Iran vs. Uzbekistan - [Match Thread] | World Cup 2026 Qualifier | November 21st |

[arj42]

He had a lot of good commentary, I hope Sahand comes on more often. I like that Arya is back too in recent podcasts. Generally most other commentators on the podcast don't add much though . Gol Bezan front 3: Sina, Arya, Sahand

So true, same applies to other channels….there was one other guest who used to come on gol bezan who had a Persian accent and was always the “pessimist” of the group. I think his name was peyman or pejman. That guy was an awesome character too. He had cool points too. I’ve been watching them for a few years now, every podcast. Aria, sahand, that Persian guy I just mentioned, and sina as welcoming host would be peak level podcast. Young guy who lives in Arabic country who’s recently been on the pods is decent too. Team Sahand 4 life. At the end of the day, no matter how basic the videos, they all add to the dopamine release related to watching, reading, or hearing about TM

side note, if you ever wanna read super cancerous or NPC takes on TM, read Instagram comments or YouTube comments.

[Iranianarsenal11]

Okay so, I rewatched the game. Our issue is still the same: lack of pace and defensive transition. It seems like almost every goal we have conceded with GN has been because of two reasons: wingbacks are too far up in press and do not have the speed to run back. If you watch the first goal we conceded Ramin was so far up the pitch that he couldn't defend and he gave up running back because he knew they would score that goal. I saw Milad lose almost EVERY 1v1 challenge. It seems like Shoja and Kanaani seem like they are too SLOW to also run back.

According to Arya from Gol Bezan, Manicone is primarily in charge of defense...but something is NOT working out when it comes to defensive transitions. It could be GN not listening to Manicone but I don't know. I actually didn't even mind Karimi, he just wasn't the right player next to Eza and they do not compliment each other well.

From rewatching, HONESTLY the most clear solution to me in order to make our defense better is to drop Shoja and completely drop Milad. Majid Hosseini has much more pace, and distribution and seems to me like he is a CLEAR starter over shoja who is old and slow. Likewise, Hazbavi is 100% faster than Kanaani. Therefore I would like to see a Hazbavi and Majid CB pairing.

In general GN needs to:
1. Tell Ramin to stop running high up like he is a forward winger, his main is defense. Yes it works out on offense but we get caught up on counters. Dude needs to not be in enemy corner when we lose the ball.
2. Start more CBs with better pace and distribution than Shoja, both Majid and Hazbavi have much more speed than Shoja.
3. Play Moharrami at LB, yes he is right footed but he has played LB in champions league at club level, he can do it. Use Hardani as back up RB.
4. MAKE THE RIGHT SUBS; Karimi is not even a bad player, KARIMI AND EZA JUST DON'T COMPLIMENT EACH OTHER. The proper play would have been to bring in Hosseinejad and keep in Azmoun.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE:
GENERAL PLEASE START TORABI ON LEFT WING MORE. Yall don't realize the type of magic that was happening with that Torabi/Taremi/Ghoddos triangle on left side. We had some crazy tiki taka pressure with those three. ALSO Mohebi as RW works really well...he ran up and down a lot and made a lot of space for Azmoun, we never see JB do that.

I REALLY wanna continue to see Torabi LW though, that was beautiful

You nailed it!

Bacheha, come read this analysis. 100% all facts.

[Pluto2000]

You nailed it!

Bacheha, come read this analysis. 100% all facts.

Just to demonstrate my point on Ramin (and kannani a little) specifically, look at where he is when the opponent receives the ball on the first goal (NEXT TO TAREMI):



and then look where Ramin and Kanaani are on the second counterattack:
Ramin2.png

THIS IS 100% GN coaching mistake, telling wingbacks to press so high, with a combination of slow CBs who don't have awareness.
When you have Ezatolahi covering defense for Ramin being too high...you will eat a goal

[milad_b]

Just to demonstrate my point on Ramin (and kannani a little) specifically, look at where he is when the opponent receives the ball on the first goal (NEXT TO TAREMI):

and then look where Ramin and Kanaani are on the second counterattack:


THIS IS 100% GN coaching mistake, telling wingbacks to press so high, with a combination of slow CBs who don't have awareness.
When you have Ezatolahi covering defense for Ramin being too high...you will eat a goal

I agree with you Regarding GN and his high press tactics. I also agree with you regarding our transition but ANOTHER problem here is the IQ of players like Rouzbeh Cheshmi and Mohammadi.

BUT I find your arguement biased. You mention ramin and kanani yet fail to mention mohammadi . Where was mohammadi ? Mohammadi is the 1st person to blame on this as the assist came from his side and position and then the next person to blame is Kanani and then ramin.

