Do we really need to be so defensive?

[KC McElroy]

WC 2006, attacking football 1:3 to Mexioco loss, 0:2 to Portugal.
WC 1978, attacking football, 0:3 to Netherlands, 1:4 (freaking 1:4) to Peru.
No Thanks!

2014 we came very close to beat Argentina, so did we vs Spain! I take this stratgey over previous attempts!

I am afraid, this is an area we disagree...

It's not a fair comparison as there are different players, coaches, opponents, etc. But regardless I don't think we are disagreeing about the initial defensive approach. My objection was our refusal to even try to counter and instead just kicking the ball away aimlessly whenever Spain lost the ball. We weren't like that against Argentina.

[Adesor Vafaseya]

Lol defensive football in 2014...0-0 Nigeria and 1-3 loss to eliminated Bosnia with a chance to progress. Man we can skew things anyway!
1978 for example...we drew a powerful Scotland. 98 we almost had Yugo and deserved at least a 3-1 v USA...playing more offensive minded of course.
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Bosnia we played offensive, 1:3 loss.
Yugo, I watched that game game at least 25 times, as I have it on VHS! We play defensive and on counter attack!


Again
1, if we had the same youth infrastructure and same level of fitness as most European Leagues, then sure we would be able to play a more offensive football, without getting out of gas like Bosnia game (last game 2014), Germany game (last game 1998), Peru game (last game 1978).
2, again, we DO NOT PLAY 90mins defensively. We do get on attack mode after 50-60 mins, has been like that for 7 years. Why do you think we got those spaces vs Spain? They were fooled into our half of the field.


Again, we dont have to agree...!

[O-ZoNe]

WC 2006, attacking football 1:3 to Mexioco loss, 0:2 to Portugal.
WC 1978, attacking football, 0:3 to Netherlands, 1:4 (freaking 1:4) to Peru.
No Thanks!

2014 we came very close to beat Argentina, so did we vs Spain! I take this stratgey over previous attempts!

I am afraid, this is an area we disagree...

Lol defensive football in 2014...0-0 Nigeria and 1-3 loss to eliminated Bosnia with a chance to progress. Man we can skew things anyway!

1978 for example...we drew a powerful Scotland. 98 we almost had Yugo and deserved at least a 3-1 v USA...playing more offensive minded of course.

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[Adesor Vafaseya]

Spot on. Booting it up the field will only invite more pressure.

Yes ok defend, that's fine. But then actually try to counter attack. As my fellow England fans tell me (along English commentators like Ian Wright) "you have some very good players". Yes, we do. We should use them.

HELLO???
we dont defend for 90mins, thats bullshit! we start attacking after 50-60 mins!

English commentators:
Yes if we had the same youth level as English Premiel League and same fitness, we would play 90 mins pressing and attack and kick all their english a$$es or arses I should say!

[Adesor Vafaseya]

Ya two 1-0 defeats...the stat that really matters wouldn't you agree? We are trying to move to round if 16...perhaps just holding teams back isn't the best strategy?
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WC 2006, attacking football 1:3 to Mexioco loss, 0:2 to Portugal.
WC 1978, attacking football, 0:3 to Netherlands, 1:4 (freaking 1:4) to Peru.
No Thanks!

2014 we came very close to beat Argentina, so did we vs Spain! I take this stratgey over previous attempts!

I am afraid, this is an area we disagree...

[Sam khan]

No we had legitimate chances against them. Against Spain I recall at least 3 times that after they lost the ball we simply booted the ball upfield to no one, no Iranian player even close or even present in their half, as if we weren't even interested in trying to counter attack and just wanted to kill the clock and game.

Spot on. Booting it up the field will only invite more pressure.

Yes ok defend, that's fine. But then actually try to counter attack. As my fellow England fans tell me (along English commentators like Ian Wright) "you have some very good players". Yes, we do. We should use them.

[Adesor Vafaseya]

No we had legitimate chances against them. Against Spain I recall at least 3 times that after they lost the ball we simply booted the ball upfield to no one, no Iranian player even close or even present in their half, as if we weren't even interested in trying to counter attack and just wanted to kill the clock and game.

its still a strategy, albeit an unattractive one. (I love it though!)

[O-ZoNe]

But we did the same vs Argentina too in the first half.
I think its all part of the strategy, too frustrate the opponents, and then surpirse them!
Whatever looked “embarrassing” in first half, looked overall good after 95 mins.

Ya two 1-0 defeats against Argentina and Spain...the stat that really matters wouldn't you agree? We are trying to move to round if 16...perhaps just holding teams back isn't the best strategy?

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[Sam khan]

8 posts, joins June 2018.
Most members here have been watching Iranian soccer religiously for the last 10+ years.
We are not good enough to not play defensive against Spain or Portugal. If you don't think so go watch our friendly a month ago against Turkey where we didn't play defensive.

