Iran vs Algeria Post Match Ratings and Discussion

[Iranianarsenal11]

That was a very much needed game... First friendly whilst other teams have already played 2-4 friendlies... Sigh...

God bless Algeria for showing up and playing tbh. They played rough which was needed.. These guys have been getting pampered by Asian WCQ refs

Match Ratings

Skocic: 1, absolutely terrible... What justification do you have playing arguably the worst defender on the team at CB??? Noorafkan is a COMPLETE defensive liability... Not only that, there were absolutely zero tactics, zero defensive structure, zero gameplan, just croatian inshallah football... Awful, absolutely awful

Abedzadeh: 4, first half was his worst half of football i've seen. Second half he was a lot better but still I expect more from him. Awful distribution which is usually his strongest part and terrible exits as well. Not sure who I'd rather have in goal now...

Sadegh: 6, gets a lot of hate here sometimes, but he was honestly one of our better players today. Sure he was caught in position sometimes but probably 1/10th the amount of Hajsafi and Noorafkan. He is fast and is a very solid dribbler in tight spaces. His crossing is abysmal though.

Majid: 6.5, Arguably our best starter today. Good in defense barring getting beat once or twice and that awful back passing header that nearly led to Algeria scoring.

Noorafkan: 3, I gave him a 3 instead of a 1 for two reasons; a) he is not a CB and it's not his fault he's played there and b) he had a very nice assist and is actually a very good crosser. Unfortunately for him being a good crosser isn't the only factor taken to account because he is a TERRIBLE DEFENDER. Got blown by at least 10 times? Absolutely god awful. God help us if he starts anywhere in the midfield or defense.

Hajsafi: 5, very mediocre. Some good 1 touch football and then boom gets exposed super badly on defense. Our left back position is really awful...

Ezatolahi: 6.5, another good player today. Shocked that he was subbed off, as he made so many good tackles and cleaned up a lot of Ali J and Ali Gholi's terrible turnovers...

Nourollahi: 2.5, This guy can't even start for Shabab Al Ahli I don't even know what to say. Horrible football from him today. Slow, weak, lazy, awful vision, awful touches, poor passing...

Gholizadeh: 5, very mediocre. Turnover machine and is really slow in decision making...

Jahanbakhsh: 5.5, Nice goal but besides that he was quite mediocre. Awful turnover for the first goal Algeria scored and was very slow on the wings, not to mention he had very poor crossing and passing. This guy takes 2 big step backs every time he crosses the ball because he knows it's getting headered back to him hahaha

Azmoun: 4.5, Invisible, lazy, poor touches and bad giveaways. Bad 45 mins from him.

Taremi: 5, lazy positioning from him today. Can't always expect him to carry us but I still expected better...

SUBS

Sarlak: 5, horrible touches here and there, some bad passes, but also some decent interceptions and defending... Better than Nourollahi but still not Team Melli material

Ebrahimi: 6.5, Looked very calm and collected in the midfield. Oh how I missed him! Still you can tell his age is getting to him as he was a bit slow...

Aghasi: 7 (MOTM), Aghasi was my MOTM, even as a substitute CB in a game we lost 2-1.. Why? His confidence, passing, defensive interceptions, dribbling, and aerial defending was all very good! Saved Noorafkan and Hosseini on 2-3 occasions and had a great run before our goal.

Hosseinzadeh 6/NA: Hard to judge him as we didn't see much, but he did have an exciting turn and shot. Good young prospect

Allahyar N/A: Can't give him a rating based off 5 minutes but man he is rapid fast! What pace!

Mehdipour N/A: Can't give him a rating but he looked slow... Still miles ahead of Nourollahi for me

[taremiscores]

Majid Hosseini & Omid Ebrahimi were good.

Omid Noorafkan, Gholizadeh, Nourallahi should not be starters. Noorafkan and Nourallahi shouldn't even make the team.

[Taz]

Any news on Azmoun? If that wasn't an injury/fitness worry, I hope he puts some bitchy IG post up soon lolling the Croatian out of a job.

[Taz]

Also, rumours are Noorafkan's trailing leg is still out there on the pitch and may be getting a later flight back.

[Ab-Gosht]

Any news on Azmoun? If that wasn't an injury/fitness worry, I hope he puts some bitchy IG post up soon lolling the Croatian out of a job.

well he was not fit to play 90min

[inarsenewetrust]

ghoddos was one of the biggest winners of tonight.

