Iran vs. Turkmenistan March 21 and March 26 Pre-Match Discussion

[oracle]

For LB, Goudarzi is MUCH more talented than Jalali imo. Same pace, more talent. Even Nekounam wanted to buy him to play over Jalali but SZ refuse to sell him 🤣

Replace Kanaani with Aghasi and you got a very solid defensive system. Kanaani is like a soosk that doesn't die

Kanani will be around ac27

[oracle]

Defense position usually has 8 spot
4 cb
2 rb
2 lb

Here is my 4 cb. for this fifa days.
Kanani...majidi...hezbavi...fallah

Lb:
Milad,abulfazl jalali

Rb it gets tricky since 2 main candidates moharami and aria are hurt.

Rb. Danial esmailifar, hardani(both had tm call up before)


Kanani, majidi,fallah,hezbavi,danial,hardani,milad,jalali
are my 8 picks for this fifa days.
add biravand,niazmand,hossini as goalies THATS 11 PLAYERS RIGHT THERE.

Also there is usually 4 wingers

Rw
I don't think any hc will move on from
J.b at 30 and golizadeh even younger.

lw
Mohebi and gaedy are set in stone

8 defenders ,3 goali ,4 wingers thats 15 so far..

Then usually total of 5 dmf and acm combined
SAEED,SAMAN, JAVD NEJAD,khoda bandlu,ghorbani
That makes my list 20 so far

Lets add 4 forwards
Medi,sardar,jafari..alipoor
that's 24

One wildcard is norafkan he can play several positions.

Here is my 25 for this fifa day

Biravand hossini niyazmand
milad
Jalali
Majidi
Kanani
Hezbavi
Fallah
Danial
Hardani
Gaedy
Mohebi
Goli
J.b
Javad nezhad
Saeed
Saman
Norafkan
Khodabanlu
Gorbani
Sardar
Mehdi
Jafari
Alipoor

above 25 will drop age average,

Starting 11

Biravand
Danial kanani majidi milad
J.b saeed. Saman. Mohebi
Sardar mehdi

For me above that's best 11 tm has currently.🤣🤣

2nd team starting line up

Niazmand
Hardani. Falah hezbavi jalali
Goli. Norafkan javadnejad gaedy
alipoor Jafari

Hosseini,bandlu,ghorbani, warming the bench

[PSGman#19]

I can't wait for the new list is released.

Not me, I am scared af about what kind of crappy list and line up/substitute GN will choose.
The Asian cup list completely destroyed my end of December lol

[Nokhodi]

Not me, I am scared af about what kind of crappy list and line up/substitute GN will choose.
The Asian cup list completely destroyed my end of December lol

The rumor is he will be giving several legionnaires a rest.

[Salar]

For me the problem is that we will easily qualify for the next WC and will end up having GN as our coach and get embarrassed beyond belief during the tournament..

[PSGman#19]

The rumor is he will be giving several legionnaires a rest.

Wouldn't have a problem with that but the Annoying habit of every TM coach (GN is the worst) to choose so many non TM material

[Nokhodi]

For me the problem is that we will easily qualify for the next WC and will end up having GN as our coach and get embarrassed beyond belief during the tournament..

Salar jan, you overestimate international football.

Upon further comment, we overestimate the "big" teams, and make tactical adjustments, and play ok.
On the other hand we think Asia is "easy" and then play sh*t games like we did in the first round of qualifiers with Wilmots!

[perspolis#1]

For me the problem is that we will easily qualify for the next WC and will end up having GN as our coach and get embarrassed beyond belief during the tournament..

Closer to the tournament once some teams qualify they make simulators for what teams we will get. The level of them will be overall a bit lower because of the expanded tournament.

Theres a chance our group of England, USA, Iran, Wales becomes a group like England, Iran, Wales, El Salvador.

[sam20]

Closer to the tournament once some teams qualify they make simulators for what teams we will get. The level of them will be overall a bit lower because of the expanded tournament.

Theres a chance our group of England, USA, Iran, Wales becomes a group like England, Iran, Wales, El Salvador.

I'm assuming Salar is referring to the matches vs strong opponents. That's where we'll get rocked with ghalegoozoo as coach... although even group stage can easily give us a very tough time / not be surpassed with this amateur coaching! We just recently struggled vs Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, Syria, and lost to Qatar.

[Nokhodi]

I'm assuming Salar is referring to the matches vs strong opponents. That's where we'll get rocked with ghalegoozoo as coach... although even group stage can easily give us a very tough time / not be surpassed with this amateur coaching! We just recently struggled vs Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, Syria, and lost to Qatar.

Yet we played our best football versus Japan.
Our issue is always being focused on the biggest game, and then underestimating the weaker teams.

Keep in mind, when we play "weaker" teams, they go low block against us and it's a completely different game.

[Pluto2000]

Yet we played our best football versus Japan.
Our issue is always being focused on the biggest game, and then underestimating the weaker teams.

Keep in mind, when we play "weaker" teams, they go low block against us and it's a completely different game.

In Japan game one reason why we won is Japan decided not to press us so hard and sit back after they scored that first goal. TM always excels vs teams that give us space and let us attack.

The problem is not who we face but how we try to play, which is dysfunctional. Its like 4-2-2 but es-hal version . GN has experience with 3-5-2 the most and that's why our fullbacks always push up to the top to join the attack but we lack an extra midfielder and CB in the back to make our defense more stable. It's a result from trying to force Taremi and Azmoun on together and make everyone else fit them (which isn't wrong perse but it still makes it dysfunctional)

Its not the low block that gets us, its when teams press us that we break down. We actually tend to perform way better against low-blocks as we always break them down (got unlucky against Syria as we missed like 10 open goal chances). It's more important for the TM staff to look at why we struggled so hard against: Jordan, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, and Qatar.

