I agree on every point. Another issue for me is the lack of experienced players. Radhi got rid of them all. Even if everyone still disagrees with me on Younis being out of the team, why did Salam Shakir get forced out? Sure he's slow, but he has leadership, experience and he's still playing at a good level in UAE. I'd take him anyday over Saad Natiq or Mustafa Nadhim. Even Ali Rehema would be helpful despite his age. It's normal for experienced players to be key members of a national team, especially when other options are not really available. For example Colombia stuck with Mario Yepes until he was nearly 40 because he was a playing at a good level for them + he was a big leadership figure. Like Younis said in his last interview, you can't build a new generation of players without a few experienced players to guide the young guys. I think it's becoming very clear that Radhi got a disproportional amount of credit for the Asian Cup performance. He benefitted alot from his coaching staff. Yahya Alwan was scouting every team and giving him tons of notes on how to prepare for them. He had Gonzalo and his team preparing the players for every game and getting them in top shape. He had key leaders in the team like Younis and Salam Shakir guiding the players during tough matches. He has none of that support now, and it's mostly his own fault. I don't think any Iraqi coach is fit to guide a new generation of players for the future. We need a team of intelligent coaches and we need legends of the game involved as well. It's a crime that Harris Mohammed is not involved right now.
Because Ali Faez is not playing at all. He is mostly a reserve player at Rizespor. I don't think playing Mahdi Kamil would make a huge difference, and Karrar is left out because he is not making impact with his club + he is known to be a troublemaker. His team selections are horrible? The only players who are left out of the squad are Osama and Faez, and both aren't playing well with their clubs. Apart from the Australia and UAE games, we played well so I don't know what's happening to everyone turning against Radhi all of a sudden. I really feel for him, he deserves better than this.
watched his interview and he said the opposite he said if radhi wanted to build new young team why include players old and some same age like salam ali rhema and he has said this before yahia alwan??? do you know what he did to the team with gonzalo he drew with thailand and veitnam and loss 3-0 to jordan the team now is better and we aer playing better teams than taiwan and veitnam, ksa, uae, australia all better teams and radhi is known for playing top teams he does not like to play weak teams all his games are with ksa, korea, ozbekistan, iran, koweit, yahia alwan and other iraqi treiners play weak teams labnan and ordon syria
Salam Shaker retired on 29 March 2016. What do you expect the coach to do about that? He is 35 years of age, so how long would he stick around? Ali Rehema retired as well plus he is not in the same form for Al-Wakra. The reason why we did well at the Asian Cup is because he had the group together for a whole month. Gonzalo made sure that the players were fit, and luck also played a role, let's be honest here. I think that's the solution. Sack the coach, and appoint another one until the same abysmal results return!! When do people understand that the problem is not with the coach but federation? Even if you bring Guardiola we still won't get far.
Salam retired, but we need him. Even at 35, it's important to have experience, and he's easily better than all our other defenders except Ahmed Ibrahim. As for Rehama, Al wakrah have almost always been garbage except for 1 or 2 good seasons. He's one of the best defenders in Iraqi history. I'd have him in the team even if it's on the bench. It is no secret that Radhi forced every one of our experienced players out of the team. This is the wrong way to work and you always need experience if you are building a team. Big example is UAE. They have a young group of decent players. They have a coach who has been working with them for a long time with foreign coaches supporting him, and they also have room for experienced guys like Majed Naser, and Ismael Matar who scored against us immediately after being subbed on. Radhi didn't go far at the Asian Cup because he had the team for a month. Let's be real. He had a huge team of guys behind him that helped him alot. You are too biased in favor of Radhi. First people were saying he was in a disadvantage for having the team for only a month, now you're flipping this argument. I didn't say sack Radhi. You misread my comment. I'm saying if we have to use an Iraqi coach, it has to be a big team working together like we have at the asian cup. Hakeem Shakir reached the final of the 2013 Gulf Cup because he had guys like Harris Mohammed behind him. Radhi reached the semi finals of the Asian Cup because he had support from Yahya Alwan and Gonzalo. It's proven fact that our performances are better with a group of coaches working together. If we can't get a good foreign coach, then we need to give Radhi a group of coaches behind him to help him like he had at the asian cup. We're seeing the effect of handing the team to Radhi right now. These losses and terrible performances are hurting our players psychologically. He's giving them a losing mentality and if it goes on, he will destroy this entire generation. And please don't exaggerate by saying Guardiola can't do better than Radhi. That's insane. Yes we have a bad FA, but Radhi has had a lot of support and lots of money is being spent on his training camps with nothing to show for it. Tactics during games is absolutely ridiculous. A top class coach would easily get better results because great tacticians know how to make substitutions that change games, they know how to prepare a team for the opposition and they know a good player when they see one. Radhi's tactics have been simply defend, hope for a goal, and if he gets the goal he goes back to defense, if he doesn't have a goal he brings on strikers like he did against UAE. There is very little that he is doing right now that demonstrates his ability. I hate the guy, but Hakeem Shakir had a solid generation of players that we should have worked on and his plan to bring Younis and he also wanted Nashat was the right way to go. We'd have a very strong team right now if we had held onto Zico so he can manage those players which was his intention.
