Team Melli - Syria game

[Doctor DOOM]

Overall, a very poor game from TEAM MELLI, …. A DIRECT result of an extremely poor starting line up, and then, poor strategy after our goal.

1-
Allow me to start with the starting line up.
This was a line up based on NOT technical matters or the needs of this game.
No.
It was based on a lot of peripheral domestic matters, grudge and basically factors that had NO RIGHT to be considered when a national team is concerned.

Following Niki’s very poor game against UAE, many expected to see him on the bench, and to see a new face, like Mani’ee in the starters.
Not only Mani’ee did well during those minutes he played, Niki’s extremely poor performance should have been indicative of this much needed change.
Niki , except on a couple of occasions, was the ABSOLUTE poorest player we had.

Not that the player in front of him, Madanchi was any great shakes!
He also, apart from a couple of moves, was quite poor and inconsistent.

I believe inclusion of Niki was NOT a technically based decision.
It had more to do with GHALE NOEI trying to show a moderate and unbiased face ( considering his rows and problems with Niki, which led to Niki leaving Esteghlal ) and to show his personal problems with Niki do not interfere with his TEAM MELLI decision makings.
A very wrong thought process, as GHALE NOEI in the process, closed his eyes to Niki’s very poor present form, and deprived TEAM MELLI of a far better option .

I suspect keeping the poor performing Madanchi for 70 minutes had something to do with pleasing the red club’s supporters.
At least to some extent.
Again, the wrong process in selection of starters.


And I wonder if Kaabi's benching is not an indication of the said "grudge" against the former coach, and the present coach's desire to "show him right" !!
Because by all logic and sense, a home game, against a weaker team, would have been sufficient reason behind using an attacking and experienced right back like Kaabi, instead of Shakouri.


Such decisions and selection carves a negative notch against GHALE NOEI.

2-
I must vehemently question the coach and the team’s decision to pull back after Nekounam’s goal.
This is exactly how we suffered under branko; an overcautious approach to games that normally and by all laws of logic should be in the bag for our much stronger team.

TM’s retreat reminded of the nightmarish retreats under branko. And that cant be good.
We ( sort of ) had the Syrians pinned back, and were ( sort of ) in control of the game. Now, why a team of our stature, INSIDE AZADI, should take their foot off the pedal is a mystery to me.


At one point, we had 3 defensive midfielders on the pitch!
Teymoorian, Nekounam and Kazemi !!!
Against Syria?
Absurd !

Another notch against GHALE NOEI.


3-
Lack of a "playmaker" really plagued our team in almost 3/4th of the game, until Mobaali and Kazemian came in.
Granted, neither of these two are at the top of their form, and they certainly can do far better.
But our Goal should serve as enough reminder that no team can win a game with no playmaker.




4-
Now, onto some of the performers.

First of all, Mr. Khatibi.
Why such a speedy player should ever get caught in offside trap is beyond me.
I can imagine a slower forward who does not have the pace to outrun his mark, to stray in and out of the offside line and get caught repeatedly.
But a pacey forward like Khatibi?
Wasting chance after chance with wrong positioning?
The highlight was when he wrongly ( while in the offside ) intercepted a lovely forward pass by Mobaali intended for Kazemian, who made the correct run from inside right.
That denied the team of a very good opportunity.
And then, to argue with Mobaali on this?

Not a good game, Mr. Khatibi.
Not a good game at all.

Subbing him out was a good decision. But it should have been with another forward or at least an attacking midfielder. Not yet another defensive midfielder !


I wont discuss the defenders, as almost 90% of the game, they were not put under any kind of pressure, as Syria had adopted a very very compact defensive formation.
But that does not excuse them of laxity in Syria’s goal and another occasion where they allowed the Syrian forward to get one-on-one with Talebloo.
Another game like this, will mean a lot of neutral observers start to take position against the defensive strategies and even the line up.
A big surprise was how ineffective Shakouri was, especially after his bright game against UAE !
Kaabi, anyone?

==================================

On the positives, Nekounam seems to have gained in confidence and performance, compared to his world cup games.
His long balls and passing reminded me of the good old days of his stardom.
Hope this is for keeps and continues to progress in the future.

