Iran vs Lebanon Post Match Ratings

[OFFSIDE_1]

we dominated from minute 1. We dominated for 97 minutes and except for that one stupid play that gave them a goal, we clearly were the better team.

a lousy pitch always favors a lousy team, and lebanon was nothing short of a lousy bunch with their grassrolling. I'm watching the Iraq - syria game and it's amazing how different the pitch is compared to what we faced in Beirut.

Saman was disappointing and now we see why does not get playing time. If he plays against Syria, it's only because we won't have ARJ and Taremi
Amiri as usual was all over the field. MVP
Beiro always has these heart stopping moments in every game and this time it costs us a goal.

Skocic - made a sub, changed the outcome of the game. That's what you expect from a coach and he delivered

[NYPersian]

Can someone explain what happened with Lebanons goal. Didn't understand how everyone stopped and thought it was out.

[inarsenewetrust]

Overall one of the worst tactical performances I saw ever from TM. We had no idea but spamming crosses, most of which we didnt even get near to.
In the whole game of 21 shots we only had 3-4 clear cut chances. (azmoun saved shot, gholi chance, 2 goals)
The team struggles to create consistently good openings or develop/maintain possession. There is a huge hole at LB that skocic after 12 games didnt solve, he keeps removing the most consistent midfielder from the weak midfield zone and putting him at LB, every game realizes we struggle and then puts him back to midfield and subs on a LB. Strange reasoning.

Beiro - 4. Zoned out for the goal, one really bad nonchalant moment with his feet.

Moharrami - 6. Actually ok today, good work beating his man down the line to start some attacks, push team forward. Defensively solid (although I guess the goal was combo of him and beiro)

Kanani - 6. Also not bad. Was decent in possession, one really nice ball for ARJ. Not really tested a lot.

Shoja - 5. Weak in possession. Lot of turnovers. Unlike him.

Amiri - 8. He had a weak first half but man turned it on in last 20 mins with that iron lung of his. Drove team forward when added to mid zone. He is not a left back and is wasted there. Skocic needs to settle on somebody else for LB.

Ezatolahi - 6. Not his best game, slow to 50/50s, couple unnecessary fouls, didnt show passing range of previous games. But still not terrible.

Ghoddos - 5. He tried to be energetic, work to win ball back, etc but actually with the ball was his issue tonight. Too many turnovers and bad decisions, which is totally unlike him. Its clear he doesnt feel trust from headcoach (even feels more trust from somebody like Frank). He needs 3-4 full games to get in sync with team, recognize tactical adjustments he needs to make to play in these weird games. He was great vs bahrain and iraq and totally changed those matches so he can definitely do it. And long term he is only viable solution to our midfield creativity and possession issues, maybe besides Yasin.

Nourollahi - 6.5. The +1.5 is for the goal. Or else he was horrible too. So many bad turnovers, multiple times just lofting totally aimless balls either out of play or to lebanese defense. He has zero technical awareness or ability. Strong finish though and thats good part of his game, arriving late in box and good shooter.

Gholizadeh - 6.5 First half mainly anonymous but starting making some inroads in second half. Was involved in second goal with well weighted 1-2. Also nice play for sardars saved shot. but Another whose potential skocic has failed to maximize at all.

ARJ - 6. Like gholizadeh struggled to impose himself but not bad in some sequences.

Azmoun - 7.5. Critical goal and a cool head to keep team calm and go for the win after his goal. He is developing into a true leader and its great to see, such a clinical finisher too.

Subs :

Milad - 6. Better than past showings. Still leaves a lot to be desired in possession. But he brought some speed and energy down the left. The best option for TM is probably him at LB and amiri in midfield, even if milad is not perfect and has his flaws.

Allahyar - 6.5. Added energy and physical presence, created one opening. Could also see his questionable decision making at times but super happy he got valuable TM mins finally in a meaningful context.

Karim - N/A.

Skocic - 5. I feel bad for the guy, I truly do. Its like you took a very avg neurologist and placed him as the head of neurocritical care at Johns Hopkins. The guy is giving his best, but man hes under so much stress and not qualified for this. Every game is like his last, bc it literally is. He knows if he loses he will get axed and its too much for one person to carry. Thats why with a few minutes to go he loses his rag and gets sent off. Its affecting his decision making too and long term he is incapable of building any solutions bc he is so fixated on game to game survival. This was the stress caused by lebanon with every player except taremi available and fit...

