Get to know our opponents in the upcoming Qualifiers

[Sam van Dam]

had i known any better, by reading some of your guys' posts' it seems like morocco is the second coming of brazil 2002. they are good, no doubt, but they are beatable. although we haven't been playing convincingly, a lot of that has to do with CQ and paying the wrong players i.e. cheshmi, amiri, karim (wayyyyy out of position lol) over the likes of ghoddos. we haven't really seen the real team melli, arguably since our last game vs s.korea or games vs panama and venezuela. the only way i see us losing to morocco, is if we beat ourselves. Cheshmi will be starting along PAG. and given his history of being responsible for 3 of the 4 goals we have conceded in our past 5 games, he needs to have the game of his life. CQ also needs to realize that Karim is no midfielder. would much rather have Gholizadeh or Ghoddos play instead of Karim. Ramin gonna have to step it up too. Ezza's red card really hurt us, but if we let morocco screw around with the ball eventually we can get them on a counter and thats when we play best. i.e. AJB pass to Hajsafi vs Turkey, and Torabi's 90' minute shot vs Tunisia. TM is no possession team, as much as we'd all enjoy that. this will most likely be CQs line-up which frightens me
--------------------Beiro---------------
--Ramin---Cheshmi-----PAG----MiMo----
----------Shojaei-----------Ebrahimi-----
----AJB---------Karim------------Hajsafi/Amiri----
----------------Azmoun------------
when instead it should be
--------------------Beiro------------------
---Ramin---Montazeri----PAG-----MiMo---
----------------Ebrahimi--------------
-------Shojaei-----------------Hajsafi-------
-----AJB-------------------Ghoddos---------
------------------Azmoun------------
i'd have dejagah in there, but sub him for shojaei around '60, gucci for azmoun, taremi for hajsafi, then swap with ghoddos. i swear to god we will soorakh these cocky punks.
ghoddos hasn't really been given the opportunity to shine, but he always delivers when he plays. i really hope CQ doesn't plan to use him as a super sub, we need him playing total 90. Ghoddos, Dejagah, AJB, and Azmoun together is scary. we almost had that vs. turkey but had Gucci in place of Azmoun and we saw how much better we played the last 10 minutes.

[arvin_guzoo]

had i known any better, by reading some of your guys' posts' it seems like morocco is the second coming of brazil 2002. they are good, no doubt, but they are beatable. although we haven't been playing convincingly, a lot of that has to do with CQ and paying the wrong players i.e. cheshmi, amiri, karim (wayyyyy out of position lol) over the likes of ghoddos. we haven't really seen the real team melli, arguably since our last game vs s.korea or games vs panama and venezuela. the only way i see us losing to morocco, is if we beat ourselves. Cheshmi will be starting along PAG. and given his history of being responsible for 3 of the 4 goals we have conceded in our past 5 games, he needs to have the game of his life. CQ also needs to realize that Karim is no midfielder. would much rather have Gholizadeh or Ghoddos play instead of Karim. Ramin gonna have to step it up too. Ezza's red card really hurt us, but if we let morocco screw around with the ball eventually we can get them on a counter and thats when we play best. i.e. AJB pass to Hajsafi vs Turkey, and Torabi's 90' minute shot vs Tunisia. TM is no possession team, as much as we'd all enjoy that. this will most likely be CQs line-up which frightens me
--------------------Beiro---------------
--Ramin---Cheshmi-----PAG----MiMo----
----------Shojaei-----------Ebrahimi-----
----AJB---------Karim------------Hajsafi/Amiri----
----------------Azmoun------------
when instead it should be
--------------------Beiro------------------
---Ramin---Montazeri----PAG-----MiMo---
----------------Ebrahimi--------------
-------Shojaei-----------------Hajsafi-------
-----AJB-------------------Ghoddos---------
------------------Azmoun------------
i'd have dejagah in there, but sub him for shojaei around '60, gucci for azmoun, taremi for hajsafi, then swap with ghoddos. i swear to god we will soorakh these cocky punks.
ghoddos hasn't really been given the opportunity to shine, but he always delivers when he plays. i really hope CQ doesn't plan to use him as a super sub, we need him playing total 90. Ghoddos, Dejagah, AJB, and Azmoun together is scary. we almost had that vs. turkey but had Gucci in place of Azmoun and we saw how much better we played the last 10 minutes.

I really hope so Sam, my fear is that our Mid field will be too weak against any of our opponents, and you'll see us having a hard time transitioning play. Ezzas red card is coming back to haunt us...

