World Cup 2014 - Group F: Preview & Analysis

Since Bosnia's attacking midfielders and strikers are well known, I will focus first on introducing the players from Iran in these posts. These are the primary attacking midfielders and strikers for Iran, although not all of them will start and some will come in as subs. Bosnia definitely has the edge in this area, but Iran have some good players too.

Askhan Dejagheh (Striker)

Market value: 3.500.000 €
Current Club: Fulham (English Premier League)
My Rating: (2)

Mohammadreza Khalatbari (attacking midfielder)

Market Value: 1.500.000 €
Current Club: Perspolis Tehran (Iranian Professional League)
My Rating: (2) (he doesn't always start on Quieroz, but is one of our best in fact)

Reza Ghoochannejad (forward)

Market Value: 1.200.000 €
Current Club: Standard Liege (Belgium)
My Rating: (2.5)* (but no one has done as much as he has for Iran to help us qualify, having scored in everyone of our last 7 matches, 8 goals in total, including our goal against S.Korea in Seoul which clinched our qualification. On paper, he would rate probably a 3.5, but in fact in terms of delivering the goods, he has been a 1!)

Karim Ansarifard (Striker)

Market Value: 950.000 €
Current Club: Teraktorsazi Tabriz (Iranian Professional League)
My Rating: (3) (but he has class and excellent talent; possibly, he will one day be Iran's most expensive player and make it big with big clubs. And one day, he will rate much higher in fact and on paper)

Masoud Shojaie (attacking midfielder)

Market Value: 1.000.000 €
Current Club: UD Las Palmas, (Segunda División Spain)
My Rating: (3.5) (although doing much better now for Iran than when he was when he got to start regularly just because he used to play in La Liga (he is now in La Liga2), and even though few have his touch on the ball and dribbling skills, he is often not very good despite regularly starting for Iran. Still, he has improved recently, at the right time too; otherwise I would give him at best a 4)

Alireza Jahanbakhsh (attacking midfielder)

Market Value: 750.000 €
Current Club: NEC Nijmegen (Eredivisie, Netherlands)
My Rating: (3.5) (he has got talent and doing well, but he is definitely unproven still. I expect him to rate around a 3)

 

Nice stuff man! Completely unbiased too Im sure most of the people here couldn't be as objective as you. But I don't agree with Ghoochannejhad and Khalatbari's ratings, I would swap them, give 2 to Ghoochannejhad and 2.5 to Khalatbari. Ghoochannejhad scored 8 goals in 10 games for Iran! He is going to be Iran's goal machine during the world cup for sure! Im pretty positive that he will at least score 2 goals, the question is against who

 

Thanks.

I totally understand why you would rate Ghoochannejad above what I have rated him. As I mentioned, if you were to rate him based on what he has actually done, he would rate even a 1! I doubt there are too many players who could boast having scored in every match, most of them away from home, in 7 straight games. Including goals that won critical matches that allowed Iran to qualify (e.g., our only goals against Qatar in Doha and S.Korea in Seoul). The goals scored by Ghoochannejad almost single handedly took Iran to the World Cup!

The problem, however, is that Ghoochannehad's excellent form for Iran needs to be balanced against his club performance and market value. Like Dejageh and Davari, but unlike our other players, Ghoochannejad carries an EU passport and his market value, therefore, is derived from more or less comparable criteria in comparison to others who are from Europe. And as you might know, Ghoochannejad hasn't been getting much playing time with his club in Belgium and they have agreed to release him so he can go play for some other club that knows better how to use his talents. Even though there is no way Querioz is going to bench the player to whom he owes Iran's qualification to the World Cup, Carlos Queiroz has already mentioned that our players need to make sure they are getting regular playing time for their clubs to be assured of a place in the team.

As for Khalatbari, he is a a very good player. Someone who can trouble any team. I rate him highly.

 

lol @ rating Ansarifard above Jahanbakhsh. I'm sorry but calling Ansarifard a "talent" is a misuse of words. Ansarifard was given plenty of opportunities to prove himself and he failed almost every single time. Jahanbakhsh on the other hand is already the best player in NEC even though he has only been there for a few months. JB's level is way higher than NEC, I'm certain he'll receive much better offers at the end of the season.

The rest are about right. I also rate Khalatbari very highly, he was one of the best talents we had after Karimi/Daei era.

 

I don't call someone who is the top goal scorer in our league right now, and who finished the season before the last one as the top goal scorer in our league a failure. One way you can tell that Ansarifard is in fact a good talent is to consider this: he plays in Iran and has never been outside of Iran. Yet his market value is more than Jahanbakhsh, who plays in Holland.

Don't get me wrong, I like Jahanbakhsh and have to congratulate the Dutch scouts that recruited him from the ranks of our youth team. Otherwise, if they had not given him the chance, I doubt Queiroz would.

 

It seems to me that Bosnia plays from a 4-4-2 formation, using a diamond <> midfield? If that is right, then you have one d-mid (which would be Zahirovic based on your past matches), with Salih your left midfielder (although he does occasionally play as your left fullback) and your right midfielder would be Misimovic. In this formation, Pjanic would be your attacking midfielder behind your forwards, Dzeko and Ibisevic.

 

Btw, here is Goal.com rating Ansarifard's different attributes. Just compare him with any of our players, none rate as highly. Talent is one thing Ansfarifard definitely has.

