Dragan Skočić Appreciation Thread!

[diz]

dominant possession stats, attractive attacking football blah blah blah.... means little to me compared to Ultimately Getting Positive Result/ by any and all means possible.!!

True that. CQ showed that you can have less possession and less shots and still win. Plus, in the WC, I'll take any win (including our win over Morocco due to an OG). We just have to be prepared so that any 50/50 scenario goes slightly our way. That's where the hard work and team cohesion comes into play.

[golffan]

Some of you guys' points are quite right and good. Have enjoyed reading them. Analysis by Inasrenwetrust correctly points out that Iran dominated the WC qualifying game against SK in Tehran under CQ. SK players after the game said they had no clue what to do and how to react! CQ was and is an incredible coach and manager with such charisma. I am of the opinion that this current team is the fruit of CQ's efforts and vision. These Lads are CQ's boys and that is why they play and support each other so coherently. Skocic is a good coach too. We appreciate his vision, and what he has done with CQ's team. Our team is playing good football now. Also, all the passing and nice rhythms that we see in the ball flow is due to the fact most of our players are now playing in Europeans team and they are learning the style. So thank you CQ and thank you Skocic to bring football joys to us as we watch our NT play and win.

Payande Iran - Javid Shah

[bozghaleh]

Agree with the above. Anyone have stats on passing accuracy through time. It seems to me we are doing better in this department now, but am curious if anyone has the stats.

[O-ZoNe]

you can't have it both ways. you can't say "well TM has amazing players, any coach can do it" when we win and then blame the coach if we don't win.

The coach's job is to select the right players, motivate them, and take the resources at hand - players, conditions, friendlies, whatever - and put the team in the best position to succeed. CQ put us in a position to win.

Was CQ responsible for Messi's curling kick?
Was he responsible for ben williams showing pouladi the red?
Was he responsible for Taremi's inability to score against portugal in the dying minutes?
was he responsible for saeed/taremi's absence against japan in ac2019, and hajsafi and kanaani's idiocy in leaving their posts?

CQ did an amazing job with the players we had. We had some really bad luck at critical moments, and this usually boiled down to our players. If any of those moments had gone the other way, CQs legacy wouldn't be vulnerable to attack.

Skocic has done a good job. I'm not going to give all the credit to our players because wilmots had the same players and we were a mess. while it's true that skocic has done a fine job at the asian level, it's also true that skocic's TM has real issues in the back, the likes of which we haven't seen since CQs early days. unfortunately none of us know how severe these problems are because we haven't been tested. SK away will be a decent test but they'll be qualified so i'm afraid it won't be the stress test some are making it out to be.

i just hope to god we get tested through some solid friendlies....i don't want to find out how vulnerable we are in the WC against france/italy/brazil.

You seem to view things pessimistically. I see us having the excellent problem of having 2 capable goalies in Beiro and Abedzadeh and the real likelihood PAG is going to be back soon. I think the issues you see at the back are all solvable...after all our goals for and against ratio is incredible this time around.

In the end no team is pefect. Canada beat Honduras but could have easily lost the game 3-2. Brazil drew their match with Ecuador...can't always have clean sheets. I'd rather we score 3 and let 2 in any day over going to PKs...as long as you win...what else matters?

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[Omids]

It is clear in the games that we have played that whenever we have had some pressure put on us we have not been able to counter it collectively. we have overcome it rather by brilliant individual players that we possess. Credit to skocic who has created an environment that has allowed the players to shine thru without stifling them, something clearly wilmott couldnt do. But would that be sufficient in the world cup, i dont think so. Unfortunately as it stands we will lose all the 3 games in the WC.

[metallica69]

So far he has done what he was hired for and more, we all don’t have to forget that he has Hashemian and king Karin on the bench, we shouldn’t underestimate their effect. The defensive issues everyone has mentioned is due to the distance that we see in the lines, during CQ time the team played more
Compact and everyone defended, you can see that with Egypt now. I don’t know if they will keep skocic or not. But if they do, he needs good friendlies early and a good camp in the summer. The reason he uses khanani and shoja who are not our best defenders is only because these two are used to each other. He needs to test a new defensive line in the next few games and treat them as friendlies that he might not get. The federation will be getting 12 million dollars every penny must go to friendlies and camps, which is more then enough.