[jojofaith]

Dude, compact counter-attacking football is exactly what allowed us to be competitive for 90 minutes against Argentina. Do you really think that match would've been as competitive had we played more offensively?

Yes, offense is the best defense. You cant keep taking attack after attack & think were going to win. Any professional team you give them 10 opportunities they're going to put one away. Just saying

[Fesenjan]

Yes, offense is the best defense. You cant keep taking attack after attack & think were going to win. Any professional team you give them 10 opportunities they're going to put one away. Just saying

I respect that opinion, but I think you're much more likely to concede playing the possession game against a superior side and leaving your back line exposed. Our defensive strength is built on a team concept and not individual quality, so it makes no sense to compromise that - again, the Turkey friendly is instructive on this point.

We put up a fantastic display against Argentina with only 30% possession and less than 1/2 the number of total shots and shots on target. So yes, it's entirely possible to play compactly and still compete to win.

[jojofaith]

I respect that opinion, but I think you're much more likely to concede playing the possession game against a superior side and leaving your back line exposed. Our defensive strength is built on a team concept and not individual quality, so it makes no sense to compromise that - again, the Turkey friendly is instructive on this point.

We put up a fantastic display against Argentina with only 30% possession and less than 1/2 the number of total shots and shots on target. So yes, it's entirely possible to play compactly and still compete to win.

Whatbwas the result of the Argentina game again? Will 3 draws get you out of the group? Me personally, losing by 1 is no different than losing by 10 so go for it after you score than defend compactly pr do whatever

[persiangooner]

Whatbwas the result of the Argentina game again? Will 3 draws get you out of the group? Me personally, losing by 1 is no different than losing by 10 so go for it after you score than defend compactly pr do whatever

It's possible to get out of the group with just 3 points, on superior goal difference (unlikely but possible). At 4 points it becomes much more likely; there were 3-4 teams in 2014 that advanced in second with that number, whereas there were none finishing higher than 3rd when they got 3 points.

We need to beat Morocco then get at least 1 point out of a potential 6 from Spain and Portugal. Hard, but doable. Score and keep a compact defense, we got a shot.

[Fesenjan]

Whatbwas the result of the Argentina game again? Will 3 draws get you out of the group? Me personally, losing by 1 is no different than losing by 10 so go for it after you score than defend compactly pr do whatever

I encourage you to look at the entire performance and not just the final score. The reality is that Iran's strategy produced legitimate scoring opportunities all while keeping Argentina scoreless for 90 minutes of play.

The notion that "playing compact" equates to "playing for a draw" is simply incorrect.

[Saam]

Whatbwas the result of the Argentina game again? Will 3 draws get you out of the group? Me personally, losing by 1 is no different than losing by 10 so go for it after you score than defend compactly pr do whatever

The result of that game was a loss but it was because of bad luck/bad refereeing. Taking into account the strength of our team (much worse than this one) and the fact that Argentina was runner up that year, we really played much much better than the sum of our parts so the way we played was super effective.

[Keano]

Yes, offense is the best defense. You cant keep taking attack after attack & think were going to win. Any professional team you give them 10 opportunities they're going to put one away. Just saying

So you believe offense is the best defense against all teams? Are you suggesting we should play offensive against Spain and even Portugal?

[Leicester City]

So you believe offense is the best defense against all teams? Are you suggesting we should play offensive against Spain and even Portugal?

Do you want to get out of this group?

[Fesenjan]

Do you want to get out of this group?

You don't seem to understand the logic here. TM has demonstrated the ability to contend with top-ranked squads through discipline, team defense, and counter-attacks. So if we want to get of this group, then this is the appropriate strategy.

[KC McElroy]

It's possible to get out of the group with just 3 points, on superior goal difference (unlikely but possible). At 4 points it becomes much more likely; there were 3-4 teams in 2014 that advanced in second with that number, whereas there were none finishing higher than 3rd when they got 3 points.

We need to beat Morocco then get at least 1 point out of a potential 6 from Spain and Portugal. Hard, but doable. Score and keep a compact defense, we got a shot.

It's possible even with just 2 points.

[Saam]

Good to see this.

[Iranianarsenal11]

So apparently Leroy Sane's middle name is Aziz??

Well shit, damet garm haji! Velcome to Team Melli!! If only we could somehow pull some Qatari type shit and snag him up

[OFFSIDE_1]

Having watched the highlights, i would say 90% of their attacks are from the right side of the pitch, so I expect Mohammadi to be awfully busy.

Their game on the left side was non-existent.