line during the future friendlies. Such a critical position.

[Philosophy_King]

Our midfield is extremely worrying. We need to re-invite Ebrahimi, as well as other potentials to test them out. If I was Skocic, I would very much “groom” Ghoddos into our playmaker behind the forward line during the future friendlies. Such a critical position.

Good Point! I think Gholi has more potential to became a "pure" playmaker. Re-inviting Ebrahimi is a great idea. Nourollahi has no business in TM.

[diz]

If hajsafi starts for us in the world cup the games are lost before they start.

Hajsafi starting would be like a self-red card at the start of the match.

[peiman92]

My list of 23( assuming everyone is fit and in form):

GK:
Abedzadeh
Beiranvand
Hosseini

CB:
Pouraliganji
Hosseini
Kanaani
Khalilzadeh

LB:
Amiri
Naderi

RB:
Moharrami
Rezaeian

DM:
A.Karimi
Ezatolahi
O.Ebrahimi

AM:
Ghoddos
Y.Salmani

RW/LW:
Jahanbakhsh
Ghaedi
Gholizadeh
Sayyadmanesh

FW:
Azmoun
Taremi
Zahedi


Would like to hear your views on this 23 man squad.

[Preezy]

Rereading my post here. I called on Cheshmi being called up 8 months ago here. We needed physical presence in the middle.
Carlos cut out all the garbage I asked of.

The only disappointment is Allahyar's injury, and hopefully a winger or forward gets called up by tomorrow.

Overall, a great list by Queiroz.