Also why is rozbeh filling kanani's position and not marking the number 21 ???? Lack of IQ in this goal bidad mikooneh.

The question to be asked is that why do you tell your CB to go Up high when you need to defend . GN is deffo to be bamed on this.

I would personally tell my CB's to stay inline with the RB's .

Look at mohammadi's position. We lost the ball and he is literraly walking like nothing happened.

[Pluto2000]

I agree with you Regarding GN and his high press tactics. I also agree with you regarding our transition but ANOTHER problem here is the IQ of players like Rouzbeh Cheshmi and Mohammadi.

BUT I find your arguement biased. You mention ramin and kanani yet fail to mention mohammadi . Where was mohammadi ? Mohammadi is the 1st person to blame on this as the assist came from his side and position and then the next person to blame is Kanani and then ramin.

Look at mohammadi's position. We lost the ball and he is literraly walking like nothing happened.

I mentioned Milad in my original comment. I agree with you, Milad is an awful player. Even in Greece the coach benched him in favor HJ because he can't pass/dribble/win 1v1s. He makes A LOT of mistakes. GN or someone in the staff needs to look at the LB position seriously. Before in another comment I mentioned we need to play Moharrami there. He's right footed but he's played LB for club level in championship games and he's done decently there. We have plenty RBs that Moharrami's place on the left will be more useful.

Also why is rozbeh filling kanani's position and not marking the number 21 ???? Lack of IQ in this goal bidad mikooneh.

The question to be asked is that why do you tell your CB to go Up high when you need to defend . GN is deffo to be bamed on this.

I would personally tell my CB's to stay inline with the RB's .

The reason why Cheshmi is filling in Kanaani's position is clear: GN brought him in as a third CB, not a defensive midfielder. He wanted to go 5 in the back for defense. I am not sure why he didn't just bring in Majid Hosseini for that purpose. The tactic and defensive transition is for sure GN and teams fault, wingbacks pressing too high and slow CBs that also pressed too high but could not run back fast enoughs.

Our back 4 plays like amateurs who can't pass/mark/defend.

The back four need to play deeper/or use smarter positioning where they are not vulnerable

[a_m]

These back 4 players we have plus the 4 on the bench are players that have been in the National team now for some time ….

…..some of them have been in the team since 2012 , and where part of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil that is about 9 to 11 years now


, all the teams that we face now, have wayyy too much scouting footage on these players , they know their weakness , they know their limitations,,, they know all their tendencies…

plus the simple fact of nature they are 10 years older that when the started so they 10 years slower, worst endurance, everything has declined for them psychically…


the game against the USA was the pinnacle breaking point for some of these players if they couldn’t out due the young and inexperienced USA team , then how are these players we have getting any better over the next 4 years ,,,,?!? I can’t see that happening at all
….


we can’t expect to go to another World Cup with these players , even if we get to the World Cup with Amir G , the result will be 3 losses , or 1 tie 2 losses, who are we kidding , with this team we ain’t beating anyone , let alone getting out of the group…

I know we still need to suffer thru a Asian cup with these players , but then the plan should be after the AC , change the defense,

it had been some time that we have even been challenged in asia, and usually our only losses would come against team that were clearly better than us , but now even the Uzbekistan of the world are creeping up on us …

think about it , I don’t care what the FIFA rankings say. We could be ranked 10th in the world for all I care but a team like Uzbekistan will definitely be in the 4th Pot if they make it to the World Cup 2026, that basically the weakest a team can be at the tournament.

Senegal(20) Iran (21) Japan (23) Morocco(24) Serbia (25) Poland (26) South Korea(29) Tunisia (35)

Cameroon(37) Canada (38) Ecuador(46) Saudi Arabia(49) Ghana (61) Wales (18) [M] Costa Rica(31) [N] Australia(42) [O]

we won’t face an Asian team, but can we beat Costa Rica , Ecuador, Panama , Ghana , Cameroon , Tunisia ,Poland , Serbia etc these teams are most likely be in the pot 4 based of the rankings ,

I would say all these teams are more comfortably playing in North America than we are , plus I think all of them beat Uzbekistan ,. Plus none of them have the political circus act we have ,

So unless we see great improvements within the next 2.5 year , we going to be a great disappointment again at the World Cup …

[milad_b]

I mentioned Milad in my original comment. I agree with you, Milad is an awful player. Even in Greece the coach benched him in favor HJ because he can't pass/dribble/win 1v1s. He makes A LOT of mistakes. GN or someone in the staff needs to look at the LB position seriously. Before in another comment I mentioned we need to play Moharrami there. He's right footed but he's played LB for club level in championship games and he's done decently there. We have plenty RBs that Moharrami's place on the left will be more useful.