Maybe I'm mixing things with Younis' quote. I'll watch it again and make sure, but my point stays. Whether Younis said it or not, it's true that you need experience to build a new generation. I said Yahya alwan helped Radhi during the Asian Cup. That's a fact. He scouted every team and gave Radhi notes and tactical plans on the team's strengths and weaknesses. Yahya is not good by himself, and Radhi is not good by himself. What are you even saying here?
Let's be honest here. We both don't know in which form Salam and Rehema are. Players have to be picked based on their club form. Where did he have a lot of support? He didn't get the friendlies he asked for, the training camps were useless and he is not even getting paid (!) Let's suppose Zico is the world class coach you're talking about. Why aren't you talking about the way he lost against Australia? We were 1-0 up in the 72th minute, and conceded 2 goals in a span of 10 minutes. Why aren't you talking about his ties against Oman and Jordan? The loss to Japan? It's nothing different from now. Let's talk about Jorvan Vieira, who won us the Asian Cup. Under his tenure we lost 4-0 to Oman and 3-1 to Bahrain and the 2009 Gulf Cup. It has nothing to do with the coach. We already tried out dozens of them, and it all ended up the same way.
Do you really buy it that Radhi isn't getting paid? He's just going to spend the next 3 years volunteering for the national team? He's 100% getting something out of this deal with the FA. If the training camps are useless then it's his own fault. Who else takes the blame for it? Me? He called the players, he asked for the camp and he comes out with nothing. He didn't get exactly what he wanted, but that is the nature of his job. He still got plenty of good friendlies. Zico drew with Jordan and Oman with an aging squad that had several players with no clubs. Jordan and Oman were both strong teams at the time. He lost to Australia because of individual mistakes, but he also had to travel to qatar then the sweden then back to qatar over 5 days with a pointless friendly against Brazil in between. Radhi does not have to deal with BS like that. Zico lost to Japan with a very strong performance with a b-team. Japan were alot stronger back then. Either way, I would rather draw against Oman and Jordan and honorable losses to Australia and Japan than have disgraceful losses to UAE, Saudi Arabia and Australia. It is a MASSIVE difference between Radhi and Zico. Zico played good attacking football. He made substitutions that were intelligent and made a difference. Radhi is nowhere near him. Jorvan Viera won the Asian Cup. That's all you need to say there. That puts him ahead of Radhi no matter what happens. We keep hiring failures and expecting something different. FA is a problem and the coach is a problem. Your bias for Radhi is blinding. What he's been doing so far is inexcusable.
Our players abroad couldn't join the squad, and many key players were at the Olympic training camp. So it's his fault that our amateur league is not producing enough talent? That the likes of Hussam and Samal are the best we can get? You have to realize that our players lose their form easily in this shitty league. There is nothing the coach can do about that. So basically what you're saying is that it's normal to ask for a Syria friendly and get Majlis Sukan India Malaysia FC. The FA is doing absolutely nothing to support Radhi!! It's funny that you are talking as if Zico had to deal with these players, while at the same time you are blaming Radhi for the squad selections. Zico was responsible for the player selection. He included the clubless players. And you are talking about individual mistakes. We also lost to Australia, Saudi Arabia and Japan due to individual mistakes.
2 friendlies vs Uzbekistan Friendly vs N. Korea Friendly vs Perth Glory Friendly vs Qatar Training Camp in Iraq Training Camp in Qatar Giving him free reign to call up whoever he wants. Standing behind him despite disgraceful results Yeah, the FA is doing absolutely nothing to support Radhi. He failed with the Olympic team He failed in the Qatari League He failed when he was caretaker of the national team in 2009 He is a failure again with the main national team. His one success in his 10 years as a manager was winning Iraq's "amateur league" with Al Zawraa. You are biased. Even Radhi's biggest supporters who wanted him to coach Iraq are seeing his incompetence.