Sardar telling him to calm down like that wasnt a good look, nor were saman and saeids reactions to their subs. The key players for sure doubt him and we cannot have this disunity at WC. I really applaud him for fulfilling the role he was initially hired for, a caretaker to get us through 4 games, but IFF needs to act after Syria game bc this is not sustainable way to play football or indeed succeed at WC in one years time. I actually think the fact he was so fit living in iran for years and suddenly after taking TM job seems to be exponentially putting on weight is just evidence of the stress the job is causing him.

He has not introduced any new players to the main xi besides a 33 year old shoja and moharrami (who does not perform that great so far). He fails after 12 games to even incrementally improve the teams structure and game plan. Fails to get basically anything out of a large portion of the squad. Last month was UAE, this month was lebanon. Our luck will shortly run out and against a semi solid opposition these long stretches of horrible play will be quickly punished, as will the clear lack of faith the players have in him.

[The]

Beiranvand: 1 - Say it with me: "Club form matters". He's not been a good since his transfer to Antwerp. Takes unnecessary risks, makes mind-boggling decisions, positioning is off, reflexes aren't what they used to be. No doubt that he can eventually get back to his 2018 form, but right now, he ain't it. Especially when you have a Goalie like Amir on the bench.

Amiri: 8 - Both Goals were created because of his hustle. Also had some really nice runs on the left flank in the first.

Kanaani: 6 - He's actually decent. No major flaws, but also didn't really have much to do defensively.

Khalilzadeh: 5 - Not built for this. poor decisions with his passes.

Moharrami: 5 - That's two games now that his poor position contributed to the opponent scoring. Did well on his defensive duels.

Ezatolahi: 7 - Slow, but very good. smart passes, nice dibbles, and positioned well defensively.

Nourollahi: 5 - Poor decision making with passes. Not involved enough on defence.

Ghoddos: 4 - Looked lost at times, and couldn't hold on to the ball.

Gholizadeh: 4 - Sloppy, dwelled on the ball too much, not doing enough on defence.


Jahanbakhsh: 6 - Our main threat in the first half. did very good defensively. Made smart passes. fell off a bit in the second, and kept trying to cross the ball in the air in wind conditions not suited for that.

Azmoun: 6 - invisible and sloppy first half. couple of shots which he should have scored in the second. Would be a 5 if not for the late goal.

Mohammadi: 6 - Did okay. No major mistakes.

Allahyar: 6 - Hustled hard. At times a bit too much. Overall impressed. Should have been on earlier for Gholizadeh

Ansarifard: N/A

Skocic: 4 - Man's been in charge for 15 matches and his team still look like a group of randos who just met at the parking lot before the match. I Don't understand how he can see the wind conditions of the match and tell his players to play off sides and cross the ball in. I don't think either team had a on target cross because of the conditions. No coincidence that both of our goals came from narrow play in the middle of the field. He needed to tell the players to do that from at least the start of the 2nd half. Also man's getting in fights in the sideline wasting precious time after we scored the tie. Between this and his decisions in the last 20 minutes or so of the Korea match, it's clear that Skocic is playing not to lose, rather than playing to win. It's players are doing the hard work of trying to win.

Only thing he did right was moving Amiri to the midfield... which is where he should have started the match to begin with.

[Iran Doost]

The wind was hurting our play much more than the Lebanese, because we have better technical players. Mistake for the coach not to ask players to play the ball on the ground, including corner kicks. We just gave up our technical advantage with the stupid crosses and long balls.

[Abtin]

Btw is AJ out vs. Syria next week? If yes, who else are out?

[naderb94]

Gholizadeh needs to be used as a sub after 70 mins. He’s quick and fresh legs at that stage of the game will help. He’s not reliable enough to start and play 90 minutes

I agree 100%. The same with Ghoddos. He's always performed better as a 2nd half sub.