And another one is seeing the captain’s armband around Mahdavikia’s arm.
A great sight to see, of a very deserving captain for our dear TEAM MELLI.



Bottomline;
Mr. GHALE NOEI has to do something about his decisions, …. And fast.
Not only his opportunities to show how deserving he is of the job, are very limited, but also our game against one of asia’s best teams, Korea is no joke.
Especially for our overhauled TM, who are really taking their time to get into the required rhythm.

I’m afraid another poor showing by GHALE NOEI, and it is a rather quick hello and goodbye to him, at TEAM MELLI camp.


=======================================

on the side, allow me to express my utter disgust and repulsion for the fans at the stadium, who not only failed to support their team properly, and were very quiet during most periods of the game, but also , once again allowed their inane and pathetic "color orientations" to take precedence over the national team jersey !

a direct victim of this repulsive and deplorable behavior was Niki who got booed and jeered everytime he touched the ball !
No wonder he is not performing well !

[The-Red]

i agre with most of your points...but you see dr. doom jan, this is a cycle in our football....we start out with a vatani coach,,,for a year, we get bad results or get eliminated from a major competition, then we bring in a second class foriegn coach and...again we get red of him and say nom kharejis are bad, without ever trying out a world class coach who can actually get the job done.

[Ali Chicago]

I think our team suffered in the following areas:
1-Poor Team and play speed.
2-Lack of a play Maker
3- Lack of creativity to deal with a packed defense (which is kind of related to point 1 4poor team and play speed). In other words lack of tactical diversity.
4-Poor coaching job by Ghaleh Noei.

Poor Team and Play speed
====================
I think our team was very slow and that allowed the Syrian to pack the defense and almost play a 4-5-1 or even a 3-6-1 most of the time. I think twice in the second half with long passes I think from Javad Nekoonam when Mandanchi got some space he got to do his thing. This Madanchi reminds me of this old player Abbas Karegher. He was from Traktoor Sazi and then came to Persopolice. He didnt' have anything (in my opinion) execpt speed. Boy he was fast though (anyhow back to the topic).
The only way to beat this packed defense of Syrica was a fast transition which our team totally was void of.
Remember Angola in WC, they didnt' play much of soccer only packed the defense. Syria in a way used the same tactic.

Lack of Play maker
==============
I was pleased with both Ando and Nekoonam, they did a great job to pressure the ball carrier right in front of our defense (between the mid circle adn our 18 yard line). They seemed to be close to each other and supported each other very well. They won a lot of balls from Syrian ball carriers.
The down side with this was the fact that with these two guys in there won't be a stop for a playmaker. I think Nekonaam had this duty today (being the playmaker) and although he had a good day, this is not his area. Someone like Shojai or Mobali (despite the fact that he is in slump) was needed there.

Lack of creativity to deal with a packed defense
====================================
Iran basically was taking the ball to the corners and crossing it. They at times tried to mix that with some runs from the middle. But basically Iran team doesn't have the tactical depth and ability to adjust to different tactical situation during the game (most Asian teams don't, but Iran specifically is poor in this area).
Also lack of team speed and transition game allowed Syrian always have 6-7 players defending. By team speed I am not talking about player being fast and running 100 yards under 11 seconds. I am talking how fast a team can carry the ball from their own 18 yard box to the opponent's 18 yard box.
Transition game is the ability to change from offense to defense and Vice Versa.
I was really disappointed to not seeing any strategy by GN to give the direction to Mahdavi Kia to attack the Syrian goal from the the touch line (labe Khat) and streching the Syrian defender in the width and then pass back for the attacking midfielders (like Nekoonam). In a way our goal was scored in this manner with a pass back from Mobali to Nekoonam.

So a faster team I am sure can kill Syrica easily. Probably that is how South Korean did well against them in Syria (SK beat them 2-1 in Syria).