In all the aforementioned cases there are very specific ways in which we caught lacking when the opposing team pressed us, thus making us lose defensive shape and defend like chickens with their hands cut off. Notice how its always TM defense that looks chaotic and making last minute saves compared to everyone else we face?

We need to fix the following problems:
1. Our fullbacks acting like wingbacks and always pushing up so high. Most notably being Ramin getting caught off guard 2x vs Uzbekistan, Milad 2x vs Uzbekistan, Ramin abandoning post and running to left wing (with cheshmi doing a solo run) making Taremi get a red card vs Syria, Ramin being out of position and leading to Shoja getting a red card vs Qatar after a last ditch save, etc.

2. Defensive shape. Our midfielders are either dropping too low when defending or always too high up when wingbacks are also high up. If GN instructed Ezatolahi to press outside of the box more we could have avoided a lot of our deflection goals we conceded (again from last ditch effort from our irregular shape when we had all the space in the world to deny them that space).


Also wanted to mention I wholeheartedly blame GNs squad selection for our Qatar loss as a speedy RB and Nourallahi could have made all the difference compared to tired Ramin and Grandpa Omid

[oracle]

Only way I can get over not wining ac
is win both matches in eid
6-0 whooping of Turkmenistan
which always give tm tough time is great.

[sam20]

Yet we played our best football versus Japan.
Our issue is always being focused on the biggest game, and then underestimating the weaker teams.

Keep in mind, when we play "weaker" teams, they go low block against us and it's a completely different game.

Japan were not themselves during this tournament. Struggled vs every opponent except maybe Bahrain?

I understand your point about the low block but we've also struggled badly vs teams who press us hard.

I don't think we lose vs "weaker" teams because we underestimate them....I mean this has been happening for decades... if that was the issue we'd learn from it after several years of the same results.

Issue is our poor coaching with inability to change tactics/lineups appropriately to match the opponent's style, then using the excuse of "footballe dige!" Lolll.

Another issue: we're not good at converting chances.. we miss several before finally scoring. At the same time, we're open at the back and teams punish us (Qatar match perfect example).

If you can't finish chances, at least have a strong & stubborn defense that doesn't concede.

Unfortunately we end up with neither when we play this tactically poor, open style.

[perspolis#1]

I don't think we lose vs "weaker" teams because we underestimate them....I mean this has been happening for decades... if that was the issue we'd learn from it after several years of the same results.

Issue is our poor coaching with inability to change tactics/lineups appropriately to match the opponent's style, then using the excuse of "footballe dige!" Lolll.

Another issue: we're not good at converting chances.. we miss several before finally scoring. At the same time, we're open at the back and teams punish us (Qatar match perfect example).

If you can't finish chances, at least have a strong & stubborn defense that doesn't concede.

Unfortunately we end up with neither when we play this tactically poor, open style.

I agree with most of all of the above but you are giving too much credit to our footballing minds and players when you say "we would learn from underestimating opponents".

This has continued to happen since I started following TM at the turn of the century. Multiple players ignoring the game and running to the referee to argue or in some players like Taremi's case...letting a chance go just so they can try and engineer a foul or penalty.

I lost count of how many times people have said "its only Bahrain" for us to go and tie them 0-0 etc.

These things plague our game and Arabs especially finally picked up on it more and are exploiting it which is why we get so many red cards now.

Tactically we are below average and unfortunately we rely on individual performances throughout our squad.

I've watched PGL and TM for many years and see the same mistakes with no learning curve.

If our players were mice trying to get the cheese through the door and getting shocked, they still try the same door everytime.

Some examples:

1) Wingbacks deciding they are Ronaldo/Messi and trying to dribble through 5 people in their own half and pushing up only to give up the ball and cause dangerous counter.

2) Centerbacks trying stupid acrobatic clearances for no other reason besides narekhari and then hurting themselves or giving away fouls. Same with our goalies esp Beiranvand this AC

3) Midfielders unable to beat a press and resorting to long balls and physical battles without even worrying about the 2nd ball. For comparison, a short team like Argentina knows they dont win the headers but set up in a way to pick up the 2nd ball and keep possession. We have zero midfielders capable of cleaning up the midfield

4) Wingers trying to do too much dribbling and ineffective crosses without considering where the danger zones are. I've watched crosses in PGL and TM go above everyones head or lobbed to no one or the opposite GK weekly for 20 years.

5) Strikers--> too many touches in the box. Not enough ruthless decisionmaking. Poor finishing. More focused on getting a penalty than a goal.

[Nokhodi]

Japan were not themselves during this tournament. Struggled vs every opponent except maybe Bahrain?

I understand your point about the low block but we've also struggled badly vs teams who press us hard.

I don't think we lose vs "weaker" teams because we underestimate them....I mean this has been happening for decades... if that was the issue we'd learn from it after several years of the same results.

Issue is our poor coaching with inability to change tactics/lineups appropriately to match the opponent's style, then using the excuse of "footballe dige!" Lolll.

Another issue: we're not good at converting chances.. we miss several before finally scoring. At the same time, we're open at the back and teams punish us (Qatar match perfect example).

If you can't finish chances, at least have a strong & stubborn defense that doesn't concede.

Unfortunately we end up with neither when we play this tactically poor, open style.

Japan were very much themselves.

The reason Japan plays so well against big teams is that they completely change their style and play as an underdog versus them.
Whereas in Asia, they have the bulk of possession and have to break down their opponents. Even with all their talent, that is hard to do, particularly against teams that are physically stronger than them.

Just look at their style in World Cup 2022 versus Asian Cup 2023. Night and day style of football.