Club loyalty: 8.5
Creativity: 7.0
Diving: 7.0
Durability: 8.0
Dribbling/Ball Control: 6.5
Fear Factor: 8.0
Heading: 7.0
Killer Instinct: 8.0
Shooting: 8.5
Speed: 8.0
Work Rate: 6.0

If you doubt me, compare those ratings with what they have given for not just our players, but Bosnia's most famed striker, Dzeko (who is very good):



Club Loyalty 5.0
Creativity 5.5
Diving 6.5
Dribbling/Ball Control 7.0
Durability 7.0
Fear Factor 7.5
Heading 6.5
Killer Instinct 7.5
Shooting 7.0
Speed 6.5
Work Rate 7.0

 

So we just need to close down your "tamaghoochi" and game over. Who else can score for you? Perfect job for Emir Spahić.

 

Hahahaha goal.com
Are you serious?


G

 

I didn't rate Ansarifard over Dzeko. But Ansarifard, if he ever delivers on the talent he has, will be much better than even Dzeko. And trust me, Dzeko caught my eyes all the way back in 2009, after he scored those goals against us!

I rated Ansarifard a (3), because he hasn't been able to take a package that is complete in every sense, a player who has all that you would like a striker to have, and to translate it into the kind of success you expect. He has done well at the club level (though not last season with with Perspolis); occasionally, he does well for Iran, but often he fades. I guess the only thing that is average about him, his work rate, is what keeps him down.

 

Ibisevic - one of top scorers in Budesliga

Pjanic - one of the best young stars in the Serie A

Begovic - top class keeper who will move to a top club soon

Lulic - one of the best LMs in Serie A

And Salihovic, Mujdza, Kolasinac and Spahic all play in the Bundesliga.

 

Salihovic plays as LB for us and his club.

EDIT: Zahirovic is backup DM, Medunjanin (Turkish League) starts for us and is much better than his league says about him.

 

If you buy this much into friendlies, then bosnia was a top 10 team in 2010 after we beat Ghana before the World Cup. Right?

 

Goal.com is known for being a terrible footie site. For example, Dzeko played real well today (just watch the game if you don't believe me) and they said he did next to nothing, but in reality he set up others real well, ran hard (which he hasn't done recently), etc.

 

If you could post what you think is your typical starting 11 and the formation you expect to play from, I would much appreciate it. Below that, you might post your top 3-5 subs and indicate their respective posts as well. For defenders, I would appreciate if you distinguish between central defenders and fullbacks and for midfielders, between central midfielders (d-mid and 0-mid) and flank midfielders (right or left midfielder, attacking or otherwise). I look forward to reviewing what you post. I will later do the same for Iran.

 

For now, a basic post of a starting XI, tag me in a post sometime tomorrow so i go more in depth.

STARTING ELEVEN

GK - Asmir Begovic (Stoke City)

RB - Mensur Mujdza (Freiburg)

CB - Emir Spahic (Bayer Leverkusen)

CB - Emir Bicakcic (Eintracht Braunschweig)

LB - Sead Kolasinac (Schalke)

---

DM - Haris Medunjanin (Gaziantepspor)

RM - Miralem Pjanic (Roma)

LM - Senad Lulic (Lazio)

AM - Zvjezdan misimovic (Guizhoe Renhe)

---
ST - Vedad Ibisevic (Stuttgart)

ST - Edin Dzeko (Manchester City)

MAIN SUBS: Izet Hajrovic (Grasshoppers), Sejad Salihovic (Hoffenheim), Muhamed Besic (Ferencvaros/***Not in squad recently as he was sent to u21 for important games but will likely get starting spot), Sanjin Prcic (Souchaux/***Another young talent who Susic said will get a spot if he continues to start for club), Ognjen Vranjes (Alania Vladikkavkaz)

 

Also, we won't use 4-4-2 vs. Argentina, and maybe Nigeria/Iran. We will us 4-2-3-1, which we play our best in a one-striker system.

 

That clearly shows that Dzeko has delivered on his talent while Ansarifard has not yet. Which is why I have rated Ansarifard only a (3)! Dzeko would rate a 1.5 in my book (and unlike your other friend seem to think, that means very very good).

But the attributes that make me rate Ansarifard' s potential very highly are the ones that I posted also from goal.com. These attributes I have seen myself. The only reasons I compared them with the attributes for Dzeko was to show how talented Ansarifard is and what kind of potential he has, even compared to a very good striker like Dzeko. Not to say he rates better Dzeko because if he did, I would not be rating him a 3!

Ansarifard is a very good player, but his work rate is even lower than 6.0. That is his main problem.

P.S.

With regard to the rest of your post, if you don't learn to control your temper, you can continue the rest of this conversation talking to yourself.

 

I've also pointed out Iranian monitor's irrational belief in Ansarifard but it's not due to your reasons. Simply because a player isn't playing in Europe doesn't mean he's lacking in talent/skills. European clubs don't scout Iran's domestic league although doing well at the World Cup can change that. If we're lucky some scouts might notice our players during an international tournament. We had plenty of talented players sent to top European clubs at later ages. Ali Karimi was a world class player but only got picked up by Bayern Munich in his mid twenties after Iran played a friendly against Germany. He was playing for some no name Emirates club before that. Same for Javad Nekounam who got picked up by Osasuna in La Liga and many others examples before him. Bosnian players on the other hand are constantly participating in European competition at all levels so they get noticed much more at earlier ages.

 

For me Ansarifard prove nothing yet in his national team career. Sorry Iranian Monitor but we will see how he performs at the WC... He had offers from Steaua, Celtic, Dortmund 2 years ago and rejected to transfer to Persepolis to get more money... He certainly has the talent he has been in top 100 young talents in 2011 from fifa.com but had to make the move to Europe.

 

my point remains. that is not that much different.