Poor coaching job by Ghaleh Noei
=========================
Many of the issues DD pointed about playing Nikki or Madanchi I agree with. I realize these issues exist in Iran but GN need to show courage and face them. He will be accused of being Blue and all, but If I were him, I would have done my thing without paying attention to these rumor.
I was totally puzzled by his subs, first Kazemian and Mobali (offensive subs) and then pulling Khatibi out and putting Kazemi a defensive midfielder. Probably he was trying to protect one gaol lead and win the game and we saw what happend. As the saying in Iran says; Tarsoo sad bar meemeerad va shoja yek bar. This backing off after a one goal lead (combined with poor defensive skills of Iranian players (not just defenders)) has become a major major cancer of Iranian soccer.
Anyhow really really confusing sub strategy by GN. I defended GN becoming the head coach of TM, and still am willing to give the guy couple chances (not many) to see his competency. But by no stretch of imagination his team's performance today was anything reassuring.

I also don't know why he didn't bring in Kaabi to pair him up with Mahdavi Kia, these two guys with Karimi killed South Korea in China 2 years ago. Shakoori wasn't brillinat today.

Gotta back to work, write more later.

[Amirza]

We will never get anywhere beyond where we are unless we directly address what our football needs --------> Tactics and plays

Who amongst you guys realy thought someone like Ghalenoei can add anything to our football ? what we must do is to TOTALY FORGET ABOUT RESULTS for a couple of years - pick and develop a team from scratch and get them ready for the next WC qualifiers. This team should be given to a TOP INTERNATIONAL coach whom in his IFF interviews must prove his ability to develop game plans, teach football plays - and prepare teams with tactical purposes. This coach must emphesize on our football strenght which is ball skills - and must be offensive minded, certainly at the Asian level.

[Doctor DOOM]

Ali jan, you are correct.

in terms of tactics, our coaches have shown to be more one-dimensional than anything else.

they either get the job done with their sole tacticand strategy, or when they face someone who applies the counter-measures, they succumb !!

-------------

as for transition and speed, I think players like khatibi are much to be blamed.
they held the ball too long and tried to dribble or do too much with it, which allowed the syrians ( what few of them that ventured outside their half ) to regroup.

------------------

another thing that I forgot to mention in my previous post is the quality and type of our "crosses'.

many of them were too close to the keeper, who collected almost all of the balls.
not once did the players thought ( and more importantly, the staff ) of addressing this issue.
our corners, most freekicks, and in-game crosses .... all landed INSIDE the 6 yard box, close to the keeper, which makes it very easy for him to collect.

if I'm not mistaken , I think in the whole game I saw only two or 3 crosses that landed outside the 6 yard box, which incidentally, looked dangerous.

this is something that the staff shd notice and tell the players during the game.


same thing can be said about "shooting" .
with players like nekounam, kia, mobaali, madanchi, niki, ... even fekri, who shoot well in long ranges, I was quite amazed how the orders to shoot never arrived !
especially whne the opposing team is so packed in front of their box, which makes pentration difficult, one useful strategy is to pull the ball to the sides, create gaps in between, then pass to the center for a shooter to do the job.
much like the goal we scored.

I am very much amazed how this didnt strike the staff !!!!
very poor tactical mistake.


--------------

I think GN is following a sort of grudge, which will eventually harm us.
his not playing kaabi, instead of shakouri
his insisting on more of the attack coming off the left side , than the right ( with kia and kaabi, a formidable combo ),...... which to me , it looks as if GN is trying to tell branko "oh, we DO have good left footers and left sided players. and I'm going to show and prove it to you" !!!

which , if true, is quite childish.
sacrificing the team for an inane show of force ( which backfired with the players chosen ) !!!

at least he could have put Mani'ee in there for either of the two bungling lefties.
I am almost sure he would have done a better job than either ( or both ) of them.

[yashar_fasihnia]

no comments..bezar unayi ke bayad khejalat bekeshan tu khejalate khodeshun ab shan!
i dunno whether to laugh or cry...

i just wanna say one thing,
remember how everyone immediately started off with their "i knew it, branko sucked, etc" after the world cup campaign?

i wanna see wat those guys have to say now.. did they know this was coming as well?? I dont think so! yea, sure, the guys like fateh terim will be leading TM once branko leaves

gerye konin mosalmuna, gerye konin!!!

