After being ignored in the initial list of Team Melli for the second time in a row, Mehdi Torabi was finally added to the list after Ehsan Hajsafi was declared unfit for the match vs Iraq.

Torabi has been one of the most effective Persepolis players this season. His performance in the AFC Asian Cup 2019 was also admirable despite the limited playing time, however, since Carlos Queiroz who was an avid admirer of Torabi, left  Torabi has not been selected or given much playing time if he was in the squad.

With Ashkan Dejagah on the injury list, the midfield of Team Melli is in dire need of a dynamic player who can feed the forwards. Omid Ebrahimi was a lone player in the last match against Bahrain who was doing the task without much support from his teammates in the middle of the field. Wilmots, for whatever reason he had, played with a defacto 4 forwards against Bahrain in a match where circumstances and weather conditions dictated a more conservative game plan with emphasis on securing the back.

Mehdi Torabi, if started, should add great value to the team. His pace and shooting ability is second to none in the squad as he can easily outmanoeuvre any of the Iraqi defenders. However, it remains to be seen if Wilmots have a different gameplan and if the coaching team have learned from that bitter defeat in Bahrain. Torabi. who operates on the flanks has proven to be much more suitable replacement for Alireza Jahanbakhsh whose loss of form has denied him a place in the squad.