Austria camp: Opportunity for CQ to decide lineup

Tehran Times – VIENNA, Carlos Queiroz, head coach of the Iran national football team, is set to select his final squad in the upcoming friendly matches against Uruguay and Senegal.

Last week, the Portuguese coach announced a 27-man squad list for the national team’s training camp in Austria, where the friendly matches are to be held.

All the players invited to the recent training camp will most likely participate in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, except for one goalkeeper!

Queiroz, who replaced former national team coach Dragan Skocic after months of controversy and speculation, knows the most of the players very well. He had an eight-year sting in Iran before two unsuccessful experiences with Colombia and Egypt national teams. 

Unlike the previous FIFA World Cups, every team can take 26 players, instead of 24, to the tournament.

It means that from current Iran’s 27-man team, just one player needs to be dropped. So, the 69-year-old coach and his technical staff can know the players better in the two friendly games against Uruguay and Senegal.

Since the national team don’t not have any other time to hold preparatory training camp or friendly matches after the September international break, Queiroz must work on his tactical and technical plan in the current camp.

So, he will probably trust these 27 players, and they make up the final list of the head coach to compete at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

Of course, there is a possibility that in the upcoming days, a player will catch the eye of Mr. C.Q, or a player from the current list suffers injury, and new players will enter the national team.

Iran have some high-quality players, including Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Sardar Azmoun, and Mehdi Taremi among others, but off-field issues have hampered preparations. Therefore, Carlos Queiroz has a problematic responsibility to fulfill the task he has accepted in the best way in the short time of the World Cup.