Tactical blunder - Lack of precision does India in

The story continued, as before, but with other negative elements creeping in. Missed passes galore, lack of precision, weak defending, and an opponent PC battery on fire, with a 60% percent conversion rate, relegated India to that expected 8 – 10 slot, battle.

With the 3-1 lead, and 14 min. to go, all they had to do was not to give up possession, have tight midfield control, and not give away PCs to an opponent that had very few forays into the Indian circle. It is astonishing that these instructions were not given to the players by the coaches, as could be seen by the number of times they gave up possession in midfield. A normal tactic at that point would have been to add an additional midfielder like Harjeet Singh in the middle and to hold onto the ball and wait for the channel to open up to the high forward. Rather than that, the adjustments were not done or not properly executed and the ball was lost in midfield with resultant foray on the Indian goal and the resultant PC conversion. A definite advancement towards the medal round, was hence thrown away. It confirms that this team is deficient in many aspects, and you can add, tactical inadequacy and coaching error, to that.

The end result was a 3-3 tie advancing a thoroughly undeserving Korea team, that played rough, with 2 yellow cards, very little possession or constructive moves. The only thing positive being their PC battery expert.

The script was the same, a near 70% ball possession rate, 5 PCs, with Gurjinder in good form, having a good conversion rate, putting the team in the lead. Add to that, midfield domination, some pleasing midfield combinations, but let down by errant, passing in the final move in the D/25. Defensively the weakness manifested itself again, in only a few Korean moves, fetched them penalty corners. It must be said that the ball movement in midfield was good, switching from flank to flank. Transition between defense and midfield was good. The offense and defense was a big letdown.

Coaches and drafting of this team should take the blame for its performance

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine the weakness of this side. The passing is very poor, so is their trapping. There was plenty of time to correct all this in nearly the 7 months that they’ve been together. I am sure somebody has statistics on the pass success rate of, for eg , a Satbir Singh, who needs to distribute from his inside forward position. Similar statistics are available for trapping, tackles, long passes, etc. etc. Tactical awareness of this team was also deficient, except for Manpreet Singh. The captain has really been playing a captain’s game and leading by example. He, along with Gurjinder are performing consistently. The rest of the players only show up in patches.

Drafting:

Knowing the weaknesses of this team, it is really surprising, the obstinacy of Hockey India and the current coaches with players below.

Talwinder Singh, Satbir Singh, Pradeep More, Prabhdeep Singh are not India level players. So, also, the entire defensive line, including Surinder, Sukhmanjit & Amit Rohidas. It is astonishing that the latter is included in the senior national team, many could not justify his inclusion, in the current Junior outfit.

The jury is out on the 2 goalkeepers, since they are not having a very good tournament. Rumors surrounding the camp have swirled around parochialism and favoritism as regards regionalism and coach’s favorites. There is certainly some merit for these rumors, particularly as regards the performance of the above players. If these weaknesses could not be corrected in nearly 2 years, that this team has played together, don’t the coaches feel that it may never happen. Kothajit Singh continues to be disappointing, and very subdued.

Akashdeep, Mandeep, are good players, but are still raw, and need to work on their passing and tactical skills. India needs a new midfield, to be built around that Capt. Manpreet. All that is needed are players that play basic good hockey. Premium should be on basic passing, basic tackling, basic midfield possession, basic defending, basic getting out from deep in our defensive zone, maneuvers. They have plenty of offensive weapons up front with good potential, that can be developed into a good outfit, with some understanding and some tactical awareness.

When the Indian team, passes the ball well, it looks very slick as in the 3rd Indian goal. An outlet scooped pass from defense to the inside forward, immediate pass to Mandeep, who slots into goal prior to the goalkeeper even moving. This is Indian hockey at its best, and how it should be played. This goal should remain a teaching tool that needs to be shown to all subsequent Indian teams that are gathered and trained, so as to put an emphasis on what needs to be done. India has plenty of dribbling skills, they have speed, and stamina, but a lot of hard work needs to be done on their basics, including structure. Now if only the coaches and hockey India selectors would help with the right type of player!