[Doctor DOOM]

1-0 defeat of Korea in Soeul would be convincing enough for me.

True.
And exactly how many times have we achieved this feat?
In all our history.


Some of us talk about beating SKorea as if we have a 15-3 kind of record and beating them is like beating Oman or Kuwait!
Come on guys. Many coaches have tried and failed. Why? Bcoz SKorea is a damned good team.

And we didn't do too badly against them either. We almost beat them 3-1 if for an inch here n there.

I'd be quite happy with another draw at Seoul and winning the other games.

[mehdi13]

Hezbe Sko has so much confidence in their leader that they are trying to make the 2nd game against Korea seem insignificant too. Meanwhile in Skocic thread, “omg pfdc will implode if we advance to 2nd round”. Which is it?

[rdwrrr]

It is clear in the games that we have played that whenever we have had some pressure put on us we have not been able to counter it collectively. we have overcome it rather by brilliant individual players that we possess. Credit to skocic who has created an environment that has allowed the players to shine thru without stifling them, something clearly wilmott couldnt do. But would that be sufficient in the world cup, i dont think so. Unfortunately as it stands we will lose all the 3 games in the WC.

Are you saying that we are worst than all 31 other teams that will qualify to World Cup?
You don't even know who we are being grouped with.

[Iman_Joon]

But for me to have full faith in him at the WC, he has to be able to convincingly defeat Korea in March.

Iran is already qualified and you want an convincingly win against S.Korea? Haha.. oh man... Do you really even think the A-team will play? With all the games going on for their clubs? I'm not even sure the best players will join the squad at that time.

[Iranianarsenal11]

I do not disagree, however, my biggest bone to pick with him ATM and honestly has been my biggest lingering one from day 1 is his CB selection. If he continues to get that wrong we will pay for it in the WC and he will be no more than branko 2.0. He has thousands of minutes of game film to refer to where countless blunders, poor positioning, etc. resulted in a dangerous counter for the opposition. Thankfully we played in a very weak group and didn’t have to pay for it in qualification but in the WC…..that will not be the case.

PAG is in absolute must in the back, no questions about it. He cannot afford for his own sake to get that wrong

I 100% agree.. the CBs worry me the most as well, but the thing that I really like the most about Skocic is that over time, he makes the right adjustments.

For example, he's finally implemented Saman Ghoddos into the team more, and called up guys like Zahedi while simultaneously trying to phase out guys like Hajsafi and hopefully Kaveh Rezaei soon..

I truly believe the Kanaani-Shoja partnership is mainly in part due to Majid's club stagnation (he's in a lot better place now) as well as PAG's injury.

I think if Majid didn't have covid he would've started... I also don't really mind Kanaani that much and think he can be fine as a starter at the WC, but Shoja is an absolute NO NO

[Iranianarsenal11]

I appreciate Skocic for qualifying us so early to the WC. But for me to have full faith in him at the WC, he has to be able to convincingly defeat Korea in March.

Something he failed to do in Tehran with his conservative approach in the first half and not bringing in fresh legs when the Koreans were in complete disarray after we had equalized in the second.

As long as we don't lose I'm happy... A draw in each country isn't the end of the world...

Let's see what happens and what players each team uses since both sides will be most likely qualified by then...

[Farzadfarhangni]

Guys, I like CQ quite a bit but I also like Skocic very much and feel that almost all here are being unfair to him.

After the record that TM has achieved under Skocic, I feel a lot of Skocic haters have had to change their tune temporarily, but are waiting for the slightest mistake or problem to say that they knew it all along that he is no good. Just a few facts to keep things in perspective. For last round of 2014 WC qualification, our record was 5 wins, one tie and two loses and for our 2018 WC qualification, we qualified with six wins and 4 ties. We already have six wins and only one tie. Forget about the four consecutive wins in the second round under Skocic...

