Mr Taj, time to fire GN NOW!

[Keshwardoost]

he is doing a great job! it takes a dip to upgrade the defence. im happy. we look sharp!

[Pluto2000]

Our offence is overrated : Azmoun +Taremi together won't work against better opposition, Ghaedi will get outmuscle by any decent team. Mohebi is quality

Yep. Which is why we need to rely on defense even more than ever....Taremi and Azmoun are not reliable strikers in big moments.

Neither of them can finish the job in big games at the world cup. The Azmoun that scored 30 goals in UAE this season only scored 3 in Rome.

I really hope coaching staff can wake up and properly fix defense, but it's been 2 years and I'm not particularly confident.

[PSGman#19]

Exactly. Our offense is probably the best in Asia. Without the up top 4 of Ghaedi - Azmoun - Taremi - Mohebi, our team is probably Kuwait level. I'd even wager we would be worse because at least those teams can park the bus. We can't even park the bus anymore. Our goal concessions vast majority of them come from defensive errors or set pieces. IMO doesn't make me confident at all.

Our offence is overrated : Azmoun +Taremi together won't work against better opposition, Ghaedi will get outmuscle by any decent team. Mohebi is quality

[Pluto2000]

Without a more defensive approach, we'll get nowhere at the world Cup.

Exactly. Our offense is probably the best in Asia. Without the up top 4 of Ghaedi - Azmoun - Taremi - Mohebi, our team is probably Kuwait level. I'd even wager we would be worse because at least those teams can park the bus. We can't even park the bus anymore. Our goal concessions vast majority of them come from defensive errors or set pieces. IMO doesn't make me confident at all.

[Super Shojaei]

Exactly, I also wouldn't give ghalenoie the credit. Like you said, the opponents are even worse now, except Uzbekistan and we've all seen how that went.

We're creating many chances and scoring some goals because Ghalenoie plays offensively. However, our attackers simply aren't clinical enough so we'll continue missing most chances, and we keep conceding more goals these days because of this open attacking play.

Without a more defensive approach, we'll get nowhere at the world Cup.

Issue is teams in our group haven’t been that clinical too- Qatar created some decent chances against us and couldn’t finish, North Korea for all their woes still scored two past us

Asian teams in general have weak attacks but our group especially is just defensively woeful

I do believe we deserved more attacking wise we created a lot against the likes of uae North Korea and Qatar and I’d argue we deserved more goals against these sides

but this is a much weaker Qatar team than the one who won the 2019 and even 2023 Asian cups

and it’s a much weaker uae team than 10 years again

and a much weaker North Korea side to the one of 10 years ago

Uzbekistan is the only team in our group that’s shown real improvement -krgyststan I’d argue to an extent

[arj42]

CQ close to signing with Iraq national team apparently

[webmaster]

رییس دزدا هرگز شریکش رو لو نمیده هرگز.

[sam20]

I think we deserved 2-3 goals in the uae away game - even against Uzbekistan at home we created a lot of chances - away arguably we deserved a penalty

we are creating - we do have clinical attacking talents like Mohebi

2010 we couldnt buy a goal to save our life sorta similar issue in 2014 so in terms of campaigns we are still way above them but I don’t think it’s down to gn - it’s more Qatar’s defence got really old and they couldn’t replace their defenders , North Korea is too weak with sanctions and FIFA bans to create any rhythm with their best player spending Covid stuck in a Qatari embassy

and uae have resorted to calling up league 1 British players whose parents were working in Dubai and staring said player that’s how thin their breadth is

Exactly, I also wouldn't give ghalenoie the credit. Like you said, the opponents are even worse now, except Uzbekistan and we've all seen how that went.

We're creating many chances and scoring some goals because Ghalenoie plays offensively. However, our attackers simply aren't clinical enough so we'll continue missing most chances, and we keep conceding more goals these days because of this open attacking play.

Without a more defensive approach, we'll get nowhere at the world Cup.

[sam20]

We were shaking in our boots at the thought of GN at the helm vs Japan in the last Asian Cup.

However, our defense played well against probably the most potent offense in Asia, and we ended up beating them.

I’m not a GN fan, but maybe he’ll have plans against more superior opponents in the World Cup?

Just because our defense was porous against Uzbekistan, doesn’t mean we’ll get annihilated against the better teams. As we know in football, 1+1 doesn’t always equal 2.

I see what You're saying but that Japan team was poor at the Asian Cup. They struggled/failed to look convincing vs pretty much everyone, including the likes of Vietnam... Yet we still need some serious luck to barely win via a Penalty kick goal in the dying minutes.

I personally wouldn't use that match as an example/reference to think ghalenoie might be able to pull something off against decent sides at the world Cup. With the way we're going, it's going be to an embarrassment.

[Prowess]

We were shaking in our boots at the thought of GN at the helm vs Japan in the last Asian Cup.

However, our defense played well against probably the most potent offense in Asia, and we ended up beating them.

I’m not a GN fan, but maybe he’ll have plans against more superior opponents in the World Cup?

Just because our defense was porous against Uzbekistan, doesn’t mean we’ll get annihilated against the better teams. As we know in football, 1+1 doesn’t always equal 2.

[PSGman#19]

When you have more talented players than the opponents (uae, uzb, qatar..) you win 80% of the time (in other sports it would be 90 to 99,99%). GN just ride on the cq team that made its proof before to secure the result. It worked but the more time pass the less it will work (see Uzbekistan that is emerging and we can't beat)

[Super Shojaei]

100% agree. We're just not being punished for silly mistakes most of the time. Even Uzbekistan took advantage of our mistakes... Can only imagine what would happen against any decent side.

