From Persia With Love

Hello everyone.
Glad for the positive feedback off the previous post. It was a pleasure to write, and a pleasure to know you read. Many thanks to y’all.
Somehow, it always seems more fun profiling an attacking side, as both Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina doubtlessly are. If that is the case, then my fun just ran out (yikes!) Anyway, off we go onto the business at hand.

“…we have people everywhere.”

IRAN
Manager: Carlos Queiroz
FIFA Ranking: 45
Captain: Javad Nekounam
World Cup Honors: Group Stage 1978, 1998, 2006.
Nickname: “Team Melli” (National Team)

Team Melli come into this World Cup campaign with a chip on their shoulder. Having been pinpointed as a soft touch during the tournament draw, they will be eager to prove a point.
At the helm is Carlos Queiroz, who has experience at this level, having previously coached Portugal at the last World Cup in South Africa. It says a lot of his acumen that legendary Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson sought to install him as his successor on the Old Trafford hot seat.
He too has a point to prove at this level. Portugal acquired a sour reputation at the last World Cup as a defensive, overly physical side; they drew three of their four games before exiting the tournament, and their only win was a thumping of minnows North Korea, a game in which they achieved their total seven-goal haul in South Africa. He will seek to make a more positive impression this time.
It would be worthwhile to take a look at @12thmanng ‘s fine report on Iran over at twelfthmanng.blogspot.co.uk .

HOW THEY LINE UP

Queiroz’s men line up in a standard 4–2–3–1 system, but the wide men drop deep into two banks of four without the ball to morph into a 4–4–1–1. They have a solid base in midfield, with captain Nekounam aggressively winning the ball and Teymourian the calm passer. Defensively quite solid and very well drilled, they however struggle for goals.
Thankfully for them, Queiroz can call on the services of young striker Reza Ghoochannejhad “Gucci”, who is presently on a very impressive average of 0.8 goals a game for the National side. Also, Fulham’s Ashkan Dejagah offers guile on the right flank, and is a vital part of the supply line to the young forward.

STRENGTHS
Defensive organization. They kept 6 clean sheets in the 8 games of the final qualifying round, and are marshaled well by Seyed Jalal Hosseini, a truly fine defender; and Eintracht Braunschweig’s Daniel Davari in goal. Carlos Queiroz has them drilled expertly, and while it may not remedy the perception of him as a defensive coach, expectations are certainly lower in his current position.

WEAKNESSES
Iran simply doesn’t score enough. Scraping 8 goals in 8 games in a (relatively) weak Asian section doesn’t breed confidence going forward, and too much rests on the budding relationship between striker Gucci and Dejagah.
Their lack of a truly creative central player exacerbates the problem; Masoud Shojaei is primarily a winger by education, and as such does better bursting forward with the ball and supporting the striker than actually playing clever passes for Gucci to feed off of. Holland based Alireza Jahanbakhsh at 20 has already played for the Olympic team, and was prolific in his youth, so he will hope to open his senior account soon.

HOW TO PLAY IT
As pointed out earlier, a lot of Iran’s attacking threat lies in Dejagah linking up with Gucci upfront. This means that Dejagah has to remain in space, and as such will likely be unwilling to track back defensively. Our left back, likely Elderson Echiejile, must take advantage of this by being aggressive with his positioning and forcing Dejagah back into defensive positions. If he does this effectively, it’ll leave the striker isolated and with no apparent supply line.
As there is (theoretically) no numerical superiority through the middle, much of our attacking play should involve spreading the ball wide, switching the play rapidly in order to stretch this well organized Iranian defence. If Elderson gets forward well to overload the left flank and get in behind the defence, we’ll get a lot of joy there.
As with deep defences, the use of a physical striker who can attack the ball in the air will come in handy. With little space in behind, a big striker (Ameobi, maybe?) later in the game can be a threat closer to goal. This avenue can be exploited by putting in crosses on the overlap, or playing lofted passes for the targetman to hold up and lay off to advancing midfield runners

So, that’s the scouting reports done then. That wasn’t half bad after all. As always, get involved on the comments feed. All corrections and observations are welcome. Cheers!

P.S
Amid talk of a leaked Super Eagles World Cup kit on footyheadlines.com , @heywaii came up with these alternative designs. I’m not a fan of the purported new kit, but I think these ones are pretty cool. Whaddya think?