After watching the Saudi Arabia match a couple of times, I'd like to make a few points regarding our line-up/formation: 1. G'nejad - As I said before the match, he's a talented, smart player when attacking, but his defensive skills are lacking. He's a good choice for RM, but I don't feel safe with him at RB. 2. Zare - As I've discussed earlier, this guy is unfairly criticized after every match. I know it's "cool" to bash Zare and cry that he should never be invited to Team Melli again, but we're faced with the reality that we don't have a great choice for LB. His primary job as a LB is to defend. Not to score, not to dribble, but to stop attacks from his side, and he has done a fine job doing so. Aleneme has some nice attributes, but in the couple of matches he played he made more mistakes than Zare has in quite a while. In the Saudi Arabia match he saved us on a couple of scary occasions, but of course nobody paid attention to those instances. No, he didn't have a great game, but he played better than a few others on the team, and he made some very crucial plays. I invite everyone to watch the next Team Melli match and watch the team as a whole, rather than literally sitting in front of the screen and counting each and every mistake made by Zare. Don't you think there's a reason Daei chooses Zare? 3. Andranik - What can I say? He's out of form and he doesn't deserve to be in the starting 11. I was really hoping that Daei would start K.Rahmati instead of Andranik, but unfortunately he didn't. Rahmati has proven to be a much better DM than Andranik. He has the defensive mind-set, the excellent long-range shot, and most importantly, the ability to consistently connect passes. 4. Rezaei - He never really got going against Saudi Arabia, but that's ok. I think it's clear that he prefers to play as a shadow striker, rather than in the midfield or on the wing. 5. Zandi - Did he play a great game? No. Should we kick him off the team? No way. He has played very well for us in the past, and given his good form in Cyprus, it's very likely that Zandi just had a bad day yesterday. He's not fast, but he's still deadly on set-pieces with his famous left-foot, he has good technique on the ball, and he has good vision. Many people now argue that Jabbari should start instead of Zandi, but I'm sure those same people didn't watch the Azerbaijan match, in which Jabbari played the majority of the match and was easily one of the worst players on the pitch... My point is that while our players are talented and can show their worth in just one play, they're capable of displaying poor performances as well. Neither Zandi nor Jabbari, Madanchi, or Hajsafi have played consistently well. 6. Hashemian - He has never played well as the lone-striker, and I didn't expect him to do so yesterday, either. His presence was solely for set-pieces (header). Play Rezaei next to him and you have a nice looking front. As they say, you should choose a formation that suits your players, and not players that suit your formation. I used to think that a 4-4-2 was the best choice for our team, but after analyzing our players recently, I think a 4-2-3-1 might just work in all situations. A 4-2-3-1 is a defensive formation by nature, but it can easily turn into a 4-3-3 (4-2-1-2-1) when attacking. For example: When defending: -------------------Rahmati-------------------- ----Kaebi----Hosseini---Aghili-----Zare------ -----------Nekounam---Rahmati-------------- ---------Rezaei---Shojaei---Zandi------------ --------------------Hash----------------------- When attacking: -------------------Rahmati-------------------- --------------Hosseini---Aghili---------------- ---Kaebi-----------------------------Zare------ -----------Nekounam---Rahmati-------------- -------------------Shojaei---------------------- --------Rezaei----------------Zandi------------ --------------------Hash------------------------