To be fair Marcelo is one of the worst left back at defenders in the top clubs, if not the worst. Filipe Luis is far superior.
Oh yea, no denying that hes an awful defender . Amazing at going forward. Alex sandro is much better imo.
It's Dunga who isn't calling up Marcelo and Thiago Silva, and luckily for Brazil, Dunga is not their olympic team's coach. I think it's more likely that Brazil brings defenders rather than forwards for the olympic team, since they already have talented midfielders and forwards who are U23. Also they have the Copa America to think about this summer, and that + the fact that Marcelo and Thiago Silva aren't getting call ups anymore to the main team, makes me think it's likely that they'll be with the Olympic team.
Marcelo is weak defensively, but he is probably the best attacking left back in the world. Crucial to Real Madrid's attack.
In that case the probability is high for Marcelo and Silva to be in the olympic team. Silva will man handle our players.
The Olympic tournament is a learning experience for our players. I want to see a good performance from our players and transfers to European clubs. For me getting far in the tournament is a bonus. Iraq's objectives are qualifying for the World Cup and winning the Asian Cup. Anything else (U23, U20 and U17 tournaments) should be used to prepare our young players for the next step.
Well said. more exposure for the likes of Ali Hisni, Bashar Resan, Abdul Qadir Tariq and Ali Faez should be the priority. By the way what happened to Farhan Shakor?
He was a good striker who looked dangerous everytime he came on. However, he is not making impact in the league thus out of the scene.
I think humam shows a good amount of potential, hes fairly versatile amd can play various roles because of his good work rate
I see. Shame he seemed to have good positioning and finishing not to mention that he was pretty strong.
Abdul-Ghani Shahad officially called up Rebin Asaad, Hawbir Mustafa and Sherko Karim for the Olympic trainingscamp.
Its been confirmed. AIK will play iraq in stockholm on june 23. Hopefully it will be available to the public as i will be in sweden during that time
Friendlies against Algeria Olympic NT on 13. and 17. July in Alger http://www.faf.dz/les-equipes-olympiques-algerienne-et-irakienne-en-amical-en-juillet-prochain/
http://www.iraqfpg.com/Docs.ArabicViewer/e77d952e-08ff-4bb1-8635-8c23453bb932/Default.aspx 25 man squad announced for the Algeria friendlies 13-17 July
This is the official squad for the olympics. Yaser Kasim, Ahmed Ibrahim and Saad Abdul Amir are the 3 overage players. Good squad overall. hopefully they put good performances. My only hope is that we don't go out in the group stage.
From this list, 18 players will make the cut. I would take the following players Fahad Talib Karrar Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim Ali Faez Ali Adnan Dhurgham Ismail Alaa Mhawi Hawbir Mustafa Yaser Kasim Saad Abdul-Amir Ameer Sabah Amjad Attwan Mahdi Kamil Ali Husni Humam Tariq Bashar Rasan Sherko Karim Abdul-Qadir Tariq
He's been very good in his last games for Iraq as a left winger. I think Dhurgham at LB and Ali Adnan at LW is the way to go for Iraq.
It's not his natural position. Both him and Dhurgham are LB's. We already have enough wingers in the squad. No need for a defender to swap positions.
He's been a wingback all season for Udinese which is different from being a fullback. He is more than capable of cutting in to create attacks for himself and taking shots. He's got speed, confidence, power and an excellent shot which are all things that you want in a winger. In terms of play style, he really is the Iraqi Gareth Bale. He can cross very well if we need it, and he can get the ball into the penalty area. If you've been watching him with Udinese you can see that he's more than capable of cutting into dangerous areas and getting past defenders. You need a guy like him taking shots at the goal. Him and Ali Husni are the best options for the wings. The only other wingers are Bashar Rasen and Humam and neither of them are proper wingers nor are they particularly good players. Adding to this, he has a great partnership with Dhurgham which is very important. We shouldn't bench Dhurgham and waste Ali Adnan's offensive ability just because we have players who can only play on the wing.
Yeah i think ahmad ibrahim, kasim and either yasin/meram would have been a better choice, but this squad should be fine