Can you please explain me what your definition of failing is? Is it relegating a team? Having more losses than wins? No, I'm not biased. I just hate the fact that the coach has to do all the dirty work and putting his name on the line, while the FA is unharmed. They are the cancer of Iraqi football. Every coach has failed under them. Our NT is a graveyard for coaches.
you know little of football in iraq if radhi is the worse than why did they ask for him the fans the media every fan now has got amnesia in 2009 he did not fail maybe you to young to remember he ws praised for bringing many players to the team and each of his teams eached the final zawra jaweya and talaba and many of the team he coached with the olympic team played for nt later he failed with olympics because the fa was so stupid that they did not keep the letter from fifa they say his player was punished suspended iraq is failing because people like you think tey know everything politics trade sports in the last 12 years radhi has been the successful coach iraqes they think football is the same like in 80 and 90 we have been left behind radhi and even mourinho or guardiola will not bring iraq to world cup iraqi fans are like goldfish forget everything iraq in the next ten years will find difficult to beat and compete with ksa, uae and the rest of the top teams we not brasil allemane japan or italie we are backward i hope you get what you deserve they sack radhi and you will see it will make no change iraq is going backward
I agree partly with both sides of the argument. I think the reason people wanted Radhi back was because of the way he changed our playing style in such a positive way. If you compare how we played at the Gulf Cup '14 with the Asian Cup '15, the difference is noticeable. In the AC we actually had a plan for each game. We created good chances with good passing play. There were fewer hopeless long balls and more build up play starting even from the defence. It wasn't perfect by any means, we still had many many flaws during that tournament, defending set pieces, converting chances etc. The results from Radhi's last reign actually weren't good at all. We drew/lost every friendly game, and only won 2 AC games which were lucky wins over Jordan and Palestine. But it wasn't the results that attracted people to Radhi, the results were expected to be bad considering how little time he had and how bad we were under Hakeem. But it was the way he changed the atmosphere around the team, introduced a positive playing style, made us fairly competitive within the space of one or two months and called up all the right players that attracted people towards him. In this reign, it's not all the same. He's made some real strange call-ups, sticking to Amjad Atwan in midfield was stubborn and predictably it turned out to be a bad move, playing Alaa behind Mohanad in every game failed each time but he continued doing it, he's neglected all the experienced players like Iraqilambo said, he's calling up a 32 year old Jassim Mohammed and replacing him with 30+ year old left back Hussam Kadhim (literally the one position that we don't need any more players in) but ignoring the AFC Player of the Year contender and ignoring younger players from the league like Hussein Ali, Farhan Shakor, Marwan Hussein, Abdul Qadir Tariq. Having said all that, I don't want to sack him now. Suren has said already how important stability is. And I think our performances against Japan and Thailand were at a good level and we were unlucky with referees in the Japan and Saudi games. We were downright pitiful in the Australia and UAE games but the other games weren't that much different to how we played in the 2015 AC to be honest and were clear improvements from Yahya's reign. I get that you need the right manager for stability to be successful but who would you hire right now instead of Radhi? A foreign manager would be ideal but do you really think a good quality manager will want to coach Iraq for a long period of time? The best we got was Zico (who I don't think was really that good at all but is still the best we've had) and look how that turned out, we couldn't pay his wages. Most of the coaches would either be too afraid of the situation in our country like Jamal Haji and Bernd Stange were, or they will only want to coach for a short period like Bora Milutinovic (or they will just be awful coaches like Petrovic). They also don't know anything about our league. There are only a handful of Iraqi coaches left that have successful careers and haven't been given the job already. Thair Jassam, Basim Qasim, Qahtan Chathir and Abdul Ghani Shahad. They could well be better coaches than Radhi, and I actually think some of them probably are. But we have given Radhi a 3 year contract, so is it really worth sacking him now just to give the job to one of those four who could easily be worse than Radhi? He's only been here for 7 months and the first few months he didn't even play any matches. And our performances against Japan and Thailand show that we have improved, even if we completely bottled the other games. For now I'm just going to continue supporting him and see how things go. But I really do hope he will improve the team selections and substitutions because they've been unacceptable so far. To sum up, Radhi has not done a good job since he joined but I want to at least give him the rest of these qualifiers to see how how we perform. If he flops those games too then we will still have 2 years for the next manager to prepare for the 2019 AC.