Got to rest the ankle while being on vacation in italy. 2 weeks free of Sko. Cemented himself in starting xi for WC simply by virtue of not being involved. Has a good chance of returning next camp to a Sko free environment

[kaebi kabab]

fair play to him what was he going to get 2 weeks of sko apart from go mad...

[Karimi 8]

Everyone's poor performance is on the coach. 15 Days at a camp and this is the formation he chooses? ZERO tactics for attack? No coordination on defense?

It is all his fault

[Abtin]

I guess Abedz is being roasted here?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CeuBbLuD-ta/

[Kian H]

Many things worried me. Especially the defence. Iran is a small team going in to the World cup. For a small team to succeed, you must have a solid defence.
Denmark Euros 92
Greece euros 2004
Costa Rica WC 2014

Even Iran WC 2018, we had a solid defence which kept us in the games against spain and Portugal. Right now the defence is shaky, although we are missing our Best defender throughout the WC qualifiers Kanaani.
Too much space between the defence and the rest of the team. I hope today was just too experiment a more open game, and not the Way we want to play in the World cup

And also to the members in here: many of you are some of the worst flip-flops I have ever seen. For years people have screamed for Abedzadeh to play and cussed Beiranvand. Now he plays, makes some mistakes and then he gets cussed out AND Skocic gets cussed out for playing him. Like what the fuck.
Also Many wanted Noorafkan to be our left back After a Great perfomance against some team in the qualifiers. Now he shouldnt even be invited.
The same with Ghoddos, everybody wanted him to start, until he did and had a bad game in the qualifiers
Many also wanted to see Hajsafi on the leftback position today. But also cus Skocic for starting him.
The list goes on. Now the New Great hope is Sayyadmanesh. Everybody wants the guy to start, but the Day he starts and he doesnt score a goal, everybody Will Call for the poor guys head. Its starting to get embarassing. Stop being such flipflops. Hindsight is a beautiful thing

But I want to know, what is our strongest team. Personally I Think we should play 4-3-3
Goalkeeper: Beiranvand. I dont Think Abedzadeh is ready yet. Beiranvand seems more solid. The mistakes he has made has Been with his feet, but I dont expect us to play out from the back at the World cup. Therefore we May not need Abedzadehs good distribution that much

Right back: I Would go with Khalilzadeh. Better defensively than Moharrami, and we need that defence strength, also in the air

CB: Kaanani and Hosseini. They are our Best defenders. I dont know where pouraliganji stands at the moment, and dont begin with aghasi just because of one good game

Left back: here it is more interesting. Either Hajsafi or Amiri. I know Hajsafi isnt the Best, but some of his Best performances has Been from the left back. And with a better central defence besides him, and midfield Infront of him, it May not be as bad as today.

Midfield: Saeid, Ebrahimi and either Amiri/Ghoddos. If Hajsafi is our left back, when Amiri for sure. If Amiri is our leftbacl, then I Would rather have Ghoddos than Nourollahi or Gholizadeh. I Think we need a midfield that Can hustle and tackle, thats why I want Saeid, Omid and Amiri (which means Hajsafi at left back) we dont need creativity to start with in the middle. We have our 3 guys up front. We need warriors who Will fight for every Ball and dont make stupid mistakes

Front Three: Jahanbakhsh, Azmoun and Taremi. It cant be nobody Else. Gholizadeh is only a good sub, and Sayyadmanesh isnt ready or good enough yet. These 3 guys have the experience and Can all score important goals.

I really really hope we dont play with Nourollahi, but I Think it Will happen unfortunately. Unless Omid Ebrahimi plays some monster friendly games

[Prowess]

The whole point of a friendly as a WC prep, is to experiment and make mistakes. I remember before WC 2018 in the friendly against Turkey, we lost 2-1 to two really bad goals courtesy of Roozbeh Cheshmi (was not a fan, but CQ liked him). This was against CQ where defense comes first. Defense splitting passes regularly carved up our back line in that game.

I’m happy Algeria came to play motivated, pressed us very well, and did not make it easy for us. Both of their goals came off of defensive errors. Our goal came again, courtesy of ARJ, who is consistently proving himself to be a valuable member of the team, in spite of not being in club form. One goal here or there, makes the world of a difference in WC2022, and ARJ is scoring or assisting in almost every other international game for us.

Just like how our losses to Tunisia and Turkey before WC2018, were excellent teaching lessons for CQ to makes proper adjustments against our opener against Morocco, there MUST be more friendlies to help us. THEN, Skocic must make the proper adjustments. Or else, yes, it will be a repeat of our WC2006 performance.

