Iran - Saudi Post match comments

[Doctor DOOM]

PART 2 -
Now, to the players


Strikers and midfield:

I cant blame VH for much simply becoz he was left alone up front with hardly any serious support from rezaei or zandi … forget about shojaei or ando! And one man among 2-3 defenders will never be able to do much.


The poorest player was Teymoorian who couldn’t pass right, neither cross or … when he was placed in right or a more central role, switching with shojaei. At this point, I think K. RAHMATI would do far better job than ando, if we want to persist with two def-mids in the team.

I believe even shojaei didn’t have a good game, although when he played a more central attacking role, he did have a few dangerous moments. But his insistence on dribbling and his refusal to partake in defense reduces his marks drastically.

Jabbari entered too late and had only 12-15 minutes to do his thing. But in his few minutes, he delivered two great corners , one of which led to the goal. And his passing was 10 times more effective and in line with the team’s momentum than shojaei’s. I think had we started with Jabbari, we would have seen a different TM.

Rezaei was a disappointment, as he never was able to repeat his performances of the past 2-3 months. But then again, we never faced any strong team in the caliber of ksa in the past 2-3 months for us to find the TRUE capabilities of our team & players.

Zandi was another disappointment. He neither gave any width to the team, nor did he have any incisive moves penetrating the defense. His inefficiency was contrasted with Madanchi’s entrance which vitalized the left side and we saw some pace and fighting on the wing there.

With Madanchi, we saw more crosses and dangerous passing from the left wing which goes to PROVE ( to all those in denial ) that ANY team needs WIDTH to be effective and create some chances for itself.

Khatibi was given yet another chance ( don’t ask me why. Coz I cant seem to find any reason, especially when we have others who could have been invited like kazemian ) and true to form he didn’t deliver.




All in all, daei made 2 ( out of 3 ) good substitutions, albeit a bit late. Jabbari and Madanchi brought life into the team when their fixed comrades failed.
Good job daei. But lets make it better by picking the STARTING line up a bit better.

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Defense and Keeper:

Rahmati saved our skin, once again. He was the difference between a 3 goal margin today. Without any doubt our best player today.

Aghili and Hosseini had too much space between themselves and that allowed a lot of attacks. They better shape up.
We didn’t see their vulnerabilities simply becoz ( again ) we did NOT face any strong teams in the run up. So all those who want to look at score-boards and nothing else, better WAKE UP and smell the countless through-balls that exposed our defense and the whole team in fact.
( It isnt a bad idea to try new central def's if they have pace. How is Sepehr Heidari's pace? or Omranzadeh ? if they are quick enough, I'd like to see them tried in a couple of test games for either of aghili or hosseini )


Gholamnejad played well in my opinion. He is no kaabi, mind you. He has some years to get equal to what kaabi is capable of. But given his age and being a recent addition to TM, he played well and showed potential.

Aaaaand finally to our favorite post, LB:
Zareh, …. Oh zareh ! what can I say?
Actually he surprised me in the first 15-20 minutes of the game. He intercepted, passed, blocked, … very well. So much that I had to check if it is zareh or someone else. A pleasant surprise I said to myself.

But as the saying goes “nothing good is meant to last” or “it was too good to be true”. After the minute 20, the same old zareh was back !! and with him, numerous turn-overs, missing in action, wrong positioning, …. !
His stats read :
1- negatives – turn overs, missing in post, being dribbled, … = 21
2- positives – correct block, correct forward pass and cross = 10

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The bench :
I believe the bench could have been stronger. And this lack of depth in the bench is a direct consequence of daei bringing in his personal issues to the TM.


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This 1 point is a precious one.
I think if we get 4 more points from our next 2 games, we will have done quite well and the team can be more relaxed and composed for the remainder of the campaign.

I commend daei for his subbing and his hunger and spirit, which has been infectious. But he still has to get a few things right.
team tactics, which I hope with Muller's addition, would satisfy a lot of the needs, and player selection , which is a direct connection to Daei. he ought to put aside his personal issues and see that the TEAM is more important.
our right midfield is in desperate shape and needs MAJOR MAJOR rethinking.

Plz Mr. daei. do it for the country and all Iranians. not for anything else.


I also thinl having seen the vast chasm between the piss-poor teams we faced in our preparation and the quality of our opponents, daei and IFF start thinking about SERIOUS test games against WORTHY teams.
it doesnt matter if we play big teams or tough games. it brings our weaknesses to surface so we dont repeat them when it matters the most.
plz think big.

[Doctor DOOM]

PART 1 -


1- I am happy with the point and I think we can give credit to the team and bench for the point, for not giving up and fighting till the end of the game.

So for fighting spirit, they get good marks. Most probably a direct influence of Daei and his natural characteristic.

2- But that does not mean the players played WELL. In fact I think apart from Rahmati, Gholamnejad , and Nekunam, the rest played a poor game.
More on the players later. First, the TEAM and TEAM TACTICS:


3- I didn’t see much teamwork or strategy in the team. Now, I don’t know exactly WHEN it is ok to demand such things, but I know we need to show them in this stage or else …. !
Daei has to work more with the lads on team moves and different strategies.