I don't think that's totally fair. In 2009 he only managed for 2 matches, I remember he called up a lot of young players from the league for the first time and all the fans were happy about it, and we only lost 2-1 to South Korea from a penalty and managed to draw with Saudi Arabia. I don't think that's a failure at all. In terms of the Iraqi league, he managed Jawiya to the league final in 2007, managed Talaba in 2010 (they eventually reached the final also) and won the league with Zawraa in 2011, and almost won it again in 2013. So that's quite a good record as well. I've said it before, for me the best manager in the country is Basim Qasim. He's managed so many teams and been successful with almost all of them winning many trophies. Won the league with Zawraa last season undefeated + reached the cup final, then won the AFC Cup with Jawiya just to name his two most recent achievements. Before that he provided the platform for the title winning Shorta team, lead Zakho to their highest ever position, won Duhok their first ever league title, won the league and cup double managing in Yemen, won the Elite Cup with Shorta etc etc. It's a crime that he's never even been considered for the job imo.
Zico got no friendlies, nor training camps. The FA forced him to come to Iraq and train with the player when he wanted to do it at Dubai.
Zico got a lot of friendlies + friendly tournaments as the 2011 Pan Arab Games and 2012 Arab Nations Cup. The FA didn't force him to come to Iraq. He deliberately put it in his contract that he would travel back to Rio after the games.
Basem Qasem has not treined iraq for number of reasons and lead Zakho to their highest ever position (was a two league format and they finished outside the final places) and won the league with dhok with one of the worst teams and they were the most defensive side in iraq also with his success he has had many bad times at karkh, slemaniya he coached in uae third division and has a reputation of leaving clubs when things when is not going for him, zawraa 2005, zakho, shorta 2010-11 (provided the platform for the title winning Shorta team, he finished 7 in the league), last time in dhok, nafat and he went to yemen two times and failed he is a good coach but he has a style of football and it is not the future style but the past he is not the type of coach iraq needs and hes known in iraq for leaving clubs only dhok he stayed because there was no pressure and what is Elite Cup? and he reach four cup finals in iraq and lose all four maybe that is why he has not picked to be iraq coach
You can't just write off his success with Zakho like that. It was Zakho's second season in the league since they were promoted and he got them to 3rd place in the group (14 team group) which was just 3 points away from 1st place in the group (Arbil) which would have got them to the final of the league. They were one of the top performing teams in the league that season under Basim. Were they really defensive? I'm looking at the statistics, in the first stage they scored the 3rd highest goals out of 36 teams, in the second stage they scored more goals than any of the 12 teams (and got the most wins), and they won their semi final 5-1 against Al-Zawraa and then won the final. The stats shows they were one of the best teams going forward, scoring more goals than almost any other team and putting 5 goals past one of the top teams. Even if they were defensive, it was effective and helped them to win the league. I'd like to see Iraq be able to rely on their defence in the same way. Fair enough I don't know all the details about his coaching career, but assuming Wikipedia is accurate, it doesn't look like he has had many bad times at all. He avoided relegation with small teams like Kut and Salahaddin, he managed Diyala to their highest finish in 1998/99, he was unbeaten with Shorta in 02/03 season and was favourite to win the league before he got ousted from the club, he did well with Naft in 13/14 season etc. He was relegated with Al-Sulamaniya but if you look at the statistics, it was Sulaymaniya's first season in the league since promotion and they were 1 single point away from staying in the league, they managed to get 34 points from 34 games which for a promoted team is a decent tally so even though it was a bad time he was still unlucky. Look deeper into it. Shorta in 2010-11 season was hopeless and should have been relegated, a season as bad as that is not easy to come back from. But in 2011-12 under Basim, Shorta was challenging for an AFC Cup spot (i.e. top 2 finish) for most of the season, then they lost to Kirkuk and Arbil by big scorelines because a lot of their team was on international duty at the time, Shorta's hope of a top 2 finish was gone so Basim resigned but when he resigned Shorta was still in a good opportunity to finish 3rd which qualifies for Arab Cup or at the very least 4th. After Basim left we appointed Mohammed Tabra and we lost our next 3 games and slumped to 7th position. It was not Basim who took us to 7th, we should have finished higher and we had a very good season up until the last 7 games, challenging towards the top. Basim did a good job to get us back to being competitive and challenging the big teams again and that laid the foundations for the 12/13 season when we signed a few more players and we ended up champions. I read that he won the league and cup double in Yemen, maybe that's wrong then. By Elite Cup I mean the Umm Al-Maarak Cup which Basim won in 2002/03 season winning the final against Talaba, and he was also favourite to win the league that season with Shorta but Uday's henchman Aseel Tabra ousted him from the club. The fact he reached 4 cup finals in Iraq is impressive, yes he lost them but he also won the Umm AlMaarak Cup final and the AFC Cup final and also finals of minor tournaments like the Al-Quds Championship, so he showed he can win cup finals. Cup finals are more down to luck than league championships seeing as they are one match while a league is a whole season which requires consistency and Basim has won 2 maybe 3 league titles.
