Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

In the pre-match day press conference on Tuesday, Coach Afshin Ghotbi gave some subtle hints about his starting squad against United Arab Emirates.

Asked about the possibility of fielding a younger team than the one that faced Korea DPR in Pyongyang last weekend, Ghotbi’s responded by underlining match fitness as his primary measure, but then he went on to talk about the fact that almost all of Iran’s 6 goals in this qualifying round were scored by veteran players. He voiced his satisfaction with how the veterans had performed in Pyongyang, and went on to stress that he had every intention of using all the resources available to him.

As this was not enough to hint at his intentions, the coach ended by saying that he would field players who have played well and produced in the past!

Considering the fact that the team has played only one qualifying match, against Korea DPR, under him, and in that match he fielded mostly veterans, it is only natural to speculate that the same squad is likely to start against UAE.

Ghotbi also made a point of praising veteran defender Mohammad Nosrati and midfielder Masoud Shojaei, which almost guarantees a starting role for both players.

Responding to a question about formation, he defended his preferred 4-2-3-1 and dismissed any notions that it was a defensive one.

Based on all of this it is safe to speculate who tomorrow’s starting eleven will be.

The four defenders who started against North Korea will most likely start again. In the midfield, now that Midfielder Javad Nekounam is available, he is certain to replace Pejman Nouri. And striker Vahid Hashemian will start again only because Ghotbi has no viable replacement for him.