Possibly controversial but....

[DR Strangemoosh]

Wow I can’t believe I am reading this.

Ghelichkhani was an awesome player with Rocket shots. His performance in the 1976 Olympics against teams like Poland and Soviet Union is one of the reasons why Iran had such a great performance that year. TM always had a great midfield when he was playing. And the reason he was excluded for the 78 WC was because he had spoken against the Shah and nothing else.

Also how you can also call Hejazi and Eskandarian overrated is absolutely mind boggling.

Hejazi was the absolute best keeper in Asia and one of the top 6 or 7 keepers in the world. Did you know he was given an offer to play at Manchester United solely on his performance at the WC that year ??

Also Eskandarian was chosen to be among the best 22 players of WC 78 which led to an offer from New York Cosmos. The same team that Pele played at before his retirement.

However, you could not be more right about Allahverdi. That guy was one of the most useless players in TM history. His loser mentality was a prime reason why our defense was so Soorakh against Peru. If Eskandarian had not been suspended the score line would have been very different.

Yeah I can't get my head around the Hejazi one, let alone Eskandarian!

Hejazi might not be as tall as today's keepers but he was ahead of his time when it came to building up play as a keeper, his reflexes, his commanding ability.
There is a reason why even with recent strong keepers he is still called Oghab-e Asia and the best Iranian goalkeeper of all time. As you say there was a reason Man United invited him for the four-week trial with a view to signing, such a shame revolution happened and the rest is Piss-story.

His personality and other aspects aside, for me he is a legend,

[DR Strangemoosh]

Fair choice relating to Mr Scores about these five

https://twitter.com/prznsoccer/statu...09224856748520

Daei drove me crazy for his last 2 years under Branko but no one can deny his career as a whole. All five are stars (Taremi still has a few years left) and for me Oghab e Asia is the best goalkeeper in Asian history.

[KC McElroy]

Fair choice relating to Mr Scores about these five

https://twitter.com/prznsoccer/statu...09224856748520

Daei drove me crazy for his last 2 years under Branko but no one can deny his career as a whole. All five are stars (Taremi still has a few years left) and for me Oghab e Asia is the best goalkeeper in Asian history.

He is clearly not familiar with Iran's soccer history.

[taremiscores]

Fair choice relating to Mr Scores about these five

https://twitter.com/prznsoccer/statu...09224856748520

Daei drove me crazy for his last 2 years under Branko but no one can deny his career as a whole. All five are stars (Taremi still has a few years left) and for me Oghab e Asia is the best goalkeeper in Asian history.

I believe the image was created by AFC on their social media, that's where it comes from.

Hell of a 5-side though!

[AhuraMazda1]

Gearing up to the World Cup, I wanted to share my thoughts on my ideal line-up and the reasoning behind it. Honestly, this will be the most interesting squad selection I’ve ever witnessed — there are so many players at similar levels, which makes changes and surprises very likely. My ideal line-up vs weaker and mid-level opponents:

------------------ Azmoun ------------------
--- Kooshki -------------------- Mohebbi ---
-------------------- Taremi ----------------
--------------- Ezat -------- Saman --------
--- Nemati — Shoja — Abarghouei — Danial ---
-------------------- Beiranvand -------------

If we need a goal, Alipoor and Hosseinnejad should be introduced.

We know against stronger teams how we will play so no need to get into that.

Some notes:


• I stand by many of my predictions and opinions. Shoja is the best defender Team Melli has, regardless of how much I personally dislike him.
• I was a big supporter of Ghaedi when many people laughed at the prospect of him even being invited. However, I don’t think he’ll be match-ready by the World Cup. It’s just a feeling I have.
• Kanani will be needed because he is simply the best distributor of the ball from the back that we have in a central defensive position.
• Majid Hosseini is arguably the best all-round player in Team Melli. Anyone who’s watched training sessions knows what I mean — he outperforms almost everyone in drills. However, I’ve left him out because his performance in our last World Cup match, in my opinion, was unforgivable. Far too lethargic.

The unlucky ones:


• Lemouchi — last year he was absolutely incredible. If he hadn’t gotten injured, and if Kooshki hadn’t completely turned things around from being one of the worst players at Taj to one of the best in the Persian Gulf League, I would’ve had him as our left winger behind Ghaedi.
• Cheshmi — by far the best defensive midfielder in Iran. Very unlucky with his injury. I really hope he makes it back because we need his authority and football intelligence at the WC.
• Hosseinnejad — I was a huge advocate for him. One of my main criticisms of GN was not using him more, but unfortunately he didn’t shine at Omid level the way he needed to in order to prove his worth. He had to do much more!

Opinions I stand by:


• Hazbavi and Fallah are bang average players.
• We have at least 4–5 players in the Persian Gulf League who are better than Allahyar.
• My biggest disappointment is our lack of creative midfielders. Unfortunately, Soroush Rafiei — who I consider only slightly above average at Team Melli level — needs a ticket simply because we have no real alternatives. Ghorbani is not a creative midfielder, and if Torabi isn’t coming, then Soroush must, to hopefully unlock a defense when we need it most!

Quick predictions:


• Alipoor will be critical for us in the World Cup. He’s like Hashemnejad in his tracking back, but a better finisher. I predict he’ll be very important.
• Kaveh will also do something special. I really like his tenacity.
• Beiranvand will have a poor World Cup.
• Nemati will be a rock at left-back.
• Right-back will remain unstable. None of our options have been able to cement the role, and the constant changes will damage whoever ends up playing there.
• Unfortunately, the higher ups will want Jahanbakhsh invited as he is their darling and he will be

[IRAN_TILL_I_DIE]

If Ali Karimi moved to Spain when they wanted him (think he was around 20 years old), he would have shone on the world stage and would have been a household name around the world and considered an all time great...

[persiangodfather]

if protests didnt happen we would have beat USA in Qatar.

amazing take by me honestly, If some one takes the time and reads all my comments regarding team melli you will see i am spot on regarding every analysis , I wagered my k!r that we wouldnt win AC in a thread with oracle I cant find it but I posted that it doesnt matter even if we face jordan in the final we will lose because we are cursed. Simply

then in asian cup 2019 I posted we will lose because our midfield wasnt deep enough. People commented our mid is too deep LOL