Discuss Group B here

[Team Melli Fan]

Who are your 2 cm ? Even ghoddos as cm isnt good idea lol
I hope we can find a pitbull for the mid in 8 months

Ezatolahi and Ghoddos if 2 in CM

Ezatolahi and Amiri at CM with Ghoddos at CAM if 3 in the middle

[Ostad_Goosfand]

I've been thinking that! Since we dont have good full backs, but have good CBs, we should try with a 3 man defensive line. But this is not an easy switch, we need a lot of preparation and match practice for the new formation (which we dont have).

I could see

Noorafkan-Hosseini-PAG-Kanaani-Moharrami

midfield of Amiri-Ezatolahi-Nourollahi

front 2 of taremi-azmoun

[persiangodfather]

You just know hajsafi will start

[Philosophy_King]

I think Sko will rely on experience in our game against England. I could see this Line UP:
--------------Beiro-----------------------
--Shoja-----Kanaani---PAG (or Hosseini/Nourafk)
Moharami--------------------------Amiri
----------Ezzi-----Nourollahi------------
Jahanbakhs-----Azmoun---------Taremi

[momad2468]

Group could have been far worse, but given we are coming off a 2-0 loss to Korea, we don’t have the right to approach any game with over confidence.
As I have said in previous posts, our side has some serious defensive deficiencies. Some of this comes to players (in particular, fullbacks and Ahmad Noor) but a lot of it is due to tactics and coaching, a misunderstanding of when to press collectively as a team and when to sit back. Instead, we have individuals playing out of the system and “pressing” when in reality they are just leaving huge gaps. Skocic has to sort this before the World Cup, first game is against England. We have a chance to frustrate them if we approach it with discipline, fitness and intelligence, but on the other hand, if we play the way we have been, our World Cup could be over at half time. Comes down to our preparation, particularly our team defence.

[taremiscores]

Turkey. Athletically average, technique wise very talented, passionate, physical, can't handle an organized press and tactically "Bezan ziresh". Although Turkey's backline is far superior to ours and our forwards better than theirs.

If you want a dollar store version of Iran, then Uzbekistan.

For us, I think we should line up a friendly vs Canada (would cover both USA and Scotland/wales), Norway well organized football with fast players (England), and a Camaroon or Senegal to get an idea of how we will do against African teams if we make it past the group stage.

Turkey gave us a lot of problems in the friendly we played before the World Cup 2018.

They played a very direct game vs. TM, and that was against an organized Carlos Queiroz side.

[somebuffguy]

I don't even care if we advance from the group, as long as we smash England.

[The]

Turkey gave us a lot of problems in the friendly we played before the World Cup 2018.
They played a very direct game vs. TM, and that was against an organized Carlos Queiroz side.

They weren't playing like that at the Euro's though. They seem a lot more like What Iranian looks like with the turnip dealer in charge.

[ParthianDE]

Lol I don't think England is prepping for TM, they have their sights on the larger prize. US might, though.

I think you vastly misjudge the English mentality then. They did not build a world empire without learning to manipulate people to the extreme and for that you need a deep understanding of psychology and do deep analysis of those you want to control.

The English are masters at that and they will have educated people employed with a full time position just to analyze each opponent including Iran.

[Kavian]

All that Akhound's "Death to America" chant, we are just the same people who will gather on a field of football to enjoy a game.

Death to anti-human Akhounds.

[zereshk-ali]

My friend went to Japan to teach for a few years and he said Japanese girls loved TM and thought they were all good looking lol

good rooking!

[026121]

Are vaccines required to travel on a plane or enter Qatar?

[ParthianDE]

Good reddit comment:

Rankings:

5 - England

15 - USA

21 - Iran

18-Wales/27-Ukraine/39-Scotland

ELO rankings have:

5 - England

21 - USA

23 - Iran

19 - Wales / 24 - Ukraine / 35 - Scotland

Looks pretty close however you look at it

[ParthianDE]

Iran in the group of death?

Another reddit comment(I didn't check the math, but if true Iran would be in the toughest group. Not sure if this is true):

demafrost 4 points 50 minutes ago

Average FIFA ranking for each group. For the playoff teams, i took the highest ranked team possible and included them for the ranking.

A: 32
B: 15
C: 22
D: 18
E: 18
F: 20
G: 19
H: 28

To compare the group of death in 2014 had an average ranking of 14. There is a laundry list of issues for using fifa rankings to determine group difficulty I know, just thought it was interesting to share.

[zereshk-ali]

I think Sko will rely on experience in our game against England. I could see this Line UP:
--------------Beiro-----------------------
--Shoja-----Kanaani---PAG (or Hosseini/Nourafk)
Moharami--------------------------Amiri
----------Ezzi-----Nourollahi------------
Jahanbakhs-----Azmoun---------Taremi

I think you've nailed it. He'll likely match up with England who will prob play their usual 3-4-3 with highly advanced full backs.

The benefit of this formation is that both Amiri and Moharammi are covered defensively if they get caught forward from a covering centre back. It also allows either of them to potentially bring the ball out and they're 2 of our better players at doing so. Plus the danger of the overload with Taremi and JB on the wings hopefully gives the English overlapping full backs something to think about defensively and won't allow them to get forward as often.

The negative is no Amiri in midfield. I'd actually prefer an ageing Ebrahimi than Nourollahi, given his far superior ability to screen the back 4. Nourollahi in a central midfield 2 against a side like England would scare the sh!t out of me.

The key for me to nullify England will be to ensure we're not overloaded ourselves on the wings, so Taremi and JB will have to put a shift in too. Sterling and Saka are direct and when you have overlapping full backs too it's tricky to deal with.