The goals conceded

[Martin-Reza]

Back to topic, rewatched the goals againg and the second goal was 100% Nekounam's fault. It was his man and he didn't bother to make two steps to stay beside him. Amateurish.

[Doctor DOOM]

nope, im not satisfied with the absence of a playmaker at all, please dont put words into my mouth and i have mentioned it several times that when the TM squad was announced.

i very much would like to see jabbari and karimi in the squad of 23 players and play atleast one of them in the game depending on karimi's fitness.

i also never said i prefer a 4-2-3-1 formation, i was trying to find the positives/reasons of using this formation and i dont really think its a disaster to use this formation.

I'm not putting words into ur mouth. I'm just saying since you always defend this formation ( for whatever reasons you may have ), one could arrive at the conclusion that it is acceptable to you.
it is NOT acceptable to me, though, for reasons mentioned in all those threads.


so yes, I agree inclusion of jabbari or karimi is ADDING to the team's dimension.

[mehdy]

the first goal, nekounam left mohammad nour free and didnt press him and he had all the time in the world to turn around and make that accurate pass to hazazi to score.
the second goal, if u guys look when the saudis want to take the corner kick, their number 2 defender, the guy who was most dangerous on all set pieces is all alone in the middle of our penalty area and the closest to him was nekounam who had left him alone. ashjari was the second closest to him and only approached him when he realized the ball was approaching.
im sorry but i think nekounam was majorly at fault for both goals, very disappointing!

I keep saying that Nekounam is our weakpoint by this reason.

He cannot Run,Mark,Chase,Sliding...he didn't have sense of defense at all,though he scored important goals for TM.

[yashar_fasihnia]

nope, im not satisfied with the absence of a playmaker at all, please dont put words into my mouth and i have mentioned it several times that when the TM squad was announced.

i very much would like to see jabbari and karimi in the squad of 23 players and play atleast one of them in the game depending on karimi's fitness.

i also never said i prefer a 4-2-3-1 formation, i was trying to find the positives/reasons of using this formation and i dont really think its a disaster to use this formation.

[Doctor DOOM]

you are absolutely correct on neku's uses at heading , shots, ... .
that's why I think the third route isnt such a bad idea.

but I guess we'll never agree on the formation.
apart from the impotency of this formation in forwards line ( for IRAN, not barcelona or holland ) , I put a lot of emphasis on a playmaker while you are happy with a 2 def-mid line.


but as our recent games ( especially yesterday's ) showed, simply putting TWO def-mids there does not automatically guarantee our middle of the pitch and the center of the defense is secure.

that's just a "number".
performance, delivering the duties, form, style, ... are all influential factors too.

[yashar_fasihnia]

benching nekounam is a big mistake, like it or not, he is our most offensive threat at the moment EVEN IF WE INCLUDE A PLAYMAKER IN THE TEAM.

he is our only real headzan in the team (aghili & hosseini are not real headzans but because of their height, can head the balls. however, they are no real headzans who can continuously score hoals on headers. only pirouz ghorbani is such a real headzan but he isnt good enough for first 11).

he is one of our shot takers, free kick takers, ball distributors and leaders. he also has a great deal of experience under him.


i firmly believe that the coach insists on the 4-2-3-1 formation just so that nekounam can be given more freedom to move upfront and cause damage to the opponent. if we werent so reliant on nekounam scoring for us, i dont think we would continue to play 4-2-3-1.

in other words, i think there is a misconception here that we are playing 4-2-3-1 BECAUSE THE COACHs ARE SCARED.
its more for the purpose of giving more offensive role to nekounam who can participate in our attacks regularly, either for headers in the penalty area or as a second wave of attack from behind the penalty area for the loose/rebounded areas, so during attack, it becomes a 4-1-4-1 formation with kazemi as the lone midfielder.

thats the main reason i believe daei is opting for 4-2-3-1, im not sure though.
ofcourse, it also gives us more midfielders in the middle which helps maintain more ball possession.

but i totally disagree with benching nekounam, its a big mistake. even if he makes mistakes, we should realize that his positives far overweigh his negatives.
its not like the remaining 10 players are some superstars who are playing superbly and not making mistakes at all that nekounam should be benched of all the players.
infact, i would rather bench shojaei than nekounam cos shojaei's excess dribblings and lack of participation in team defense costs us more than benefiting us.

if we wanna play ando, we have to play him instead of kazemi which i wouldnt mind if ando gets regular playtime in these 2 months left to our remaining 3 games.

[Doctor DOOM]

good thread and discussions here.

and increasingly I tend to side with martin's suggestion of using ANDO ( if he's fit and game-ready ) as the def mid in the final 3 games.

he certainly has more positives in interceptions and marking and hassling the opposition than neku.

