Ghotbi does a Spalletti

Ghotbi played with Petrovic-Bagheri-Badamaki behind Nikbakht and given that none of these players is a center forward or real striker, this line-up was similar to the now famous Roma attack featuring Totti as a fake center forward, with Mancini, Perrotta and Taddei behind him. This way, Spalletti tried to deal with the fact that his team was missing a real center forward of great quality and that Francesco Totti was getting older and couldn't play in his position as a 10 anymore, but since Totti, to me personally one of the most underrated and underappreciated players of the past decade, has a great football IQ and game understanding, he could adapt to the role as a fake 9 perfectly, something as an example Ronaldinho failed to do for Barcelona. The key there is that as a fake 9, he has to know when to drop deeper in midfield and be able to create occasions for his teammates on the flanks and when to move forward into the penalty area to either score from the pass back, score from the second line etc. Also, his understanding with Perrotta was crucial for this as he had to be able to sync the runs forward well.
Now, Ghotbi doesn't have either of these players available, but he made the best of what he had. The key there was Karim Khan, who played in a role similar to Totti, mainly between the opponents penalty box and the half line, dropping deep and playing opening passes to the flanks or going into the box to head down for the midfields behind him to shoot from long range or try to score himself. The fact that he failed miserably at scoring should be forgiven, because otherwise, he played like a fantastic (fake) 9 and if Ali Daei was watching and wondering who could play his target man for TM, he should try to persuade Karim Khan playing there, though he really really needs to improve on his finishing(and I'm actually not really serious about this, but I had to praise Karim, despite missing chances even I would have scored). But Karim's intelligent football, Ghotbi's intelligent tactics and also Mirzapoor's incredible blunders made sure that Perspolis created lots of chances, although they only scored one from a set piece. However with time, they will improve there too and finish better.

Couple of words on the 2 ex-Malavan central midfields:

Pejman Nouri is one of the most professional players we have in Iran, as he tries to follow what the coach tells him and works hard every day to improve himself. It's a pity that the one injury he had put him out of the game for so long, but Nouri, just for being a versatile, intelligent and extremely professional player, should be part of TM, because frankly, we don't have too many better left footed players eitherway and with his attitude and professionalism, Nouri would be an asset to TM.
I have been a huge fan of Maziar Zare ever since the first time I saw him play. However, many people said that he was too slow. Well, he never played in a fast playing team. Yesterday, he played for a team that played a lot of times on first touch and quick passing and he played as if he was playing for them for 8 years, not just 8 days. Maziar is the greatest central midfield talent we have had in a long time and hopefully with Ghotbi as coach and Bagheri as mentor, he will become the great midfield he should be.