[naderb94]

Shocked no one has made this thread so far haha. Had to go to work but now I have some down time to make my infamous post match ratings

Skocic: 5.5

They started out hot and should have been more clinical and scored. You can't really blame Skocic for the goal we conceded.. Pure joke concentration from Beiranvand and Moharrami in the back. Skocic bringing Amiri in the midfield was his best tactical decision and it paid dividends. Skocic knows that Taremi is needed for his pure offensive powerforce style of play to work in the future though... Skocic needs to stop playing Amiri at LB and put him in the midfield where he belongs.

Beiranvand: 4, just an awful game from Beiranvand. Wasn't asked to do anything and still f*cked up! Twice! How could he not track that ball on the goal we conceded is laughable... His Mirzapour esque sooti was also a joke. His form for Antwerp and Boavista hasn't been good. I've been patient, but it's Abedzadeh Jr's time

Amiri: 8 MOTM. Amiri was my MOTM. He is an outright engine.. Crazy to think this guy is being wasted at left back...Both goals came from his hustle. So underrated.

Shoja: 6, didn't really do much but I noticed worse passing and more turnovers from Shoja than from Kanaani.. This has been recurrent in the last few weeks.

Kanaani: 7, better than Shoja. Nearly had an assist to ARJ from a beautiful long ball

Moharrami: 6.5, good defending, great going forward, but awful defensive positioning.. Goal conceded was partly on him. Also got sloppy late in the game

Ezatolahi: 7.5, very technical and probably our best player in the first half. He is so crucial to this team.. His only drawback is lack of pace and stamina which if he improves on would help us so much

Nourollahi: 7.5, What a goal!!! Clutch Ahmad! I honestly thought he was slow all game but hey when you score game winners you deserve higher ratings. His goal made me give him a 7.5 instead of a 6

Ghoddos: 5.5, I love Ghoddos but he was simply just not good today.. Turnovers and weak dribbling attempts. At least he had a few good visionary passes but team melli started playing a lot better once he was subbed out

Gholizadeh: 5, Ali Turnoverzadeh was a big liability today... I swear this guy reminds me so much of Shojaei with his poor giveaways and wasted chances. It's really a shame because he's been so good for club!!

Jahanbakhsh: 7, thought today was one of his good games. He had a few shots that if not deflected, would've been banger goals. Just wish he was faster tbh...

Azmoun: 8, decent holdup play and a stunning one touch goal! This guy when he gets his chances is super clinical and I can't wait to see him in a better league!

SUBS:

Milad: 7, decent energy off the bench. His pace was missed..

Allahyar: 7, looked fresh and hungry coming off the bench! Can't wait to see more!

Karim: N/A


Summary and takeaways:

-Skocic and Taremi need to drop the BS. A focused team melli with Taremi will allow us to play much better than we did today.

-Not seeing too many people give props to Lebanon, but wow.. I think a lot of people need to realize this Lebanon defense is REALLY GOOD... Seriously huge shoutout to their back 4

-Amir Abedzadeh needs his chance to start

-Happy that Allahyar got some playing time

Spot on! I agree with the ratings 100%!
I want to add that we need to really improve our set pieces/corners. I've noticed too many games where we have ineffective corners.

I would like to see Ghayedi/Allayar feature more instead of Gholizadeh.. I think Gholi would be a great 2nd half sub along with Ghoddos..
I think Skokic will go back to Noorafkan or Mohammadi at LB in the Syria and bring Amiri up to midfield but he's done this two games in a row now.

[Payam_Ali]

Gholizadeh needs to be used as a sub after 70 mins. He’s quick and fresh legs at that stage of the game will help. He’s not reliable enough to start and play 90 minutes

[Doctor DOOM]

Some talking points, since I didn’t watch parts of the 2nd half.

1- I’ll start with the best: Karma is a bitch, MF’er.
Yes, it was karma that turned the knife inside the grassrolling time wasting maggots that they should concede the winner at minute 5 of the added time.
If the MF’ers hadn’t grass-rolled (I’d say easily above 10-12 minutes of the game) for that long, the ref would have whistled the end of the match at 1-1.
How sweet is that, I say? Sweeter than heavenly nectars.


2- The game can be divided into 3 segments:
A) prior to the freak goal
B) Between the freak goal upto midway thru the 2nd half
C) The remainder

A) Prior to the goal we actually played some really good football (if we omit the last touch/finishing). We worked the field and flanks, we attacked from the middle. Some really good one-touch passing. Some really good positioning and space-finding by the players. All that against a very compressed bus parked in front of Lebanese goal.

