Did Iran put too much faith in Dejagah?

With Neymar being ruled out for the rest of the World Cup, Brazil find themselves in an unfortunate position – leading many to wonder if the host nation relied too heavily on one player? If so, we ask did Iran do likewise?

Have a look at this interactive chart below, which ranks how significantly teams depend on one player to score or create their goals.

The findings? Interestingly, those who relied heavily on one player the more successful they were likely to be. For instance, semi-finalists Argentina and Netherlands both rank high on the chart with Lionel Messi and Arjen Robben being relied upon 25% and 27% to score and create chances, respectively.

In fact, all the teams who were eliminated at the group stages shared scoring opportunities more evenly between their players. There were only two exceptions: Bosnia, who depended on key player Miralem Pjanic 25% of the time and Iran.

Perhaps most tellingly, Iran relied on wideman Ashkan Dejagah 35% of the time. What is key to note, is that  Iran is the only country to depend on one player for more than 30% of scoring opportunities.

Which begs the question, did Iran put too much faith in Dejagah? While the numbers suggest having a star player is pivotal to succeeding, we can’t help but wonder if perhaps Team Melli's World Cup journey would have been different had the team depended less on their key player?