The reason why Cheshmi is filling in Kanaani's position is clear: GN brought him in as a third CB, not a defensive midfielder. He wanted to go 5 in the back for defense. I am not sure why he didn't just bring in Majid Hosseini for that purpose. The tactic and defensive transition is for sure GN and teams fault, wingbacks pressing too high and slow CBs that also pressed too high but could not run back fast enoughs.

Our back 4 plays like amateurs who can't pass/mark/defend.

The back four need to play deeper/or use smarter positioning where they are not vulnerable

Sorry i missed your first post about milad. In post conference GN said our players were walking and now i understand what he means. Milad was litterally waking while on other side the uzbek players were all over the place. whether its age related or simply lack of motivation or professionalism i don't know, but whatever its is GN and staff need to work on it.

Also why go all offensive when you're up by 1-2 goals.

[Pluto2000]

Sorry i missed your first post about milad. In post conference GN said our players were walking and now i understand what he means. Milad was litterally waking while on other side the uzbek players were all over the place. whether its age related or simply lack of motivation or professionalism i don't know, but whatever its is GN and staff need to work on it.

Also why go all offensive when you're up by 1-2 goals.

Well...in a way its because the team is dysfunctional. Uzbekistan has played our team many times now, I think 10 times in last 10 years. They know our team only has 3 serious players: Ghoddos, Taremi, Azmoun. Once Ghoddos got injured, Katanec said fuck it team go full press. They went 3 in the back and brought in all their younger speedier players. We need to have a different approach to how we play defense and offense, and the transitions so we are not caught on counters. More than that, we need a coach that recognizes these in real time.

I'm gonna watch AC in 2 months but honestly we are due for an embarrassment vs South Korea in QF. I hope that by 2026 we have better prospects for RB/LB, CM, and CDM. We need projects dedicated to fixing these spots in the team, whether its calling in kids like Khodabandelous/Rostami/Hosseinejad/or even Razzaghinia from our U17 or integrating Hazbavi/Majid Hosseini CB combo. I don't know. But we need some radical change and vision

[perspolis#1]

These back 4 players we have plus the 4 on the bench are players that have been in the National team now for some time ….

…..some of them have been in the team since 2012 , and where part of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil that is about 9 to 11 years now


, all the teams that we face now, have wayyy too much scouting footage on these players , they know their weakness , they know their limitations,,, they know all their tendencies…

the game against the USA was the pinnacle breaking point for some of these players if they couldn’t out due the young and inexperienced USA team , then how are these players we have getting any better over the next 4 years ,,,,?!? I can’t see that happening at all
….


we won’t face an Asian team, but can we beat Costa Rica , Ecuador, Panama , Ghana , Cameroon , Tunisia ,Poland , Serbia etc these teams are most likely be in the pot 4 based of the rankings ,

I would say all these teams are more comfortably playing in North America than we are , plus I think all of them beat Uzbekistan ,. Plus none of them have the political circus act we have ,

So unless we see great improvements within the next 2.5 year , we going to be a great disappointment again at the World Cup …

We are en route to being a disappointment at the next world cup unless we perform open heart surgery on our defense and midfield.

I actually shared this fear during our last world cup that our players let the hubris of "gheyrat" get to them and they think they are infallible because of Iran's name in Asia and then by not understanding that football is much different OUTSIDE of Asia.

I knew the US team would be difficult to play because just like the way Americans are overly confident about almost everything we were underestimating their abilities. Europeans know Americans BS a lot but obviously not too much if they were playing for teams like Leeds, Chelsea, Valencia etc at the time. Now those same players in their 20-25 range are playing for AC Milan, Nottingham Forest, Fulham, Crystal Palace, PSV Dortmund. Everything they lacked in experience they made up for elsewhere. We are only running on fumes of experience at this point which is useless in the world cup where younger teams tend to do better.

All of those teams you listed will give us an absolute game and even the worst of their teams will beat us 2-3/10 times.

[koorosh]

Lol at all the predictions of being disappointed....way of life my friends....way of life if you are a TM fan !!!

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[babak_iran]

GN should test out Zakipour more at leftback. He is solid.

[oracle]

GN should test out Zakipour more at leftback. He is solid.

He gave up on him fast

[arj42]

Funny meme

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cz9SCUNKCAi/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==