Yes, there were some negatives even during this period: Bad finishing, Poor Ghoddos performance (that we all expected far more from him) and Tm having little plans for SET PIECES. This last one is starting to worry as many have mentioned too. We just NEED to have a few good combos or plans for set pieces. However, it seems the WIND had a major impact on the entire game, set pieces included. Nevertheless, we should do better in this.


B) I assume the wind played its hand in their goal. But it doesn’t take the blame away from Beiranvand for stopping to play, taking his eyes off the ball and actually asking for an “offside flag”(?????). Same thing with the defense. This is BASIC football 1-0-1. Do not stop playing until you hear the whistle.
(Puts Skocic’s comments on our players’ “room for improvement in TACTICAL abilities” into perspective and underscores it. So much for all the drama we went thru by Taremi’s misplaced outrage)
And then his idiotic attempt to dribble the ball almost cost us another goal!
Extremely disturbing.
Lets hope Abedzadeh gets the nod for next game, to teach him a lesson.


What was park the bus and eat up time, suddenly became “fall on grass even if someone looks at you”!! Disgusting and very frustrating. Referee’s decisions and calls also added to the stress for our lads. Somehow he never took our side in a 50/50 situation, while allowing deplorable time wasting by the opponents.
No wonder we looked so stressed and out of focus, resulting in series of yellow cards, mistakes, some really poor moves and performances.
Skocic did the right thing to take JB out as he looked he might get a 2nd yellow with mounting frustration and horrible grass-rolling.



C) In come reinforcements Sayadmanesh, Karim and a reshuffle of our left flank with Mohamadi coming in for LB/LWB role, allowing Amiri to push up (seems a plan-B schtick for Skocic, seen in other games too) for stressed out JB, and very poor performing Ghoddos and Ezatollahi (the latter was just abysmal! Such a surprise after his Korea performance)

This energized our attacks and more importantly, the midfield.
I watched segment this one & off. So cant say much about the details of the plays. But clearly with injected pace and hunger the bus crumbled and paid the price for their dirty tactics.



I cant say I’m happy with the overall Team performance. But if we manage to play like the first segment (upto the goal), I’d be very very happy.

But the GREATEST thing I take out of this game is resilience of our team has improved. Not many teams can bounce back from such a stressful game (ref, time wasting, wind, poor ground, unnecessary drama of taremi/skocic, …). Certainly not our traditional TMs (even under CQ we cant find many instances like this).
To come back from behind, not giving up and to score TWO goals in dying minutes is to be celebrated by all.
This is the 2nd comeback of TM so we can say this with more assurance that we have become more resilient.

============

Finally a note on the elephant in the room:
I’m glad we won (aside from the 3 points & maintaining the lead in table), especially for the general idea of ”discipline”
Had we lost I’m sure a lot of ppl wld have brought up the Taremi angle and unfairly blamed the loss on staff …. Conveniently overlooking the fact that if Taremi hadn’t made those comments, NONE of this drama wld have taken place.
But anyway, now this can be a case in favor of discipline and respect for norms of professionalism.

Now, Taremi will come back. But hopefully with some shaving of his ego and learns to act like a pro player. And with his inclusion after Syria game, the whole team also becomes stronger.

[PEJ]

Tactically=1
Play=1
Gheirat=10

[Kiarash]

Iran vs Lebanon Post Match Ratings

Beiranvand: 3
Literally had nothing to do today and yet fucked up badly on Lebanon's goal. Don't know what he was thinking, but the ball wasn't out yet he was acting as if it was! Also nearly costed us the entire game where he gave away the ball that lead to a chance for Lebanon. I think it's time to reconsider Beiranvand as starter.

Amiri: 8
Man of the match for me. Fantastic work rate, kept hustling all game and was involved in defense, midfield and offense. Was involved in both of our goals. Shame that we won't be relying on him much longer since he's 33. Is more effective as a midfielder than as a left back though.

Kanaani: 5.5
Good ball forward to create a chance for Jahanbakhsh who headed it wide. Didn't had to do much during the game but kept focussed. Felt asleep during the Lebanon goal though, seems like he's suspect to lapses of concentration just like against the Japan game.