But here's the kicker ... the above decision leaves us with 2 routes:
1- pick 2 def mids and try to include Nekunam ( coz the guy IS a good player ) .... which in MY opinion, while it serves to fill the team with more stars, it hardly helps our PROSPECTS & TARGET ( which shd be an attacking football that has ALL the requirements ... particualrly, a PLAYMAKER .

2- Put Ando as the ONLY def-mid ( and bench Nekunam ) and use the other slot for a playmaker.
this suits our NEEDS , even if it may offend our sentiments .


now, here's a major point:
how many coaches will opt for choice 1 and how many have the guts ( or lets say are kaleh-khar enough ) to go for the more practical choice #2 ?

I'd say MAJORITY of coaches will go for #1, even if they recognize it will not serve our goals/needs optimally.
why?
coz they're afraid of fan backlash and criticism of dropping one of our top players. and you all can fill the rest.


I know of very VERY few coaches who have the guts to go for #2 .... and yes, you have to admit, MK is one of them.
he's already shown it by dropping daei or .. .

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

there is a third option too.
and for that a coach shd have the balls to pull the STAR of the team aside and FORCE HIM to follow his orders.
to push neku each and every time he makes this mistake or is lax about marking his marks.
to constantly shout and remind him, even if it is during a game.

seeing that neku IS a professional I'd say he wouldnt have a problem with being led during a game.
but will he be effective?

[zereshk-ali]

I don't buy any excuse for Iran not having a defender on each post. We're not a counter-attacking team, certainly not in Azadi. And we certainly should not be relying on trying to score a second from a counter attack at thr risk of conceding a losing goal from a corner, bearing in mind the situation we were in at that stage and consequences around each goal. I blame that squarely on the coaching staff. Even if the players had been instructed to do so, it's the coaching staff's fault that this was not clear enough.

I agree, however, that the first goal was all about closing down. In particular the midfielder who fails to cut out the pass, I can't quite make out who it is? Nekounam or Kazemi? As a defensive midfielder they need to be aware of the number 9, who is in space and close them down. Not marking space, and trying to cut out the pass. They should never allow them be in a position to easily receive, turn and pick a pass in that situation. If the centre back marks this run he will be dragged out of position, and leaves the defence open to a runner from midfield.

This is a actually key problem in our defending, we simply do not adequately mark runners. Our players seem to mark space, and are often dragged out of position. Watch Aghili's defending before the corner, when he gets dragged out of position instead of marking the man at the far post. This is the key to why we conceded the second goal as well. Of all our defenders, Aghili in general looked very, very slow and poor. Kaebi was poor defensively too.

[Kasra.]

Also Kaebi wasn't awake on the first goal. how can you let that player go easy like that and also the ball?

[yashar_fasihnia]

thanx for the correction martin.

kazemi was far from that scene, more towards the right of the field where his position is. nekounam was close to the number 9 but still was so passive about the whole thing and then ofcourse, ashjari filling the offside trap...

[Martin-Reza]

^ On the first goal, the assist wasn't by Noor but by substitute striker number 9.

Noor passed the ball to number 9. I agree Nekounam was on fault, but only partially. Number 9 was upfront and dropped back and neither Aghili nor Hosseini kept on his toes and neither Nekounam nor Kazemi bothered to mark him, so he was between our centerbacks and our defensive midfield and noone cared. Amazing.

And then the half-hearted offside trap.

But still, we make such mistakes like 10 times each game. It depends on the strength of the opposition how often we get punished.

[yashar_fasihnia]

the first goal, nekounam left mohammad nour free and didnt press him and he had all the time in the world to turn around and make that accurate pass to hazazi to score.

the second goal, if u guys look when the saudis want to take the corner kick, their number 2 defender, the guy who was most dangerous on all set pieces is all alone in the middle of our penalty area and the closest to him was nekounam who had left him alone. ashjari was the second closest to him and only approached him when he realized the ball was approaching.

im sorry but i think nekounam was majorly at fault for both goals, very disappointing!

[Martin-Reza]

Second goal is really puzzling me. I can't imagine the coaching staff has not prepared the players for setpieces, it worked before. I think we lost our concentration and organization once we conceded the equalizer.

And the following lacking tactical discipline cost us.

[RaginG Inferno]

What a strange defensive mentality Iran has. On so many occasions, the Saudi players were not closed down, they were given so much space to operate. It's truly bizarre.

[faraz]

I don't particularly blame ashjari for the 2nd goal. he had no chance against that big ghoul of a player and that player should have been marked by someone else. he did his best, but against that guy, it certainly wasn't good enough. not directly his fault.

interesting post though. for the first goal, how the ball managed to get behind both neko and kazemi, only god knows. also, let's be fair here. it was a VERY swift play by the saudi's and a LOVELY move. it all happened so quickly and all the passes were precise within millimeters.

the bottom line is, our defense is simply not good enough. period.