Even UAE should have scored at least 1-2 against us but we got so lucky.

Our talented attackers are saving us but it won't be enough at the world Cup.

I think we deserved 2-3 goals in the uae away game - even against Uzbekistan at home we created a lot of chances - away arguably we deserved a penalty

we are creating - we do have clinical attacking talents like Mohebi

2010 we couldnt buy a goal to save our life sorta similar issue in 2014 so in terms of campaigns we are still way above them but I don’t think it’s down to gn - it’s more Qatar’s defence got really old and they couldn’t replace their defenders , North Korea is too weak with sanctions and FIFA bans to create any rhythm with their best player spending Covid stuck in a Qatari embassy

and uae have resorted to calling up league 1 British players whose parents were working in Dubai and staring said player that’s how thin their breadth is

[Super Shojaei]

As a TM fan for 25+ years, here’s the simple answer: Iran qualified because other Asian team are less talented, not because GN is a brilliant coach. He will be way over his head and his dahati tactics will be an embarrassment at the WC to you and me and any self-respecting Iranian. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

For the most part I think the majority of Asian teams have improved - this Asian cup showed that even teams with multi million pound defenders like Japan and Korea were conceding goals to minnows like Vietnam and Indonesia




I think we are lucky as the majority sides on a upward trajectory weren’t in our groups- teams like Oman, Indonesia , Iraq , , Bahrain Jordan , Uzbekistan are a lot better than they were in 2018-22 - Uzbekistan and Jordan now have real top players playing in top leagues- Oman,Bahrain are solid defensive units difficult to break down and Indonesia has nationalised enough erdevise Dutch players so that they’ll always be a strong team. Iraq can play at home now and arguably have the most intimidating stadium out of all the Asian nations - although they flopped now I think away it would’ve been a tough match for team Melli




But teams like UAE, Saudi Arabia , Qatar , China and Australia are on clear slumps - Qatar defensively atrocious and they were well aware of that issue hence their approach to nationalise hazbavi , UAE also careless and unable to string any sort of form together even drawing at home to North Korea




But maybe it could also be the large amount of games this season is just having a draining impact on the players - we saw son heung min make a bad mistake for the Oman goal and he didn’t even seem that asked about it




During the Asian cup the players didn’t seem too bothered v Hong Kong arguably our worst performance under gn where berinvand even handled outside the box - South Korea conceded three careless goals against Malaysia - Japan also conceded plenty it just seemed that there’s an element that players don’t care as much or are so inundated with busy schedules that caring about extra games seems beyond on them or maybe their bodies just can’t take it




Even South Korea with all their big European names seem to look at this qualification as lacklustre - it almost seems dare I say it too easy so players sit back and relax alot more I think that’s why we are seeing the big teams make a lot more bigger mistakes against the smaller nations? Maybe I’m wrong but it’s just the vibe I’m getting- looking at the Hong Kong game in the Asian cup we took a lot of reckless lazy passes that nearly gifted them the lead - similar sort of situation to South Korea when they played Malaysia




Anyway the extra games should be used to give young players a chance - it didn’t and I think we are going to see repercussions of this in the next qualifying campaign. I still want gn out as he just isn’t experimenting enough

in terms of our group there has been some quite frankly horrific defending - the uae defending for Ghaedi’s goal was shocking so too was Krgyz’s goalkeeping for the goal in Tehran and let’s not forget Qatar’s horrific high line

we’ve been blessed with some ridiculous self capitulation from our opponents . Most Asian defences are simply horrific at doing the basics so even a declining Azmoun will look good in this campaign

[Nokhodi]

Which part you disagree with ?

2002 team failed , they had a world class coach but mister Ali Daei was acting like a bully and he told Ivic who to play and not to play .

the players on that team drank got drunk and visited prostituties in Thailand , they lost easy points there ? In Bahrain they went drinking and were hangover the game against Bahrain !

Is that the coaches fault? We did not go to the WC 2002 cause we couldn’t even get past Bahrain in Tehran 0-0?? Is that the coach ?

this team is more talented than that team , those players in 2002 a lot of them had never even trained professionally until IVic took them to the Croatia camp …

the players now are way more professional in terms of everything, we have a lot of great players that a coach like GN can never find or dare invite , that is the bigger issue ,

just like how we had CQ come and throw the old guard out , and brought a whole new generation of players , we need that

I disagree with the notion that just because you have talented players you will qualify!

And I think you're mixing up 2002 with '98. Ivic was coach in 1998.

[sam20]

Please brother ,, UAE , Qatar , North Korea, Kyrgyzstan even Uzbekistan which is the strongest team we faced got beat by the USA 3-0 , these teams are not hard teams to beat at home or away ,…. We have the easier group out of the 3 , and no one said we have a problem qualifying,

it is at the World Cup that we struggle, you can’t compare the teams we going to play at the World Cup with these soft Asian teams we play against in Asia ,,,,

like if you watch carefully you see we make a lot defensive mistakes , but none of these Asian team can punish us , cause they don’t have the quality too ,,


But make these same mistake in the World Cup and you get punished right away ,

100% agree. We're just not being punished for silly mistakes most of the time. Even Uzbekistan took advantage of our mistakes... Can only imagine what would happen against any decent side.

Even UAE should have scored at least 1-2 against us but we got so lucky.

Our talented attackers are saving us but it won't be enough at the world Cup.