Khalilzadeh: 5.5
Same comments regarding Khalilzadeh. Both look suspect to lapses of concentration.

Moharrami: 6
He really tried hard today, not bad but not good either. His crosses were underwhelming.

Ezatolahi: 7
Good defending, I expected a bit more from him going forward. Did his job.

Nourollahi: 7
Gets an OK rating just because he was at the right place at the right time, otherwise he's just a ball chaser and has zero creativity.

Ghoddos: 4
Honestly a very poor game by Saman, did almost everything wrong and gave some turnovers. I guess he's not in sync with the team and Skocic took him out rightfully.

Gholizadeh: 5
Lost the ball a few times, his crosses were average at best and he didn't look sharp.

Jahanbakhsh: 5
Same as Gholizadeh, both wingers were poor considering how many crosses and corners we had. Unfortunately both suck at taking corners and set pieces.

Azmoun: 7.5
I think he had a good game and created plenty of good chances considering he was isolated up front. Played like a CAM and CF at the same time (which tells you something about our lack of creativity). Taremi was missed here, Azmoun needs a partnering striker but he was still clinical on that one chance that made us equalize.

Mohammadi: 6
Had decent speed and was dangerous on the wing, but his crosses and decision making remains questionable. Not in good form yet, needs some time. However we started to play better when he came in and Amiri moved down to the midfield.

Allahyar: 6
Good energy, put some effort down the wings and tried to draw fouls. I like to see more from him in the upcoming TM games.

Ansarifard: 5.5
Was subbed in late, didn't do much but was doing a good job at being an extra body in the Lebanese penalty box to keep their defenders busy. Served his purpose.

Skocic: 6
I still don't personally rate him and him crossing off Taremi nearly costed us this game. That said, tactically he made a good choice to sub Saman for Mohammadi and move Amiri up to the midfield. It's also a long while ago we were down and actually came back to win the game, so I'll give him credit for that. I don't think he's sustainable on long term and with him in the WC we will go nowhere.

Overall team effort: 8
Great push through by our boys to get the winner in the dying seconds of the game. Referee was strongly against us, Lebanon was trying to get under our skin but we remained calm and focused. Really impressive to turn this tough game around and gives a huge moral booster for remainder of WCQ. Well done.
----
Lebanon: 0
I don't think there is any other Asian team I dislike this much. Very dirty. They were time wasting from the beginning and scored a fluke goal on a lucky break. Of course time wasting intensified after the goal and every minute a Lebanese player fell to the ground as if they were about to die, only to get up few seconds after. It was extra sweet that we beat them with 2 goals in injury time so that they know their place, they don't belong in this round since let alone in the WC.

[Iranianarsenal11]

I agree with the most of your ratings beside ARJ. I would rate him lower. He did not much in offence (Only one good shoot) beside few bad pass attempts and a yellow card.

Looking back I agree.. I would give him a 6.5/10

[Iranianarsenal11]

.

Saeed played as it's slowmotion game. He is very slow but today it was slow motion .

Sometimes it's good playing slow motion and slowing things down

But I agree his pace is lacking

[_Navid_]

I wanted to make the thread but I knew you would at some point so I kept waiting.
BTW happy birthday! Hope the win was a good present.


Beiranvand: 3, Two terrible mistakes. Luckily 2nd one didn't cost us. Wasn't tested much otherwise.

Amiri: 9 (MOTM), Wish we had 11 Amiris. We could probably even make it to world cup final stages.

Shoja: 5, some bad passes and turnovers.

Kanaani: 6, average.

Moharrami: 7, I thought he was one of the good ones today.

Ezatolahi: 8, classy game again. I was annoyed he was subbed instead of Nour.

Nourollahi: 6.5, He gets a lot of aditional points for the goal, but wasn't great otherwise.

Ghoddos: 4.5, He is not synched with the team yet.

Gholizadeh: 5, Some nice combination plays especially for the goal but also a lot of turnovers.

Jahanbakhsh: 6.5, He was pretty good and involved in the game.

Azmoun: 6.5, Honestly not his best game until the final minutes but gets bonus for the great goal.

SUBS:

Milad: 6
Allahyar: 6