i dont remember Basem won umm ma'arak yassine aml won after ahmed radi left. Basem won the league in yemen but also his team were almost relegated twice when he was coach he has very little success in long term in yemen he won the league after 2 months at ahli same like at jaweya he is a good coach but he is not consistent as you say he leaves when things go bad, dhuk, slemaniye (he was relegated) and he is known for a coach who spends a lot of money on player at dhok (they sign ahmed khodheir for a record contract more than any team in baghdad and this is in 2001), shorta (in 2002 he signed most of zawraa team and they were behind najaf and other clubs for most of the season) and last time only shorta had a better team than zawraa his time as coach has wins and also a lot of losses and his sides are no attacking teams dhok were a defensive team in the two times he coached the team and he failed in the third div. in the u.a.e. ayub udisho and thaer ahmed are better, ayub won leagues in syria and had good team in lebnan thaer had the best team in iraq wait and see at jaweya he will left when team goes bad
Basim definitely won the Umm Al-Maarak Cup, you can find a picture of him with the trophy online. You're right Yassine Amal won it in 2001/02 season (played February 2002) but Basim won it in 2002/03 season (played August 2002). Also in the 02/03 season I don't think Shorta was behind Najaf while Basim was manager, Basim managed Shorta in the first 12 games with 9 wins and 3 draws and 0 loss and was joint with Talaba on top and then he got replaced by Abdelilah Abdulhamid which is when Najaf started to catch up. Also being a defensive team isn't necessarily a bad thing if you manage to do it successfully having a strong defence is very important and Duhok still scored one of the highest number of goals in the season they won the league title, and in his spell in the early 2000s he got them finishing in 5th very close to the top 4. Not all his teams have been defensive eg his Zawraa team last season. I don't really know anything about his spells in UAE and Yemen, but every manager who has managed as many teams as Basim are bound to have some bad spells, Basim has only had a few from what I know and mostly very successful. You do bring up some good points though and I agree he does seem to switch teams quickly whenever things go bad. I still think he is a strong candidate though compared with other coaches and deserves the spot if chosen. I think Ayoub Odisho is a good coach as well and I actually forgot about him. I think he could be a possible candidate for the national team if Radhi leaves.
in early 2000s dhok spend a lot of money on players husain abdulla, abdulhusain jawad, ahmed khodeir, ghazy fahd, mahmood yasser, haydar kadem, tayser abdulhusain, hayder hameed, this point is hes no better than radhi hes a coach who builds a team at jaweya, zawra and talaba the only team basem qasim built was dhok and won one league hes no mourinho at chelsea or ferguson at manu ayub udisho, thaer ahmed, radhi are better at zawra basem qasem had a good squad only changing one or two players it was a good team let him take a team like talaba and see how he will be in 2002 shorta had the best players in iraq 15 players from nt and talaba were better i watched basem qasim teams for a lot of years not entertaining and the reach the end he fails
Fair enough, I respect your opinion my friend. I agree with some of what you're saying, Basim definitely seems to switch teams too often and not build teams which is a fair criticism. He seems to bring short term success, rather than long term. I don't agree with his teams not being entertaining though, I found his shorta team 2011-12 was a good team who played attacking football, my best memory of that would be the 3-2 win we had over Zawraa in that season where we could have scored about 6, his zawraa team last season also played exciting football (I think it was Basim who have young player Hussein Ali his first chance and he has become one of the best players in the league already) and his old Shorta team in 2002 used to win games 4-0, 5-0 even 8-0 at one time against Duhok. As for Jawiya, I think they might be able to win the league this season. Many of their players have been at the club for years and years like Hammadi, Humam, Bashar, Abduljabbar and to an extent Amjad Radhi who used to play there and returned. Whereas other teams like Shorta and Talaba made so many transfers that pretty much all the players are new to each other and need to adapt. It could be jawiya's year for the league, I mean look at Zawraa they aren't doing well and already they sacked Thair Ahmed I think? And jawiya is already with high confidence under Basim because they won the AFC Cup and also the FA Cup, so watch out for them this season.