Highlights for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-q8jcQQHGU

I can show you games of England, Brazil, Germany etc where we have played worse.

True, I've not been watching Iranian footy as religiously as most here hence bringing the discussion to the forum. I won't pretend to know the way we should play watching just world cup games and a handful of qualifiers.

But I know what footy is, living in a country where it's played religiously and very seriously and I'm active on several other footy forums, having been an amateur player and I've likely watched more live very high quality footy matches than, with respect, anyone living in Canada And I know what I see. What I see, on the strength of all last WC's games and the games I've seen this WC and the few qualifiers in between is we're not as shit as we think we are.

Sometimes it takes an outsider like me, someone who knows footy well but who isn't coloured by years of Iranian footy, to just cast a different light on things. We were EXCELLENT against Spain, one of the best teams in the world, when we attacked. Likewise against Argentina several years ago. Another ref and we'd have won that game.

I just don't understand where this defeatist attitude comes from. Please please please let's not evolve to become another boring Italy.

[KC McElroy]

But we did the same vs Argentina too in the first half.
I think its all part of the strategy, too frustrate the opponents, and then surpirse them!
Whatever looked “embarrassing” in first half, looked overall good after 95 mins.

No we had legitimate chances against them. Against Spain I recall at least 3 times that after they lost the ball we simply booted the ball upfield to no one, no Iranian player even close or even present in their half, as if we weren't even interested in trying to counter attack and just wanted to kill the clock and game.

[Adesor Vafaseya]

I don't think we defend all the time. I would have been ok if our first 60 minutes against Spain was the same as it was against Argentina. But what we did against Spain was simply kick the ball as far up field anytime they lost the ball. We hardly even tried to counter and the aimless boots into an empty half of the field looked embarrassing.

But we did the same vs Argentina too in the first half.
I think its all part of the strategy, too frustrate the opponents, and then surpirse them!
Whatever looked “embarrassing” in first half, looked overall good after 95 mins.

[inarsenewetrust]

CQ literally has a strategy thats always to go for the win. It is highly related to his subs, and an offensive surge around minute 60-65. IT didnt happen vs morocco, bc the subs got fucked up with ebrahimi's injury. We saw it against spain, it was always the game plan to go for the win, because a draw would not have helped us at all ( We still would have needed to win our final match).

Opening up early is suicide. By keeping it so tight, the frustration of opposition grows, they become very annoyed, and are put into a false sense of security that iran can only defend. Then, as the throw to many bodies forward and forget about their defensive duties, TM can strike, like we saw vs Spain, and in the first half vs morocco after the first 20 mins.

If we play totally open like some morons suggest, then we will end up like tunisia, who are a talented team that decided to just go gung ho vs belgium, lost 5-2, thanks but not thanks.

Our match vs Turkey we played open, and gave up the most chances I have ever seen us give up, again, No thanks. Once TM has midfield players and defenders capable of competing TECHNICALLY with the spanish and portuguese, then we can play expansive open football. Until then, this is our only chance. Whoever says otherwise clearly doesnt understand football.

[KC McElroy]

Did you watch 2nd half Argentina?
we did get offensive automatically (without getting scored) after min. 50-60. Its a wrong notion that we defend all the time. We have a strategy to start defensively and push forward the last 30mins of the game to surprise opponents who were getting tired of aimlessly attacking us!

We never play 90 mins defense under CQ! Even if Spain wouldn’t have scored, we would have done the same attacks after min 60!

I don't think we defend all the time. I would have been ok if our first 60 minutes against Spain was the same as it was against Argentina. But what we did against Spain was simply kick the ball as far up field anytime they lost the ball. We hardly even tried to counter and the aimless boots into an empty half of the field looked embarrassing.

[Adesor Vafaseya]

Did you watch the last 30 minutes of our game against Spain?

Did you watch 2nd half Argentina?
we did get offensive automatically (without getting scored) after min. 50-60. Its a wrong notion that we defend all the time. We have a strategy to start defensively and push forward the last 30mins of the game to surprise opponents who were getting tired of aimlessly attacking us!

We never play 90 mins defense under CQ! Even if Spain wouldn’t have scored, we would have done the same attacks after min 60!

[O-ZoNe]

Actually I see it the other way around. I'm not saying TM is playing the ideal way, sure we have lots of ways to improve, but I keep seeing more and more 'smaller' teams manage to steal points from bigger teams by playing defensive, something that didn't happen as frequently before.

Look I'm not saying don't go defense first. But a good defense needs to maintain possession, play from the back to front. Just aimlessly kicking the ball away just gives the opposition another chance to attack. Also you have to be more clinical in buildup and counters if you take this approach. We have not perfected these aspects of our game. I mean imagine if all 11 players lined up in goal and just blocked shots...you might not get scored on but is that a wise strategy?

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