[186forever]

I m not concerned with today s game
what I m waiting for is to see if he changes anything against korea and fixes at least some of his problems which he actually admit in iran varzeshi....I just hope it doesn t cost us the AC
we really need this to get some confidence back

[Paradigm]

Overall, a very poor game from TEAM MELLI, …. A DIRECT result of an extremely poor starting line up, and then, poor strategy after our goal.

1-
Allow me to start with the starting line up.
This was a line up based on NOT technical matters or the needs of this game.
No.
It was based on a lot of peripheral domestic matters, grudge and basically factors that had NO RIGHT to be considered when a national team is concerned.

Following Niki’s very poor game against UAE, many expected to see him on the bench, and to see a new face, like Mani’ee in the starters.
Not only Mani’ee did well during those minutes he played, Niki’s extremely poor performance should have been indicative of this much needed change.
Niki , except on a couple of occasions, was the ABSOLUTE poorest player we had.

Not that the player in front of him, Madanchi was any great shakes!
He also, apart from a couple of moves, was quite poor and inconsistent.

I believe inclusion of Niki was NOT a technically based decision.
It had more to do with GHALE NOEI trying to show a moderate and unbiased face ( considering his rows and problems with Niki, which led to Niki leaving Esteghlal ) and to show his personal problems with Niki do not interfere with his TEAM MELLI decision makings.
A very wrong thought process, as GHALE NOEI in the process, closed his eyes to Niki’s very poor present form, and deprived TEAM MELLI of a far better option .

I suspect keeping the poor performing Madanchi for 70 minutes had something to do with pleasing the red club’s supporters.
At least to some extent.
Again, the wrong process in selection of starters.


And I wonder if Kaabi's benching is not an indication of the said "grudge" against the former coach, and the present coach's desire to "show him right" !!
Because by all logic and sense, a home game, against a weaker team, would have been sufficient reason behind using an attacking and experienced right back like Kaabi, instead of Shakouri.


Such decisions and selection carves a negative notch against GHALE NOEI.

2-
I must vehemently question the coach and the team’s decision to pull back after Nekounam’s goal.
This is exactly how we suffered under branko; an overcautious approach to games that normally and by all laws of logic should be in the bag for our much stronger team.

TM’s retreat reminded of the nightmarish retreats under branko. And that cant be good.
We ( sort of ) had the Syrians pinned back, and were ( sort of ) in control of the game. Now, why a team of our stature, INSIDE AZADI, should take their foot off the pedal is a mystery to me.


At one point, we had 3 defensive midfielders on the pitch!
Teymoorian, Nekounam and Kazemi !!!
Against Syria?
Absurd !

Another notch against GHALE NOEI.


3-
Lack of a "playmaker" really plagued our team in almost 3/4th of the game, until Mobaali and Kazemian came in.
Granted, neither of these two are at the top of their form, and they certainly can do far better.
But our Goal should serve as enough reminder that no team can win a game with no playmaker.




4-
Now, onto some of the performers.

First of all, Mr. Khatibi.
Why such a speedy player should ever get caught in offside trap is beyond me.
I can imagine a slower forward who does not have the pace to outrun his mark, to stray in and out of the offside line and get caught repeatedly.
But a pacey forward like Khatibi?
Wasting chance after chance with wrong positioning?
The highlight was when he wrongly ( while in the offside ) intercepted a lovely forward pass by Mobaali intended for Kazemian, who made the correct run from inside right.
That denied the team of a very good opportunity.
And then, to argue with Mobaali on this?

Not a good game, Mr. Khatibi.
Not a good game at all.

Subbing him out was a good decision. But it should have been with another forward or at least an attacking midfielder. Not yet another defensive midfielder !


I wont discuss the defenders, as almost 90% of the game, they were not put under any kind of pressure, as Syria had adopted a very very compact defensive formation.
But that does not excuse them of laxity in Syria’s goal and another occasion where they allowed the Syrian forward to get one-on-one with Talebloo.
Another game like this, will mean a lot of neutral observers start to take position against the defensive strategies and even the line up.
A big surprise was how ineffective Shakouri was, especially after his bright game against UAE !
Kaabi, anyone?