As for our defense, please please please keep in mind that all things being equal, good defense comes at a cost of weaker offense. It is a choice. You can look great in defense and look ridiculous on offense like the first half of us against Spain. Remember where Azmoun was playing? Practically, right outside of our own box. If we are going to play more balanced or more offensively, there will be more times where our defense will be stretched and look unorganized...

We gave an unnecessary penalty to Portugal, and no one came here to say that our defense is unorganized or that Ezatolahi is a time bomb and can't be trusted... But if Shoja does it, I can't wait to see the reaction on this forum.

My favorite pairing for WC is Pouraliganji and Hosseini, but I have to say that Kanani and Shoja are a close second. We have conceded 3 goals in 1260 minutes of soccer. Remember Bosnia scored 3 goals in 90 minutes under CQ, so please be fair and have some perspective please.

[BacheLot]

Guys, I like CQ quite a bit but I also like Skocic very much and feel that almost all here are being unfair to him.

After the record that TM has achieved under Skocic, I feel a lot of Skocic haters have had to change their tune temporarily, but are waiting for the slightest mistake or problem to say that they knew it all along that he is no good. Just a few facts to keep things in perspective. For last round of 2014 WC qualification, our record was 5 wins, one tie and two loses and for our 2018 WC qualification, we qualified with six wins and 4 ties. We already have six wins and only one tie. Forget about the four consecutive wins in the second round under Skocic...

As for our defense, please please please keep in mind that all things being equal, good defense comes at a cost of weaker offense. It is a choice. You can look great in defense and look ridiculous on offense like the first half of us against Spain. Remember where Azmoun was playing? Practically, right outside of our own box. If we are going to play more balanced or more offensively, there will be more times where our defense will be stretched and look unorganized...

We gave an unnecessary penalty to Portugal, and no one came here to say that our defense is unorganized or that Ezatolahi is a time bomb and can't be trusted... But if Shoja does it, I can't wait to see the reaction on this forum.

My favorite pairing for WC is Pouraliganji and Hosseini, but I have to say that Kanani and Shoja are a close second. We have conceded 3 goals in 1260 minutes of soccer. Remember Bosnia scored 3 goals in 90 minutes under CQ, so please be fair and have some perspective please.

word...!!
its a trade off always... majid hossaini coulda well gave up a pk in the couple of sticky situations we got ourselves in the last iraq game..!
Kannani has been playing rock fking solid WCQ in and out for long while now.... and he still gets too much stick here for his performances.... Shoja was brilliant early on for Dragan, has ha more avg. performances of late with a few shaky moments but he also is still far from legitimately losing his starting position to the likes of majid or after long injury layoff PAG ..!
one big strength of Dragan has been that he has find a GOOD BALANCE between attacking and defending as a team for us so far..!! it's essentially the same ol CQ instilled Team Defensive tactics and organization with bit more counter attacking flair and allowance for players to get outa their defensive zone responsibilities and to gradually risk into joining the attack..!
has also had a pretty good team picking skills .... but at the same time imo he has shown to be bit too slow to recognize timely personnel changes needed in 2nd halves..!
remember due to covid and tight WCQs scheduling and stingy IFF, he really has not have a good extended period TM camps in order to get more defensive and countering discipline instilled into his TM..!

its true also, that his TM are yet to be tested in a challenging game vs a more quality opponent... so obviously some questions still remains as to how well his TM would fair in such instances, hopefully coming up soon or latest by this fall..!


besides all that.... i repeat what i've said many times before here.... be careful what you wish for ...!!due to obvious Time constraints, there is a huge HUGE Chance of ending up with a much shittier coach, if we try to change from him pre world cup...!! even if its to be a big name foreigner..!!

all we can do now is to nitpick on aspects of our TM's game that he still needs to improve us on, pre WC..!

[diz]

^Not sure what this is supposed to represent, but CQ was far from having a bag of cash to work with (for himself or the team). I'm not sure why Dragan's success should take away from CQ's success. The correct comic strip should have included Wilmots at the top, not CQ. If anyone robbed our country and football, it was Wilmots.