4- thank god the ref didn’t call gholamnejad’s foul early in the game. I shudder to think some refs DO call these fouls. Anyway, gheser darr rafteem.



5- As promised, I did have an eye on the right midfield. And I think it is safe to say it failed to deliver. First half, daei put one of the expected fellows, ando, there hoping he would do the needful. Not to say “I told you so” , but I think we all knew before-hand ando was NOT going to be able to deliver anything. Apart from his aweful passing , he could hardly cross the ball. And lets not talk about sprints down that side !

then, rezaei appeared once in a while down there, but even he could not cross well and lost quite a few duels down the line.

Next, shojaei was brought to the right and apart from ONE cross, and a couple of dribbles ( that hardly led to anywhere ) he didn’t fare well. Not as well as when he played a central role ! BIG f**king surprise there !

So effectively, with such aweful selection , ali daei annihilated our right midfield and wing !!! job well done !!
Not that the left was stellar. But at least with madanchi coming in, it was revitalized.

Now, can we ask why KIA or KAZEMIAN were not invited ?
No one can say this is “hind-sight 20-20”, coz this was predicted well before the game. Well, lo and behold. It all came true. Our strongest zone for years, was reduced to almost a ZERO ! why? Why shd we not use players who are specialists for the post?
Why shd we try tom, dick or harry when none of them are suited for the role … all the while, keeping two of the best players for the post, outside the team?

I know we did a good job of getting a point off the game. But that shd NOT cover the many faults and mistakes and deficiencies of the team. Otherwise it’ll be the same old story. Much like how some ppl bloated matters with useless scores against piss poor teams of waff and … .

[Nokhodi]

First of all in the football forum there seems to be alot of members who just love to complain and be negative. You would think they are seriously depressed the way they write.

In my opinion, I actually didn't see any surprises today except that Shojaei was able to handle things alot better than I expected. His speed, dribbling and passing was done well and he opened up the game and created alot of space. Some are criticizing him for the over-dribbling in the box and while its true that he should have shot the ball earlier, he was creating those chances pretty much with his own skill and was moving the ball up forward really well.

The defensive failure today was not surprising. Aghili and Hosseini are good but they are best in the air. If TM plays a team that relies on crosses and play in the air, Aghili and Hosseini will shine. Gholamnejad was ok but he is very weak physically and he was too inexperienced for that post. Kia would have been much better in that position or even Nosrati, but I doubt either will start the next match as Kaabi will be back.
Zare was terrible. I like to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, and he seems to be a good person and all but he simply makes too many mistakes. He's very average and when he is bad, he is bad.
Teymourian's job was to shadow players like Shalhoub and he did a good job. To those of who are surprised about his passing, why are you surpised? Even in WC 2006 Ando's strengths were running and tackling. He was really slow in transition and had terrible passes even then. He's not a playmaker, he's more of a game destroyer like Makalele.
Nekounam was not that great, but his goal saved us. Even his bad games are ordinary and maybe if the defense hadn't been so shaky he could have helped out more in the offensive process.
Zandi was not fit. I think at some minute 30 or so in the first half he was crouching over, gasping for air and was short of breath. He needs to find a better club and league quick. His brain is great for our football but unless he is in peak physical condition he can not play well.
Rezaei was not effective this game. In my opinion Rezaei was similar to most of the other Saudi players. Short, quick trying to pressure the opponent into making a mistake. He is not effective against teams like Saudi who are focused on the ground.
Hashemian I liked. He was running and creating some chances out of nothing. He was not fed well at all and at certain points he was coming into TM's last third to help the D and to start a play. He will get better as the games go on and he will be very useful against East Asian teams. I don't know why more crosses were not sent in to the box? The Saudis had problems every time TM did that and players like Hashemian, Shojaei and Nekounam are dominant in the air.

Shojaei as I said was great and is IMHO a good replacement for Karimi. I shouldn't forget Rahmati who was top notch and (knock on wood) is turning out to be a good number 1.

As for the subs, Madanchi he didn't do much. Jabbari was impressive in the few minutes he was on. He was very much like Shojaei creating lots of space and making passes that cut into the Saudi defense.
Khatibi is horrible and every minute he plays confirms my belief that his super agent and friends in high up places are forcing Daei and any coach to play this punk. Get him out of TM and let him stay in UAE.

Overall, the first half was absolutely terrible. Nothing positive to note there. 2nd half TM started attacking much better and lasted physically way better than I would have expected. Kudos to the players and staff for having enough mental strength to keep fighting back and score a goal in minute 83. Too many times we had seen the same thing happen to TM as Saudis would often score last minute goals to beat or tie Iran.

For the next games (when are they by the way) I would like to see Kia in there. He needs to be given his chances again, not as a right back but as a right midfielder.
Karimi if he gets back in should be invited as well, but Shojaei was impressive and I think many will start criticizing Shojaei as Karimi presumably gets in better shape as time passes on in Persepolis.

Finally, a good point for TM and lets hope the performances improve and that TM wins the remaining games and allow us to watch them in WC 2010.

Sorry for the long post.