==================================

On the positives, Nekounam seems to have gained in confidence and performance, compared to his world cup games.
His long balls and passing reminded me of the good old days of his stardom.
Hope this is for keeps and continues to progress in the future.

And another one is seeing the captain’s armband around Mahdavikia’s arm.
A great sight to see, of a very deserving captain for our dear TEAM MELLI.



Bottomline;
Mr. GHALE NOEI has to do something about his decisions, …. And fast.
Not only his opportunities to show how deserving he is of the job, are very limited, but also our game against one of asia’s best teams, Korea is no joke.
Especially for our overhauled TM, who are really taking their time to get into the required rhythm.

I’m afraid another poor showing by GHALE NOEI, and it is a rather quick hello and goodbye to him, at TEAM MELLI camp.


=======================================

on the side, allow me to express my utter disgust and repulsion for the fans at the stadium, who not only failed to support their team properly, and were very quiet during most periods of the game, but also , once again allowed their inane and pathetic "color orientations" to take precedence over the national team jersey !

a direct victim of this repulsive and deplorable behavior was Niki who got booed and jeered everytime he touched the ball !
No wonder he is not performing well !

Dr. Doom thanks for the many great points as usual. Just with regard to your last paragraph, I think TM will actually do better in its away games. You are right, currently the red supporters are unhappy with a (former) blue coach in charge and many blue players in the lineup. Last time we had these sorts of divisions we were eliminated from major competitions (AC 2000 & WCQ 2002).

[Doctor DOOM]

yashar jan, I think we all can let go of branko.
irrespective of today's game , it is the truth that branko DID suck.
even if we bring a coach who loses 10-0 to guam, it wont change the FACT that branko sucked.

so give it a rest.


as for fateh terim or ..., I can see you are not capable of differentiating and distinguishing two very different & contrasting situations:
a team that has qualified for the WORLD CUP and a team ( with 4 years left to the WC ) and facing asian competition.

ponder on this a bit.



however, there IS a vast difference between GN & branko ( since you forced branko's irrelevent name into this topic ):
GN has enough spine to accept the responsibility of TM's bad performance.
he actually accepts he is to be blamed.
which goes to say a lot about him, when we contrast it with the weasle and wimpy attitude of branko who was in DENIAL till the last day.
who never owned upto any of his countless failures ( remember he was here for almost 5 years ), and lied, cheated and belittled all Iranian fans ( to which me and YOU also belong ) and our football and ... .

======================

paradigm jan, you may be right.

I think our fans are quite idiotic and foolish to bring "color" into TM games.
this, added to their utter uselessness and impotency in cheering and maintaining their support for their team, even for 90 minutes !

God, we must be having the absolute WORST fans in the world !!!!

[faraz]

I have yet to see the game, and once I do, i will for sure have some comments...

on ghalenoie,

i think he made a HUGE mistake when he decided to integrate a brand new system (a system completely different than what we've been doing in the past 4 years) at such a critical time. judging from comments (i haven't seen the past 2 TM games), it seems we are stuck in a 3 back defense - ghalenoie's favorite or w/e.

if he had been given 4 friendly matches (against local club teams even) to try and give the players a chance to mesh together in this system, then i wouldn't have a problem.

however, he chose NOT to stick to what had WORKED against ASIAN sides time and time again - a 4 back, with 2 wing backs constantly pressuring their respective sides.

taking away the wingback leaves Kia to do a lot of work by himself on the right, both defensively and offensively. if the wingback shares these responsibilites, both breathe a lil easier and both are can contribute almost equally to defense and attack.

this idea especially makes a lot of sense considering we have a GREAT right back in Kaebi and an even better winger in Kia.

without kaebi and kia working together, our right side becomes just as our left, and our football is left with nothing to give on the flanks, leaving a high level of importance in the middle of the park. without the creativity of a raw playmaker (using teymourian and nekounam in the middle), our game turns into something of a kick and run mentality worthy of toronto house league teams.