But, Skocic’s gameplan was clear: no bezan ziresh tactics, be patient with build up play from the back. Hence, why so many sideway passes to the middle. However, against a good opponent like Algeria, who pressed us well, this is easier said than done. You need the proper spacing, with players who possess the skill and touch to play those deft posession based passes.

Noorafkhan should not play CB in the future, and Ghoddos’ clever passing and touch were sorely missed in many instances when our players needed someone to get them out of trouble.

Our team does play better when it’s not in posession, and wins the ball in the opponent’s half. This is a problem that has plagued TM many years, even during CQ’s era when facing good high pressing opponents.

I hope the coaching staff fully dissects this game, as well as future games, so we’re honed and ready in November.

[teammelli91]

I knew something like this would happen. I didn’t say anything because to be fair he’s improved. I respect his never give up attitude and his perseverance. He’s better than 100 other professional Iranian goalkeepers.

I played goalkeeper when I was in high school. I think Abedzadeh has great instincts and he has great confidence. We need to have a confident goalkeeper. He’s a good diver but what I’ve seen is that his positioning can be questionable at times. With both Ponferradina and Team Melli. That can be costly for us. Another thing (not his fault) is his height. I understand that height is not the first thing judged when choosing one GK over another. A short GK can be better than a tall GK.

But in this particular case if Beiranvand gets playing time and gets back into form, he should be starting in our goal. Due to lack of playing time, Beiranvand lost his killer touch. That killer instinct to be there at the right time. Getting to those shots that ricochet off players. Extending his body to make important saves. But because of not playing consistently he made poor judgements and you could tell he lost a bit of his confidence too.

Beiranvand can still make a comeback once he’s back in form. And this is no hate on Amir, I like him. I respect his hard work, his perseverance and his professional attitude. But my 1st GK choice if back in form is Alireza Beiranvand.

[Ghermez Agha]

For those who tried using the “guys it’s a friendly let’s try things out”……SKOCIC DID NOT DO THAT!!!

- he used noorafkan as a CB which he ALREADY FAILED MISERABLY AT!!!
- he continues to use Gholizadeh from the start DESPITE A CLEAR TRACK RECORD of being immensely ineffective
- sadegh moharammi also, same shoes as gholi- one of our most woeful players in the last round and we saw the same garbage performances
- continues to not implement any sort of emphasis on defending as a unit - something we will have to do, on SOME level against the opposition we have in the World Cup.

All of these are REPEATED mistakes by skoocher over and over and over again….this is a life principal my friends - it’s ok to make a mistake once and learn from it, that’s a great way to learn. But if you keep doing the same thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER again and cannot have the common sense to SEE the failed results…..that my friends is the epitome of ignorance and something that nobody here can argue in defense of Skocic on.

[ParthianDE]

Good friendly which exposed many issues in TM.

Some opinions:

Nourafkhan should be dropped. If for whatever reason he cannot be gotten rid off, the only position he should play is LW, because his crosses are good. But he he doesn't know how to defend, so he should NOT play in defense at all. But even for left wing, I would much rather have Ansarifard who also has great crosses and brings a lot of more to the game over Nourfkhan.

The defense is missing Kanani, not just for his defensive qualities, but also his long passes out of the defense.

Jahanbaksh is a most valuable player for TM. I find the continuous low ratings some members give him rather baffling. For me, he is a fixed starter.

Our midfield lacks a commanding presence. Maybe we should just move Taremi to midfield? It would probably be easier to find another good forward to pair with Azmoun if we stick to the two forwards, than find another quality midfielder. Taremi would immediately become our best midfielder. In this game, Taremi didn't have the greatest game. If he taken an extra touch he would have had a goal. He was also offside too many times. But some of it was also due to the too late passes he was getting. He was also visibly frustrated, quite possibly by Skocic's tactics or lack thereof as well as the atrocious Nourafkhan performance.

Abedzadeh has me worried. His fumble was completely unnecessary. I'm no longer convinced he should be our number one goali. I would like Bereinvand back for the next friendly. Hopefully, him playing back in Iran gets his game fitness and confidence levels back up to a high level.

Skocic? I have now officially become a sceptic.

[Karimi 8]

CQ tried to implement a strong defense, but all his haters shat on him Even though we had one of the most solid defenses in the world at that time. Asian teams couldn't even get a shot on target against us, now look at us playing "attacking" football

Good luck playing like this versus Kane / Foden, Bale & Pulisic