Queiroz selects the roster for the Maldives game

The new Team Melli coach, Carlos Queiroz has announced his latest roster of players for an Austrian camp in Loipersdorf, prior to the Maldives game and I must say the list has a lot of talking points.Lets have a look;

GOALKEEPERS –
Rahmati, Gordan, Haghighi, Memarzadeh
I believe these are among the best we have to offer in Iran, with inclusion of Esteghlal’s Mohamadi of course. So, no arguments here.

DEFENDERS –
Mahini, Aghili, Nosrati, J. Hosseini, Heidari, Montazeri, Hajsafi and Pouladi(?)

First off, I am very disappointed to see one of Iran’s best defenders, Farshid Talebi’s name missing. Given his recent performances, I thought his name would have been the first on anyone’s list. The next point is Pouladi's name listed under defenders. He has hardly been used as a defender in our youth national teams or his clubs. At the same time I must say this list is missing the league’s top scoring defender M. Hosseini of Zob Ahan who scored 12 goals in the league itself. But I am happy to see H. Mahini get his well-deserved shot.

Another point of interest is the drop of Hamoudi, Foolad’s energetic right back’s name from the list which may be related to his silly actions in Hazfi semifinals where he committed two fouls within the first 20 minutes, thus handicapping his team for the remaining 70 minutes. At this level of football, having experienced international competition, you just don’t do such silly things.

MIDFIELDERS –
P. Noori, Hadadifar, Mobaali, Teymourian, Seifi, Karimi, Zareh, Zeniedpour, Baou, Ghazi, Aliasgar, Afshin

Here’s where I’m sure a lot of people will be focusing on. No doubt most of these names are worthy of playing in Team Melli. Among those missing in the list are players just about any team would love to have in their starting line up. To name a few; Jabbari, Md. Nouri, Jamshidian, Mosalman even Foolad’s Bakhtiar Rahmani. But with the abundance of capable midfielders in Iran, I understand it is a rather hard task to choose a limited number of them at any given time.

I assume Nekounam’s name is not included due to scheduling matters and frankly I agree it is not necessary to drag him for a game against Maldives.

STRIKERS –
H. Nowroozi, R. Nowroozi, Khalatbari, Ansarifard, Oladi and Daghighi
Pretty good line up of strikers, methinks. And with the return of injured Gh. Rezaei and Meydavoudi I think we’ll have a very enviable line up of forwards.

It must be mentioned that I believe the actual roster of selected players by Quieroz is larger than this which most probably includes many of the names not included at this point of time and perhaps fatigue and minor injuries of some players, especially those in teams that represented Iran in Asia may be a factor. So there's hope to see those left out given a fair trial and test at a later date.


The roster represents all the aspects of our football. It has physical players, highly technical players with great ball skills, creative ones, speed & pace as well as wide players to provide the width. This leaves Queiroz’s hands open in employing different formations and tactics. Now, all that’s left is to actually see his end product.