Sardar Azmoun @ Bayer 04 Leverkusen | 2022/2023

[inarsenewetrust]

Hes not playing well tonight. One of his shittier performances. 2 great chances, neither resulted in a shot on target. Second one he showed great speed to beat the defender and then just didn't take the shot, tried a backheel to nobody...

I expected him to play with a lot more intensity and desperation considering just a goal/decent display would secure him starting spot vs roma probably.

Really needs to up it in first 10 mins of first half or he will be subbed for hlozek. Of course not like he is getting much service as usual, but still, needs to show more.

[Ali Doust]

He has lost his confidence in taking shots. Even at the World Cup. He should've taken the shot instead of passing it to Gholi vs Wales. As a no.9, you have to take the shots whenever possible.

[inarsenewetrust]

He has lost his confidence in taking shots. Even at the World Cup. He should've taken the shot instead of passing it to Gholi vs Wales. As a no.9, you have to take the shots whenever possible.

its curious because then he somehow still will score goals of much harder difficulty, but refuse to take the pretty simple openings that used to be his bread and butter at zenit (yeah RPL isn't BuLi but his rate there was just too good to be a fluke, and supported by CL performances where he was shooting from distance in positions he wouldnt even considering pulling trigger from now)

[BacheLot]

he needs to put a spring into his step at the start of 2nd half or he is gonna get subbed off shortly after the way the first half went for him and bayer as a whole...!! game is begging for changes..!!

probably will do Bayer good to take it easy in the training and try different tactical attacking combinations in MF area in the run up to Roma game ..... !!? Bayer as a whole look fatigued and lack attacking inspirations and ideas..!!

if they come out like today, the roma is a guaranteed loss in my view..!! dont think they can even manage a draw at home playing as such ..!!

[BacheLot]

He has lost his confidence in taking shots. Even at the World Cup. He should've taken the shot instead of passing it to Gholi vs Wales. As a no.9, you have to take the shots whenever possible.

probably .?
about the only logical excuses left for his lackluster and lifeless repeated performances is either dealing with long covid or simply not giving a fk anymore about playing football..??

funny having him talking shitt about ramin not having the fitness and hunger to be a TM player in the run up to world cup and then getting completely outshone by him on the biggest stage of football..!!

this was the 2nd time he went MIA for TM at WC and there is always some bs injury/blah blah excuse why he No shows .... fk this shit...!

[BacheLot]

xabi probably have to scrap his tired and ran down version of 343 all together and come up with whole new fresh approach to games, in order get anything outa this or Roma match..?

[BacheLot]

i dont suppose sardar steps up to take this PK..??

[PrinceAli]

Penalty for Leverkusen. Palacios to take

[PEJ]

Worse teammate, Diaby or Gallano?

[BacheLot]

Worse teammate, Diaby or Gallano?

Both ....greedy ass wingers
but i'd go with Gallano ... cause at least mehdi is almost always there positioned for a finish when that goozooo instead takes a wild shot at goal.... sardar on the hand is either behind another marker or not particularly on the spot to finish often ... he was late to arrive for a possible pull back pass from diaby there..!
in fact he simply doesnt open himself for passess near Good Enough nor move around briskly enough to shake off defenders in this league... ... so it aint a big surprise why he doesnt get many service in this team..!! half the fault is directly on himself

[BacheLot]

i dont know if its just me...? but Wirtz sometimes go outa his way to hit anyone else with passes in attack than Sardar...???
wtf is up with that...? or am i reading too much into that..?

[Babak_Shirazi]

Tokhmitarin game that I‘ve seen for a long time. Be khoda Perspolis against Gol Gohar was more entertaining than that ,,european high class game‘‘. Bezan ziresh football for 90 minutes with two tokhmy penalty goals, fml

[BacheLot]

sardar off 87 min ...
played much longer than i expected.... but his chances of feature in Roma game diminished the longer he stayed on pitch today..!!
avg at best overall performance from him today..!!

[inarsenewetrust]

Sardar off min 87. Better in second half from him, seemed like he saved his energy for last 20 mins. good pressing and link up play. Some of the passes to him were pathetic.

Those misses (esp the one where he went for backheel) in first half were really shit though. Doubt he did enough to start, but hlozek has been anonymous also for many games now. Still, he has the engine sardar doesnt.

We will probably see sardar off the bench again to try and get a goal in last 20 mins.

[inarsenewetrust]

Another thing to note is just with CF position on this team in general. Over the past 18 months really all CF have struggled to make impact. Schick, Sardar, Hlozek. All of them were in great form a year earlier.

At some stage the team started to rely too heavily on frimpong/diaby axis for their overall play. All their attacking moves center around freeing up these 2 on one side, with occasional contribution from adli. Then when wirtz returned, he gave them some more variability, but still the main objective he has on the pitch is trying to find those two in space.

The CF is basically a space filler for them now. Its hard for any CF to have zero involvement in overall game, then if he gets lucky convert the 1/2 random chances that come his way. Sardar and Hlozek did a good job of that a month ago, not so much this month.

Hlozek for what its worth was crap when he came on. Failed to take 2 great shooting opportunities (hesitated, similar to sardar) and then made a mess of a good layoff on the top of the box. Sardar has more talent in his pinky toe than this guy, but suddenly doesn't seem very bothered that he is being benched for him...not sure if something changed in last month. Maybe he knows he is off in the summer and is saving himself a bit. OR else its hard to explain the drop off.